ExRx.net

I've just started a push / pull 2 day split now across 4 days a week. My quads get hit during the push days with lifts like squats and leg presses. As far as I know deadlifts are a pull exercise that have a large impact on quads and I'm meant to not target the same muscle on consecutive days. So how can I keep quads on a push day but fit deadlifts in the routine somewhere? Deadlifts have always been my favourite exercise but I'm not willing to give up squats. The only solution I can think of is having quads on a push days one week and on the pull days the following week. Any thoughts?

deads are posterior chain (back, glutes, hams) dominant. there are some mitigating factors such as how many reps you do, recovery, training age, what your other exercises look like, and though quads are used in deads, you wont be hitting them near as hard when you dl. without knowing all of the above factors, i'd still recommend waiting (at least) a day between doing your push and pull days.

change your split. Do an upper/lower set up like this

upper A - horizontal push/pull
lower A - quad dominant
upper B - vertical push/pull
Lower B - hip/hamstring dominant

sorted.

I'm very intrigued by this. It looks very promising except I don't quite understand it. I'm not sure what is horizontal and vertical but I imagine horizontal is things like bench press and seated cable rows and vertical is shoulder presses and triceps pushdowns? Do you do the workouts with the push lifts at the beginning and pull at the end? Where do calves fit in? Is there any examples of this workout on the net?

Thanks for the help guys.

yeah I thought at the time I should've put it in more detail. Here's roughly what I would do. Feel free to change exercises but keep the same ratio of pulling to pushing, and use exercises that target the same muscles (don't switch out lateral raises for curls or anything dumb like that)

Upper Body A (horizontal push/Pull)

Bench Press
Row
incline dumbell Press
Face Pulls
Curls
Lateral Raise
***do a few sets of external rotations at the end, can do them between sets of other stuff***

Lower Body A (quad dominant)

Squat
Romanian Deadlift
Glute-Ham Raise (or leg curls if you can't do those)
stuff for abs
stuff for calves

Upper Body B (vertical push/pull)

Military Press
Pull Ups (or pulldowns if you suck at pull ups)
Incline Dumbell Press
Straight Arm Lat Pulldown
Tricep Extension
Rear Delt Flyes
***do a few sets of external rotations at the end***

Lower Body Day B

Deadlift
Bulgarian Split Squat
GHR (or leg curl)
abs
calves

The lifts are done in the order I would do them, and you could even do a set of one, then a set of another. For example, sets of chins between sets of military press, etc. This is good because it keeps time in the gym to a minimum and also keeps your heart rate up so it's almost like cardio.

I would do the routine mon, tues, thurs, fri. That way you have a day to recover in between, and weekends off.

Like i said before, you can switch exercises for other exercises you prefer, but make sure they target the same muscles.

You know, I was doing these back when I just had some resistance cables, but I did them one handed and turned 90 degrees.
Tonight, I did them the right way using the lat pull down, and dude you're right, really feel it. Embarrased how little I could handle.

highjack/ My current wo is similar to what you have here, but I need legs 3x week, so it's

Monday: Upper (Horizontal emphasis)
Tuesday: Lower (Quad emphasis)
Thur: Full Body (volume upper, maintenance lower)
Sat: Full Body (posterior chain, Upper vertical)

I'll keep your suggestion in mind here for sure, once I need to resuce legs to 2x week, but making good prgress currently.

/hijack?

Bulgarian split squats, what a great exercise. I hate them so much but they work wonders.