what is up guys welcome back to the education series and today we're going to talk about setting up push-pull legs splits now like I said in one of my Instagram posts or stories that this is the split that I have personally used for the the longest period of time in my bodybuilding Endeavors um I feel like for me this split suits me the best and there are some particular reasons for that and there are some reasons as to why I never moved on to split body part routines and I want to again explain as to
why that may or may not be beneficial for you there's definitely still been some confusion in the comment section I've still had people commenting thinking that my video about full body was that this is the only way and it's super frustrating when I get those comments because I'm like wow like how have you missed the mark that bad with what this content is trying to do so we're going to initially reiterate because I know there'll be people that watch this video that haven't watched the others we're going to reiterate just those key points there is
no best split the best split is the one that suits you in the moment please guys if you have just jumped on this video just watch at least some of the very first video we dropped it will help you so much it'll help you understand how your training needs to change on a Continuum and that your split is not going to be the same as my split Etc et cetera we did a whole video on it this is the main thing I'm just trying to hammer home it's if people can take any one message from
this content it's just to understand their own needs because as soon as you start to master your own needs your progress is going to be amazing and like I said we're gonna get excited this video as to why I personally never moved on to a split routine and why I stayed on push-pull legs as my main split so let's say that you have done a year 18 months full body step forward a massive amount and then you struggle to progress your lifts in the back end of the session and the accumulative fatigue of those sessions
as a whole without becoming too much so you decided to separate your sessions into upper lower that's a very smart progression now again with your upper lower sessions you're then finding that the accumulative fatigue of doing all of your upper work together is just getting too much you've done your push work and then you get to your pull work and you're like okay I just feel like if I started a session with Paul now my back would start to move forward even faster in the comments section people are asking should you rotate the start of
push and pull in those sessions and I believe no I believe that Paul will have a much longer longevity to being able to progress strength when it's done second which means then that when pull needs to be done first as in pushball legs nothing is done after it because trust me if you get to a point in your training where pull is becoming hard to progress at the end of push you will have zero chance of progressing push at the end of pop so that's why I always advise push first through the whole longevity of
the program with pull work being done at the end of it and then once that stalls that's when you know it's time to move on to push-pull leg work and that's where you get to come in you get to do more volume on one body part or one system so you push work or your pull work and then you get no additional recovery demands um for the rest of the day in the sense that you're not then trying to recover from all of your upper body being trained so all the food that you take in
then starts to help repair and rebuild just the thing that you trained and that makes a big step forward again but only when you need it um only when that additional day just so that body part is warranted because that additional day focus on that body part comes at a cost and that cost is less frequency and we know that when you're a beginner there is less need for volume per body part to bring about an Adaptive response so this is where people are trying to jump themselves forward through splits and I think that's the
biggest mistake that people make it because they miss out on the frequency that they're that they have the advantage of being able to utilize like if I knew that I could train my legs or train anybody part every other day and make like we said those 182 lots of stimulus over a year it's nonsensical to miss that opportunity because you're just slowing your own growth and again there are some comments in the comment section of people really confused at just the equivalent of three and a half sets a week per body part and I get
it I get it like there's this huge misunderstanding about how much volume you need um the the information on that is poor but I also understand why the information on that is poor and that's because it's based on people that don't train hard so it's pretty safe bet right that if you don't train hard if I just tell you to do 10 sets a week on a body part you're going to roughly get enough stimulus to grow but equally if I know that you train like an animal and you are able to take your sets
all the way to failure that in those final reps of that session of that set you are recruiting every bit of muscle fiber you can and you're creating the largest amount of mechanical tension possible in the muscle you do not need 10 sets but we know that that's not real I mean when I've been in gyms I could probably find one or two people in the whole place if there was like 30 40 people in there that actually was taking steps all the way there some days would be not so then with that in mind
