Got Built?

This is a push-pull split that divides back workouts into vertical and horizontal planes, and hits legs twice a week with two separate workouts. This was inspired from a conversation I had with Erik Ledin a while back, and is based on principals outlined by Ian King in his book “Get Buffed!” http://www.getbuffed.net/, with rep-ranges that are well described by Thibaudeau.

Baby got back

The back can be thought of as vertical and horizontal planes. Back training should really be split into two workouts - one devoted to horizontal pulling (thickness based workout / rowing movements) and one devoted to vertical pulling (width based workout / pull ups). The hit you get from heavy deadlifts on leg day will round out your back workout.

Horizontal Pulling

• Barbell Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• T-Bar Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

• Rack Pulls (vary the pin height, usually set them set below the knee/mid shin area)

• Seated Cable Rows

Vertical Pulling

• Lat Pulldowns (various grips and widths)

• Pull Ups

• Chin Ups

• Pull overs (Nautilus, cable, bar)

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Grip
Pick one and stick with it throughout the course of the program - then switch when you want to change exercises. This would be most consistent and you’ll be able to tell whether you’re progressing or not. If you take a bent BB row - you’ll find that you can probably lift more weight with a supinated grip because the biceps are assisting the movement. So if you’re switching back and forth between grips during each workout, or every other workout, then it may be difficult to gage progress.

• Supinated grip means palms facing your body.
• Pronated means palms facing away from your body.
• Semi-supinated means palms facing each other.

A pull-up uses a pronated grip, palms facing away from your body. Chin-ups use the other two grips.
TYPES OF DEADLIFTS

SLDL/RDL
RDLs are decent for the hip extension function and therefore your lower back, but not so much for great upper back development, at least comparatively speaking.

Note that a properly executed SLDL is virtually identical to a Romanian Deadlift (RDL)Keep the bar traveling up and down along the body. Lean back with the hips; the bar should travel directly up and down along the body. Knees bend a little as you lean back and lower the weight. Look up, keep the arch in your back. Lower until you can’t hold the arch. Note that you will not need to lower the weight all the way to the floor, so a platform won’t be required at all.

Regular Deadlifts
Regular deadlifts are a ‘hip dominant’ exercise. They hit the whole posterior chain - from hamstrings up to traps. They are the king of back development.Do them first in your back workout.You can be pretty sure you’re doing it right if you’re getting war wounds on your shins. It’s basically a sign that the bar is staying really close to your body, which is correct.You keep your sets short for two reasons:

• 1. It is a complex movement and form tends to break down with higher reps.

• 2. It is a strength movement. Your goal is to get strong on this exercise.

Keep the reps under 5 with regular deads. You can go higher with RDLs .

There IS overlap between these two exercises. RDLs obviously hit some back, and regular deads obviously hit some hams. But Romanian deads will not do for your back what regular, off the floor deads will.

Rack Pulls
A rack pull is like a regular deadlift off pins.

Click here for rack pulls

Pulling from the floor is more difficult. The weight has more distance to travel, and uses more glutes and hams. If you pull from pins you can focus on your back, which is essentially what’s working on the upper portion of a deadlift, and because your ROM is shorter you should be able to lift a bit heavier. Vary the pin height, but not set to set or workout to workout. It’s a matter of being able to gauge your progress. If you change things too frequently, you really can’t tell, from a strength standpoint, if you’re progressing or not. You might stick with something for four weeks, and then switch it up a bit.

