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Have you ever considered switching to a push-pull split? Having a day at the gym dedicated to a glorified \u201cshoulder workout\u201d is becoming an ancient artifact of the weight room. The solution? Push-pull.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis methodology gets the muscles of your body working synergistically across a week of training rather than working each group on its own. The push refers to exercises that involve the chest, triceps, shoulders, and quads; while the pull involves forearms, biceps, hamstrings, and back. When you organize a training session in this way, you use your agonist muscles (the muscle that is contracting) while its direct opposite (the antagonist) is relaxed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAn easy example of this is the way biceps and triceps work together: While the bicep is contracting, the tricep is relaxing. Splitting muscle groups in this way prevents over-training while still performing compound functional movements. Compound lifts are exercises that allow you to engage two or more more muscle groups at the same time. This \u201csplit\u201d allows for adequate recovery and decreases the risk of injury, while also maximizing your training capacity in the gym.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nResearch<\/span> highlights the effectiveness of multi-joint resistance training and the benefits of muscle size and strength \u2014 especially in women \u2014 to build a better physique, decrease the risk of osteoporosis and improve metabolic function (just to name a few). The push-pull split capitalizes on the body\u2019s ability to create muscle adaption and hypertrophy (read: growth) while still allowing it to recover.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nAn example of how to organize your workout on a pushing day would be to focus on chest, shoulders, quads and triceps. A pulling day would focus on back (middle, upper, lower traps and rhomboids), biceps and hamstrings. Each of these muscle groups can be trained twice per week with a total of four training days.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn the following example, we\u2019re working both upper body and lower body. In doing so, you will burn more calories and utilize compound movements.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe 4-Day Push-Pull Split<\/b><\/h2>\n
Complete the prescribed sets and reps in each routine, taking a 60- to 90-second rest between sets during all workouts. <\/span><\/p>\n