when you're leaving that much in the tank sure you're going to need more work you're going to accumulate those effective reps you're going to then need more volume and again there are outliers to this in the sense that there are people that do train very very very hard and that can work at really high volumes they they exist I've trained with them like Rob Taylor's one who jumps out on me for example Rob trains from really high volume but he also trains really damn hard he's a freak they are there but it's one of the
best physics in the world you don't have one of the best of the seats in the world and you're not Rob Taylor which means then that do you need that level of volume no because if you if that was working for you you'd look like Rob but you don't and that's why you're here on this video that's that's the point I'm trying to make those guys Nick Walker Ian James they're not watching this video trying to understand how to do their training because they know how to train but you are so then you can't come
back to me and say oh but so-and-so trains this way yeah but you're not them because they aren't looking for the answers like you are they aren't lost and that's the harsh reality of this situation and that's why when people come back to me saying what's about so-and-so I I think straight away just want to shut it down on the sincere but that's not you because you'd already be there and you wouldn't be having this question in your head do I train this way or do I train that way so it's really important to understand
your needs okay but the the biggest thing there's there's been a few things that jumped out in the comment section but one of the biggest things is you must train hard to failure you must do not leave reps in the tank I tried an rer system for seven or eight months I hugely regressed hugely to the point where I was picking up weights that were light for me and they started to feel heavy just unwracking them and as soon as that happened I remember getting into a session where like I was able to RDL four
plates for 20 reps no problem like literally maybe even more than 20 at Peak I remember getting into a session unwracking four plates to do an RDL and it feeling really really really heavy and getting like 10 or 11 reps and just thinking okay [ __ ] this training system this is way off and that's and the idea of adding more work at some maximal intensity is entirely nonsensical to me it makes absolutely zero sense but hey that's another whole discussion and we're doing we'll do a video of that another time so you've got to
train hard you've got to train to failure you've got to understand your needs and when we eventually become come to a push-pull-like setup how do we set this up this this video is turned off into a bit of a run which I'm sorry for none of the rest of them have I think it's because we've had a while now of lots of comments in the comments section and then like I I almost get frustrated because I'm so desperate to help and I I still feel how confused some people are and like I just want to
bang my head against the law because I'm just like how how are we still missing this and that's not to say that my way is the only way because in the videos that's the biggest message I'm putting across that there is no way but the point is to understand being able to gather all the information possible to then try everything out and when there's some kind of resistance to that confuses the hell out of me I literally can't wrap my head around it to the point where there's been some comments in the comment section where
I have to ask people why they're asking it because I don't understand where their heads are to ask that question but we're getting there like this is all coming from a genuine place with me guys I want you to really make some damn good progress so that's why there's a mini ramp at the start of this one um which if you've survived through then you're going to get to some decent information and then if this video flops and no note yourself don't go on rants on YouTube videos um right push forward legs so how does
this look in terms of the setup there's two ways to do this in my opinion one way is just a straight Push Pull legs rest or you in terms of it being three days on one day off I personally didn't like that approach you may love three days on one day off if that fits for you and you do not create too much fatigue across the four days in general before you then start the next four days amazing run with it for me that died within two lots of four days I was battered I could
not train three days on a row with how hard I train it was just impossible um but like I said some of you may have the recovery capabilities to do it it may be a reflection that just you're not quite there with your strength levels comparatively to how I am but then again I can name people that are just as strong as me and on something stronger that are able to train three days on like James did it in this whole prep for um for this whole season trying to Push Pull legs yeah three days
on in that order completely fine and that worked great for you but like I said for me my preference was always push pull rest legs rest so I'll have a rest day either side of legs and I felt like that allowed me to make a huge amount of progress now when we compare the two splits obviously one comes at slightly higher frequency amazing that that's a big benefit in an Ideal World I would train it with three days on one day off if I could and I tried it multiple times and I just couldn't do
it I couldn't recover from it so again that's the kind of thing of knowing what my options were trying them even wanting to be able to do it because I know that it might be slightly more optimal with the increased frequency but accepting the fact that my recovery demands didn't allow for it and then training at a setup that was suitable to my needs that's the key I tried something I decided it wasn't right and I settled on something else that felt better this is the constant thing that I need you guys to do I
