As I recently started a new mesocycle, about which I made a post which I invite you to read, I also made a new training split for optimising muscle growth organised in 4 days:
- Day 1: chest, shoulders, biceps, quads:
- I start with a Dumbbell chest press on a flat bench doing a topset in the 6-8 reps range and a backoff in the 8-10
- Then I move on a Dumbbell chest press on a 30° bench trying to hit the upper chest with a top and backoff set respectively 8-10 and 10-12 rep range
- After this I finish off the chest by doing some low cable flies trying to feel the squeeze and the stretch on 8-10 and 10-12 rep range.
- I will then do only one exercise for shoulders, cable lateral raises, in my opinion the best exercise for shoulders, I usually take an ankle strap and put it on my forearm so that it’s more stable and that I avoid stressing my wrist. here I do a topset in the 6-8 rep range and a backoff with a slightly lower wait doing the maximum amount of reps I can and trying to force some partials.
- After the push movements I will focus on some bicep exercises such as hammer curl and biceps curl sitting on a 30° bench using dumbbells, on both of these I will have a topset with heavier weight and a backoff where I go for higher reps, also in the 15-20 range.
- To finish the training I usually do two sets of leg extensions with a last superset of leg press, since I maxed out the leg extension machine I try to do the first set with the maximum amount of reps, then the second one with slower reps trying to recall as much blood as I can into the muscle and then move directly on the leg press where I do a few reps with a relatively low weight until I cannot move it anymore.
- Day 2: triceps, back, hamstrings
- I start by doing two exercises for triceps, both unilateral, tricep pushdown and overhead tricep extension with 10-12 and 12-15 rep ranges.
- My back day is usually pretty dense, I do all my exercises with a lower rest time and with a topset and backoff strategy (always 8-10 and 10-12 ranges) because I have a pretty strong back and I feel like this is a good way to stimulate my muscles. I do a low cable row, close grip lat pulldown and then a T-bar trying to stimulate the back working on different planes.
- Then I do rear delts flies machine in order to stimulate better the upper back and I work on higher reps because that’s what I feel better on the rear delts.
- Finally I do a cluster set (10 + max + max with 20” rest) of leg curl just to pump blood in the hamstrings and prepare it for two sets of romanian deadlift where I try to use heavy weights for 8-10 reps and then keeping the same weight for the second set expecting to go on slightly lower reps.
- Day 3: Chest shoulder and arms
- On this day I only do 4 sets for my chest, I will start with a light dumbbell chest press on a 30° bench where I try to pump blood in the muscle and feel the stretch, after this I will move to a 60° bench and work within a 6-8 range on a topset and in a 8-10 range afterwards. After this I will go to finish off my chest with some high cable flies focussing on the final contraction in a high rep range.
- For my shoulders I use a shoulder press with topset and backoff (8-10, 10-12) and cable lateral raises as described in the first day of training.
- After these I will have arms exercises such as spider curl, dumbbell bicep curl, tricep pushdown and tricep extension mostly on higher rep ranges focusing on the stretch and final contraction.
- Day 4: Legs
- This is the most important day for my training split to optimise leg muscle growth, my weakest point!
- This day starts with two exercises for hamstrings, leg curl in which I will have the first set trying to move as much weight as possible, also sacrificing the form a bit, and then to go on higher reps (10-12 and 12-15) on two more sets in order to prepare the muscle for SLDL where I try to go as heavy as possible on a 6-8 range on the topset and then on the second set I will move on a plate in order to make the ROM longer and accentuate the stretch in a 8-10 range.
- After this I can start hitting my quads with two sets of leg extension going very slow on the first set trying to do as many reps as possible and then a cluster set on the second set (10+ 10x drop + 10x drop) where each week I try to end this scheme and eventually raise the weight and reach 30 reps with the whole weight pack.
- I will then try to do a heavy set of squat (6-8 range) and if I will feel like I can give a good performance on a second set I will try to reach the 10-12 range with a lower weightù
- I then finish the training on the leg press by doing two sets in the 12-15 and 15-20 rep range just to finish boiling my lower body. Then remaining on the same machine I will do calf raises which is the best way to train calves in my gym. I usually do 4 sets in a 10-15 rep range
So this was my training split for muscle growth, if you have any suggestions or questions on why I choose to do something in particular, just ask me in the comments!