The beauty of a push / pull workout schedule is that it minimises the overtraining of any particular body part. This can be evident in traditional bodybuilding workouts where you would train chest, shoulders, arms and back all on separate days. When you actually look at the exercise selection, there if often 3 times as much pushing than there is pulling. Combine this with the common finding of weak and under active rhomboids / mid and lower traps and the prevalence of an upper crossed posture in society, the likelihood of injury is extremely high. Most commonly, shoulder impingement, rotator cuff tenditnopathy, bicep tendinitis and so on.
Personally I use a 3 day weights schedule as I also combine this running, swimming, cycling and core workouts. If you are less inclined to perform the cardio workouts then you can use the 4 day workout schedule outlined below.
Furthermore, these workouts below don’t outline the specific warm ups / corrective exercises or core workouts.
These are the exercises I currently use but they can be changed for similar exercises that fall into the same category. See bottom of page.
3 Workouts a Week
Session 1: Heavy Pull (Tuesday) Session 2: Heavy Push (Thursday)
Session 3: Light / Moderate Full Body (Saturday)
Rep Scheme (24 Repetitions per exercise: 8 sets of 3 repetitions / 4 sets of 6 repetitions / 3 sets of 8 repetitions / 2 sets of 12 repetitions)
5 weeks Heavy ( 8 x 3 / 4 x 6) 1 Week off / body weight workouts / circuits, then change to moderate / light weights for 5 weeks with a week off and repeat as often as desired.
Sessions1:
A1. Deadlift 8 x 3
B1. Pulls Ups 4 x 6
B2. Romanian Deadlift 4 x 6
C1. Seated Row 4 x 6
C2. Bicep Curl 4 x 6
Session 2:
A1. Front Squat 8 x 3
B1. Bench Press 8 x 3
B2. Split Squat 4 x 6
C1. Incline DB Press 4 x 6
C2. Weighted Dips 4 x 6
Session 3:
A1. Incline DB Press 4 x 6 / 3 x 8
A2. Romanian Deadlift 4 x 6 / 3 x 8
B1. Dumbbell Row 4 x 6 / 3 x 8
B2. Bulgarian Split Squat 4 x 6 /3 x 8
C1. Leg Press 4 x 6 / 3 x 8
C2. Lat Pulldown 4 x 6 / 3 x 8
4 Workouts a Week
Session 1: Heavy Pull (Monday) Session 2: Heavy Push (Tuesday)
Session 3: Light / Moderate Pull (Thursday) Session 4: Light / Moderate Push (Friday)
Rep Scheme: Heavy 8 x 3 or 4 x 6
Light Moderate 3 x 8 or 2 x 12
Sessions1:
A1. Deadlift 8 x 3
B1. Pulls Ups 4 x 6
B2. Romanian Deadlift 4 x 6
C1. Seated Row 4 x 6
C2. Bicep Curl 4 x 6
Session 2:
A1. Front Squat 8 x 3
B1. Bench Press 8 x 3
B2. Split Squat 4 x 6
C1. Incline DB Press 4 x 6 C2. Weighted Dips 4 x 6
Session 3:
A1. Sumo Deadlift 3 x 8
B1. Pulls Ups 3 x 8
B2. Romanian Deadlift 3 x 8
C1. Seated Row 2 x 12
C2. Bicep Curl 2 x 12
Session 4:
A1. Goblet Squat 3 x 8
B1. Incline Bench Press 3 x 8 B2. Forward Lunge 3 x 8
C1. DB Shoulder Press 2 x 12 C2. Close Grip Press Up 2 x 12
Exercise Variations:
Deadlift: Standard Deadlift / Sumo Deadlift / Kettlebell Deadlift / Trap Bar Deadlift / Romanian Deadlift / Cable Pull Through
Squat: Front Squat / Back Squat / Goblet Squat / Sumo Squat / DB Squat / Spanish Squat
Lunge: Split Squat / Bulgarian Split Squat / Single Leg Squat / Pistol Squat / Forward Lunge / Backward Lunge
Horizontal Push: Bench Press / DB Press / Press Ups / Db Flyes / Single Arm Chest Press / Cable Flyes
Vertical Push: DB Shoulder Press / DB Incline Press / Barbell Incline Press / Push Press / DB Lateral Raise / DB Front Raise
Horizontal Pull: DB Row, Seated Machine / Cable Row (Close Grip / Wide Grip) / Bent of Row / Reverse DB Flyes / Reverse Cable Flyes / Face Pulls / Inverted Row
Vertical Pull: Pull Ups (Wide Grip / Close Grip / Underhand Grip) / Lat Pulldowns (Wide Grip / Close Grip / Underhand grip) / Straight Arm Pulldowns
** There are many more exercises you can do but this list gives you an idea of the variations you can employ, however to make progress, exercises should not be switched up regularly. You need to track your weights over a 4-6 week period before switching reps schemes / exercise selections. Otherwise you’ll never see if your progressing. **