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BUILDING IT INTO A WORKOUT
You could pair the horizontal pulling workout with horizontal pushing (chest) and the vertical pulling with vertical pushing (shoulders) to ensure that volume around the joints is kept constant. However, this assumes for the most part that muscle groups are being trained once per week. An upper/lower split or an undulating split (with increased frequency, where everything basically gets hit twice per week) is better for hypertrophy. The one thing you have to consider when doing this is that the volume per bodypart per workout is lower, but the weekly volume, since you’re hitting the muscle more often, is still fair. 4 DAY SPLITDAY 1 - HORIZONTAL PUSH PULL
Horizontal plane back (pull)
Select from:

Bent barbell rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

T-Bar Rows (vary the grip between pronated and supinated)

Rack Pulls (vary the pin height, usually set them set below the knee/mid shin area)

Seated Cable Rows

Dumbbell row

Hammer Strength row

Horizontal plane chest (push)
Select from:

Flat barbell press

Dumbbell press

Low incline press.

Flat flyes

(Standing calves, short, heavy sets)

DAY 2 - QUAD DOMINANT LEGS

Go short and heavy on two quad dominant exercises and lighter with higher reps for one ham dominant exercise. (Here, hams are accessory, so they go lighter, with higher reps)

(Biceps)

DAY 3 - VERTICAL PUSH/PULL
Vertical plane back (pull)

Select from:

Lat Pulldowns (various grips and widths)

Pull Ups

Chin Ups

Pull overs (Nautilus, cable, bar)

Vertical plane shoulders (push)
Select from:

Standing barbell press

Dumbbell press

Arnies

Laterals, etc

(Seated calves, long sets)

DAY 4 – HIP/HAMSTRING DOMINANT LEGS

Opposite from day 2. Go short and heavy on 2 hip/ham dominant exercises and light with higher reps for one quad dominant exercise. (Here, quads are accessory, so they go lighter, with higher reps)

(Tricep work)

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Some notes on this programme To clarify how BGB works, you have a four-day workout.Day one is an upper body day: horizontal push-pull. This means back and chest, opposite movements so they don’t tire each other out. Back will hit back hard, biceps light. Chest will hit chest hard, triceps light. Chest also hits front delts a bit. Since there’s no leg work on this day, I toss in a calf exercise, and sometimes I’ll toss in an ab exercise as well. If you do seated calves on this one, do standing calves on the next upper body day.Day two is lower body: quad-dominant, hamstring accessory. Here, you’re hitting quads heavy and hard, hams in a higher rep range. I toss in an arm exercise to round this out. Either biceps or triceps - if you do tris here, do bis on the other leg day. Usually I’ll do biceps on this day, two different ones, one heavy and hard, one a little lighter, slightly higher reps.

Day three is upper again: vertical push-pull. This means more back (but mostly lats), and shoulders. Bis get another small hit here with lat work, tris a small hit with some of the shoulder work and possibly some of the lat work. Since there’s no leg work on this day, I toss in a calf exercise, and sometimes I’ll toss in an ab exercise as well, just like horizontal push-pull day. Pick a different calf exercise, and a different ab exercise than you did on horizontal push-pull.

Day four is lower: hamstring dominant, quad accessory.
This workout you’re hitting hamstrings hard and heavy, and going a little lighter and longer with the quad work. You’re still working all muscles HARD, but with different rep ranges.Because arms aren’t tired on hamstring-dominant day, I toss in two arm exercises - if you did biceps on quad-dominant day, do triceps on hamstring-dominant day.

So, to summarize:

Day 1
Horizontal push pull, calves, abs
Thickness-Back: direct, hard, strength range and hypertrophy range: (first one 5×5, second one 3×8, if you do a third, 3×10-12)
Chest: direct, hard, strength range and hypertrophy range (first one 5×5, second one 3×8, if you do a third, 3×10-12)
Bis: indirect
Tris: indirect
Front delts: indirect
Calves: if seated, soleus, direct (longer sets). If standing, gastrocs, direct (shorter sets).
Abs: direct (3 sets of 8-12, weighted)

Day 2
Quad dominant, hamstring accessory. Arms.
Quads: direct, heavy, short sets, strength range and hypertrophy range: (first one 5×5, second one 3×8, if you do a third, 3×10-12)
Hamstrings: direct, longer sets: (3 or 4 sets of 12-20)
Arms: either biceps or triceps, direct, hard, strength range and hypertrophy range: (first one 5×5, second one 3×8)
Calves: indirect
Abs: indirect