need you to stop asking for permission to try things you do not need anyone's [ __ ] permission to do a certain exercise or do a certain amount of volume or do a setup like Why Try It like like only you will know how it feels so then if it feels good to you [ __ ] anyone else their opinion is invalid it's so important it's such an important message like if someone says to you why are you doing that because it feels good [ __ ] off okay like I can't tell you how important
that is because if someone turned around to me and I said what four reason you're doing that and they say I tried every other way and this way just feels great about hell yes epic answer Legend not well so and so gave me permission to do that [ __ ] that like I've never made a decision in that way in my life for anything come to your own decisions uh all right more mini rats what's wrong with me today I'm back on topic um so we have those two approaches and they come into our own
decision which one we like the most now a question is how much work do we need in each one of those splits well based on the fact that we have more sleeps between each training session we know that we can expose ourselves to a little bit more work than what we were doing in just the upper sessions so and also obviously the lower sessions but we're starting the apples so that with the push work we were previously then just doing a load and a back off set to the compound Works movements of routine and upper
now we have scope for isolation work we have scope for more specific work on areas that we feel need attention and again at this point you should be able to understand your needs if you've gone through your upper sorry your full body work for 18 months and maybe another 18 months on upper lower you've exhausted them all you've literally put a crazy amount of progress on all your lifts you've put on 30 pounds of lean tissue over these three years you could look at yourself and now for the first time actually realistically be able to
go my shoulders and arms are developing a bit a little bit faster than my chest or my shoulders and arms are a little bit behind my chest until that point really see how people are able to make those decisions because again slight tangent will try not to run lots and lots of times I see people say I've got weak arms I go onto their Pace they don't have weak arms they have weak everything you do not have weaknesses in terms of specific body parts all of you is weak which means you need to be focusing
on your full body work on your upper body or all your upper lower work based on which everyone is most suitable for you until you've gained 30 pounds of muscle and then you're like okay now I have some weaknesses that are apparent and now I can address them I don't feel like they're needed a dressing before because like I said all of you is weak and you didn't really have any muscle now you've got 30 pounds more muscle and now you look awesome but now you need some more balance if you try to address the
balance in the early stages you wouldn't have gained 30 pounds of muscle and you'd still just have weaknesses everywhere okay it's a big big thing and this blows new trainers Minds I train for like three months and like my arms are weak shut up your arms are not weak right okay oh and again myself and like all my peers in terms of experienced bodybuilders we we all share the same opinion on this I think it's because we reached a decent level of muscle to then know okay that's sweet that's not weak you can generally fix
weaknesses as a whole as well guys and girls by just actually just getting big it's like someone some people will say oh I've got like weaknesses to my outer Suite no you've got small legs like if you've got weaknesses to your outer swing put three inches on your legs it'll probably go away if it still doesn't and you still kind of straight up and down legs that's damn it's just kind of a genetic thing like there's not really masses that you can do about it you might be able to then start targeting things more to
help bring up that area but in the process of gaining three inches as a whole if you didn't fix that area it's probably not gonna get fixed but there are definitely things that we can do in terms of where you've noticed that your shoulders and arms might be over or underdeveloped compared to your chest then how much attention you put to your isolation movements in the push session and also the order at which you do them so this is going to give you things to think about so if our chest stays super dominant and our
shoulders and arms in fact a little bit behind do we then need to start with a push exercise sorry a chest exercise possibly not possibly not we could then maybe look at starting with a high incline press or we could start looking at a dip as a start movement now these are just the things I I want you to consider now what exercise comes first as a priority in the procession now I'm still gonna largely say that if you train that way coming through that you're not going to have such vast imbalances that it's probably
worth moving away from the chest exercise being first it's probably going to be the case that you still are going to want to hit things in the order of chest first shoulder second triceps third generally but you might be someone that has really glaring imbalances and and again that's what they'll then be addressed if you refer back to the push session video that I uploaded we talked about two different approaches again now into the structure itself of the session in the sense that do we Clump together the compound movements and then finish the isolation movements
