Hybrid Upper Lower Split with Arm Emphasis

Program Description

Balanced volume between days with emphasis on arm growth. Movements repeat between weeks. Consider each exercise a slot for most any similar exercise giving some consideration. Squats are intended for a quad emphasis leg movement, so feel free to swap in something like front squats or hack deadlifts for variety. RDLs are my favorite hip hinge movement, but feel free to swap in something like deadlifts or Zercher deadlifts for variety here. Movements specified for cable are often either because I prefer cable for that movement (such as lateral raises), or occasionally because it’s the best piece of equipment I have for that movement, but feel free to use your preferred piece of equipment. My legs are growing as fast or faster than most other body parts for me, so I have some lower volume for them in this program. My arms are severely lagging, so there is an obvious huge emphasis on arm volume. I find they recover quickly, too. With the front/back split structured how it is here you hit arms heavy and often. Traps are also emphasized in this program, but I offer some instruction on how to change this if you prefer. All sets are always to failure. If you can do more reps than is in the rep range just go till failure, and use your judgement on whether to increase weight for the next set or keep it the same for the rest of that day. I choose a weight I can perform 8-12 reps of, if I can get 12 reps I keep the weight the same for the next set, if not I go down in weight by about 10% or whatever makes sense with the weights I’m using. And, then next time I do that exercise I go up in weight 10 pounds for two arm movements and 5 pounds for 1 arm movements. Supersets are for time efficiency with antagonistic movements. I don’t superset in lifts for leg movements because they’re exhausting, so to save time on these and to mentally know that I’m not going to be squatting or deadlifting for the next 15 minutes I perform sets as a drop set. No warm up is built in to the program so just warm up as you like best. Each muscle gets 10-20 sets per week depending on the emphasis, but biceps and triceps get closer to 30 each depending on how you count compounds. From what I’ve seen most recently this is completely legitimate to emphasize a specific body part with higher volume like this. I’ve really been enjoying this program recently, so hopefully someone with similar goals to mine enjoys it as well. For those who want a follow up program, but with a bit more exercise variety, some changes to exercise order, and more varied rep ranges on lifts for a strength as well as bodybuilding focus I also have a program called The Elegant Front/Back Split published here in Boostcamp as well.

Program Overview