Day 3:
Vertical push-pull, calves, abs
Width-Back: direct, hard, strength range and hypertrophy range: (first one 5×5, second one 3×8, if you do a third, 3×10-12)
Shoulders: direct, hard, strength range and hypertrophy range: (first one 5×5, second one 3×8, if you do a third, 3×10-12)
Calves: if seated, soleus, direct (longer sets - 12-20 reps). If standing, gastrocs, direct (shorter sets - 6-10 reps).
Abs: direct (3 sets of 8-12, weighted)
Bis: indirect with pullups, chinups, pulldowns
Tris: indirect with shoulders and some lat work
Chest: indirect with some lat work, possibly, such as dumbbell pullovers

Day 4:
Hamstring dominant, quad accessory, arms
Hamstrings/glutes: direct, heavy, short sets, strength range and hypertrophy range (first one 5×5, second one 3×8, if you do a third, 3×10-12)
Quads: direct, longer sets (3 or 4 sets of 12-20)
Arms: either biceps or triceps, direct, hard, strength range and hypertrophy range: (first one 5×5, second one 3×8)
Calves: indirect
Abs: indirect

Christian Thibaudeau has a very nice writeup of how the rep ranges work together in this split.

SAMPLE WORKOUT

Day 1: Horizontal push pull, calves, and abs

Thickness back: direct
Chest: direct
Biceps: indirect
Triceps: indirect
Front Delts: indirect
Calves, abs: direct

Thickness-Back:

Rack pulls 5×5 (direct, hard, strength range)

Bent-over rows 3×8 (hypertrophy range)
(If you do a third, Hammer Rows 3×10-12)

Chest:

Flat bench 5×5

Incline dumbbell press 3×8
(if you do a third, Incline cable flyes 3×10-12)

Calves: (soleus) 3×12-20 seated calf raises. Pause at the bottom

Abs: 3 sets of 8-12, weighted

Day 2: Quad dominant, hamstring accessory. Biceps.
Quads: direct, heavy, low reps
Hamstrings: direct, lighter, high reps
Arms: direct
Calves: indirect
Abs: indirect

Quads:

Full squats 5×5

Leg press 3×8

Hamstrings:

Leg curls, pull throughs, or high foot placement leg press 3-4 sets of 12-20

Biceps:

Seated alternating bicep curls 5×5

Hammer curls 3×8-12

Day 3: Vertical push-pull, calves, abs

Width-Back: direct
Shoulders: direct
Calves: direct
Abs: direct
Biceps: indirect with pull-ups, chin-ups, pulldowns
Triceps: indirect with shoulders and some lat work
Chest: indirect with some lat work, possibly, such as dumbbell pullovers

Width-Back:

Chins 5×5

Hammer high rows 3×8
(if you do a third, Hammer Behind the Neck rows or lying pullovers 3×12)

Shoulders: (I like to warm up with bent over side laterals, which work the often-neglected rear delts anyway – 3×10)

Arnold Press or Military Press 5×5

Standing side laterals 3×8

Calves: (gastrocs) standing or donkey calf raises, 3×8-10

Abs: 3 sets of 8-12, weighted

Day 4: Hamstring dominant, quad accessory. Triceps.

Hamstrings/Glutes: direct, heavy, low reps
Quads: direct, lighter, high reps
Triceps: direct
Calves: indirect
Abs: indirect

Hamstrings/glutes:

Romanian Deadlifts 5×5

Good mornings, Glute Ham Raises, or high foot placement leg press 3×8

Quads:

Walking lunges or seated leg extensions 3×12-20

Triceps:

Skullcrushers, Dips, or between bench dips 5×5

Cable pressdowns 3×8-12

Kickbacks (I’m kidding!)

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Written by MariAnne Anderson, BSc, MSc (B) - Copyright 2006