or would we do chest and chest ISO shoulder then shoulder ISO the triceps and try suppressor again two different ways to do things decide which one you like the most you do not need permission to do either you have permission to try both and you have permission to decide which one you like the most just because I know some of you will still need permission in some way so there you go permission granted to make your own decisions once you get so this is this is what's then nice in the sense that you have two
options as to how you set up the procession you also have two options in terms of the layout of the splits this is where you're going to start to really understand your needs and then you can also justify them couldn't recover from that that way felt better great nailed it these are the important questions guys because as you narrow down your needs more and more and more you're going to find then a perfect training setup entirely for you and again it's about understanding all of your options trying them and really figuring out what feels good
and what doesn't some of you are going to have a really valid question is I don't really know what feels good and that's actually quite Fair because that's quite hard it's something that I mean I've been lifting weights for 20 years so 22 years now it's it's kind of easy for me to understand what feels good and what doesn't and also I think I'm quite fortunate in the sense that when I started lifting weights there wasn't even the internet let alone social media well there was internet but it was the one that dialed up and
made funky noises when you were connecting to it so that's not really the internet um and there certainly wasn't forums at that when I was that age so the only feedback I had was myself that was it so I remember I was talking to my dad about it last night because I was 12 years old in the spare room because remember he was talking about how he put the squat rack up for me um that I would do things and I would literally just have to reflect on it myself and think the field because you
couldn't just do nothing in the sense that you you knew you wanted to build muscle you knew that there was really no resources available to you you knew that dudes that were really really big were really strong I worked the house straight away because I was watching these massive guys watching the weights that they were lifting or seeing them in magazines and then just immediately going okay even as a 12 year old he's got that muscle he's lifting that much weight I have to lift that much weight to get that much muscle that was really
simple in my head so I then just have to think to myself okay it's a 12 year old how do I get there so then I finish this I finished the session I think yeah that felt pretty good or do something you think that felt terrible I don't want to do that next time because I'm not I don't have any resources elsewhere I can't go and ask someone for my permission I can't find out the way anyone else is doing anything because I don't know any any other 12 year olds that are lifting weights so
it's just me in my spare room on my own with my squat rack so I think that definitely gave me an advantage in terms of the way that I view things in that I am not going to ask anyone for permission I'm going to fill things out because I've been doing it for 22 years you must do the same you must do the same and now you have all the resources available you to understand the options you have but equally I understand that that also poses a huge amount of confusion which is probably one of
the biggest issues so the social media aspects and the uh availability of content is both a good and a bad thing but if we can work out the options available to us try everything out come to our own decisions on our needs the amount of progress is going to be amazing and I am so determined to get us there um so that's the focus on the procession that's the focus on the layout and that's the focus on the idea of when we move from upper lower to push-pull legs now I'm going to just move on
to why I stuck on this split and then we're going to wrap this video up because this one's got loads of different things to unpack in it and we're going to do separate videos for pull and legs just because there's just I've chucked up so many different things in this one which I apologize for this is the first video where I've gone a bit Bonkers myself with the things that I'm talking about um I have no idea no reason why it's just for those of you that are on the members site you'll be used to
this for me because just some days this just happens because I don't plan my content ever I never have it's just like I don't plan seminars I just go up and start talking um so when I do these videos all of a sudden some days I just go off on one and this is one of those days um I try really hard not to and in my head in for YouTube videos I was like don't do that because it's probably not going to go that well but it's a topic that I'm really passionate I still
think I'm obsessed about absolutely obsessed and I've had been since the age of 12. it's just been something that's consumed my brain for the whole of my kind of Adolescent and adult life um so that's why I'm I'm so Keen to see people make progress in it because to me it's a simple thing I I know it's not a simple thing but to me it is so that's why I'm like right I've got to get the stuff that I've worked out in 22 years into a video series on YouTube that's widely accessible because I'm really
confident that it can help a lot of people um why did I stick on pushball legs so the idea then is that once maybe your shoulder or your tricep work or then the rear delt or the bicep work isn't quite bringing the same amount of improvements in like the back ends of sessions or even then maybe like the hamstring and the glute work that's another great example in the back of the leg sessions isn't quite yielding the same responses because you have used up your energy and your focus in whatever you train in the early
