Splits or TBT, What Are You Doing?

Its been alot of debate of this. But my question is which do you use? Body-part, or total body. Ive been doing a body-part split for a long time( started going to the gym in may, thats when i really started to work out)(weighed in at about 165)( i was working out with a amature bodybuilder)( now i work out by myself) so i have seen very good results.

I dont have before pic’s so i have posted any at all. I just got up to 210 pounds. I have not updated my profile thing in months and months though. I just swicthed to a total body split a week or so ago, because im not having as much time for the gym. I am doing a 3 a week program, simular to Chad’s TBT. I was wondering what everyone was doing, and how there results were.

Bump

Was doing TBT every other day.

I had my volume in check but I think it was too much on my already battered shoulders. So I am probably going to switch to a upper/lower split.

I just go into the gym and lift shit. I have no plan. I’m not pretending that that makes me cool, or anything. That’s just how I roll. Pure instincts.

I’ve been doing splits because I find that my joints and tendons like more rest than TBT allows.

I just started the Triple Threat Training workout. Hopefully I can stick with this for more than a month. I can never seem to stick with a program for a long amount of time.

About two months ago I strated doing compound exercises I learned from DanJohn.org, and T-Nation.

Now my training includes both compound and single joint exercises. (Its very similar to Total Body Training Chad Waterbury wrote about http://www.T-Nation.com/readTopic.do?id=508031 )

For the single joint I focus on my weak areas such as “side+rear deltoids, upper-back” (the many presses in TBT often leads to overdeveloped front deltoids), forearms, and abs/obliques.

My next step is going to be addiding “High Frequency” to my workouts. For the past 2 months I’ve done HFT on and off with no real plan.

Upper/Lower Split, 2 days each per week.

Either TBT or a two-day split.

[quote]Doug Adams wrote:
Upper/Lower Split, 2 days each per week. [/quote]

Same

I’m doing TBT three times per week while I cut. I’ll probably be doing an upper/lower split when I move on to a strength building program, and then a body part split for mass.

Switch between split and TBT every 3 months. Just starting a TBT type program now.

How bout this for theory…

Muscles that Push (bench press, Military press) Dont pull- and muschles that Pull (rows, bicep curls) dont push.

And since your muscles grow while your resting it would only make sense to caterigorze them that way.

Push- Bench Presses, military press, tricep extension, dips, etc.

Pull- Rows, Deadlifts, Upright Row, DB Row, Lat Pull Downs, Pull up

Legs.

That way you have a total of 72 hrs while your muscles are resting.

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
How bout this for theory…

Muscles that Push (bench press, Military press) Dont pull- and muschles that Pull (rows, bicep curls) dont push.

And since your muscles grow while your resting it would only make sense to caterigorze them that way.

Push- Bench Presses, military press, tricep extension, dips, etc.

Pull- Rows, Deadlifts, Upright Row, DB Row, Lat Pull Downs, Pull up

Legs.

That way you have a total of 72 hrs while your muscles are resting. [/quote]

Bench Press and Dips, if done heavy, heavily involve the lats; deadlifts the quads and glutes, so doing lats the day after benchpress, or legs the day after deadlifts is too much for many individuals.

I prefer an upper/lower split, 4-6 days a week.

[quote]norcal_BALLER wrote:
How bout this for theory…

Muscles that Push (bench press, Military press) Dont pull- and muschles that Pull (rows, bicep curls) dont push.

And since your muscles grow while your resting it would only make sense to caterigorze them that way.

Push- Bench Presses, military press, tricep extension, dips, etc.

Pull- Rows, Deadlifts, Upright Row, DB Row, Lat Pull Downs, Pull up

Legs.

That way you have a total of 72 hrs while your muscles are resting. [/quote]

Following that logic to the extreme, people who never do anything should have the largest muscles because all they ever do is rest.

In truth, muscles grow while you are resting, but they only do so in response to stimulus. More to the point, they do so in response to chronic stimulus; if you blast your bis, or whatever, once, and then never look at them again, your body is going to say “that sucked, let’s repair that muscle.” If, however, you hit the same muscle with greater frequency, the body is going to say “that sucked, let’s grow that muscle so we can handle the stress.” That is why progressive resistance is so key.

The body will only respond so much to a given stimulus. If you hit a muscle once a week, it will respond to that stimulus, then stop growing. The rest of the time you are resting is simply lost time.

On the other hand, the body can only recover so much in a given time. If you hit a muscle every day and never give it a chance to recover, it won’t grow at all, or at least it will grow sub-optimally.

The trick is to bring these two into balance; do as much work as your body can recover from, let it recover, and then start all over again.

It depends what your goals are hypertrophy/losing weight or strength/mass. For me TBT, cause I am training for strongman competitions. Plus I stick to compound/strength exercises and olympic style lifting. Since I made the switch from splits to TBT I have gained 20 lbs in six months and loving it. I hit the same muscle groups hard 3-4 times a week and still get to rest 3-4 time a week. As opposed to hitting the same muscle groups only once a week.

[quote]dswithers wrote:
Bench Press and Dips, if done heavy, heavily involve the lats; deadlifts the quads and glutes, so doing lats the day after benchpress, or legs the day after deadlifts is too much for many individuals.

I prefer an upper/lower split, 4-6 days a week.[/quote]

Bench Press and dips do involve the lats, but not heavily. If your lats are getting sore from benching and dipping, they are in poor condition.

The same is true for glute involvement when performing deadlifts. Although deadlifts do activate the glutes, they do not activate the glutes heavily.

If someone has sore lats after benching, that is sad. If someone has sore glutes after deadlifts, they have poorly conditioned glutes.

TBT.

I tried split-routines briefly last year but I couldn’t get into them.

I like the way full-body routines make me feel.

[quote]Zap Branigan wrote:
Doug Adams wrote:
Upper/Lower Split, 2 days each per week.

Same[/quote]

Third.