part of the session so the exact same reason why you've moved on from full body why you've moved on from upper lower will be the same reason why you move on from pushable legs because for that thing to grow that hamstring you need to come in and just train them it gets trained fresh it gets all the attention and the love for the whole session and then everything that you eat that day and your sleep all contributes towards the growth of that one thing that's why people then eventually go to split Park routines because they
are at that point where then that's the only way to make things progress more and if you reach that and you then find that moving to split body parts works for you amazing and that's when most Pro bodybuilders are out it's ideal and we can logically unpack the progression through it and we can logically unpack why they need it and we can also logically unpack why you don't need it because you do not look like [ __ ] day suggestion okay if you do you need to train back here but you don't you're watching this
video Dexter is not why I didn't move to it was because I found that for me training five or six days on was entirely impossible just like I said I couldn't trade three days on so that's going to be a big reason because you're training at a level of strength and intensity that you simply cannot recover from on a daily basis now that's not to say that some of those top posts don't train with strength and intensity some of them do some of them don't and that's because they were born to do it they were
always going to be one of the best bodybuilders in the world because they've got beautiful muscles that have a great propensity for growth we don't I definitely don't I had to destroy myself every ounce of muscle that I built and sadly for you a lot of you is going to be the same way so when you have to train with that level of intensity trading five or six days a week is impossible which means then to fit all the work in that you need in a week you're only going to be allowed four or five
days four days training sometimes five but you're realistically going to need rest which then means you have to Cluster more body parts together in a session just the way it is you don't have any other choices there's no other way around it I've always the frequency of your work becomes far too low because let's say we then um train split body parts where everything gets its attention but you also need rest within trading things once every 10 days too long it's way too long trust me I tried it because I tried everything I thought to
myself well I know that coming in and just training that body part will give it more attention more love more recovery more growth so how about I do that but I also then um accommodate my recovery needs so then I might train two days on one day off we have a body part routine and it means I train and eventually then everybody pop once every 11 days or 10 days no regressed regressed far I regressed versus push-pull legs training something every five days okay so it's an easy decision for me I tried it I logically
worked out an approach it didn't work I went back to the thing that felt good so that's the reason why you might move to it and equally that's the reason why it might not work one thing that um I overlooked in the previous videos that a lot of you highlighted which is a very fair point is that a lot of you have time constraints she's totally valid that's a very fair point um and for those of you that have time constraints and you can only do a 45 minute session yeah you might then just have
to do split body part that's just the way that is and there's nothing that can be done about that that's that's totally fine um because if I only have 45 minutes to train I would definitely train a split body part or I would at least combine two body parts together I wouldn't train more than two body parts um and realistically I'd probably just stick on one I'd probably just do a chest day and I'd just do an arm day which I know is too but arm days are there you can bash out another day pretty
quick I would just try my back I would just try my shoulders that's valid for a 45 minute session so um when you're thinking to yourself okay what options are available to me if time constraints is a limitation that will definitely dictate your split so hopefully this video has got across a lot of messages and gives you a lot to think about um and if you see other people writing silly comments in the comments section and you're on board with the video series help me out don't bash them that's not what I want at all
but just help me out and get on board with just directing people to maybe the other videos or maybe answering them in the way that you with the knowledge that you've gained so far and then I can chip in on top of it and then it's more of a sharing of information and that that helps with Clarity a lot but because that's what I certainly want to encourage in the videos is just us helping each other and making sure that everyone understands what we're trying to achieve from these these videos um because if we can
get this to kind of spread this idea of there is no best split there are no must do exercises that you have permission to do anything that you want and if something feels good it feels good [ __ ] anyone else that's perfect and that's what we're going to try and do um so yeah any questions for me on this video please ask I will answer everything as you guys have seen so far I have not left a single question unanswered we're over 700 comments on one of the videos which is pretty cool um and
then yeah we'll go from there guys cheers
