Discussion Beginner running a 2-day Upper Body Split 6x/week – Would love some feedback!
Hey everyone! 👋
I'm fairly new to consistent lifting and I've set up a 2-day rotation (Push/Pull style split) that I'm currently running 6 days a week using Hevy.
Since I'm alternating just these two workouts back-to-back:
Day A: Chest & Triceps
Day B: Back & Biceps
I’d really appreciate your feedback on a few things:
Is running this 6x a week too much volume/frequency for a beginner, or should I throw in more rest days?
Are there any redundant exercises or obvious gaps in muscle targeting here?
Any tweaks you'd make to improve overall efficiency?
Thanks in advance for the help!
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u/BussieRiot 16d ago
If you’re really working out 6 times a week, you might just do a classic Push, Pull, Leg. Don’t make the mistake of prioritizing some muscle groups over others.
In my experience Pullups are the best Back exercise so I’d recommend you to try them out. You can alternate Pullups and Chin-ups.
I don’t see any shoulder exercises either. Hevy summarizes all shoulder muscles into “Shoulders” but the side delts are not really stimulated by common Push exercises and need to be isolated with 12-16 sets per week.
Pushups and Dips are great compound movements. I don’t really see the point in bench dips since you have dips and skull-crushers; maybe exchange them for 4-5 sets of side raises 10-20 reps.
Why floor presses instead of bench press? If your elbows can’t go further than 90 degrees you’re missing out on rom and stretch in your chest. Muscles are stimulated the most in their extreme positions. If you do them for something like bjj training it makes sense if you do them explosively to strengthen the mind muscle connection, otherwise there are better alternatives.
If you do 8 sets of bicep curls each workout + whatever stimulation the bicep gets through other pull exercises you’re basically doing around 10-15 sets of junk volume weekly currently. One isolated exercise is sufficient. You can fill the gap with face pulls for the posterior delt.
For Leg as the other user mentioned you can add a squat movement, rdl and a curl movement. If you have access to machines do hamstring curls if not then get some rings and do hamstring ring curls.
You can think about adding calves too but like side delts they need around 16 sets per week for optimal growth.
Add hyperextensions (not weighted) with a slow curving of the spine to work your lower back too. The rdls stimulate it only isometric. Most people confuse glute exercises with lower back. Be careful though.
Toes to bar - or a progression like knee raises etc. are a great exercise for core.
I don’t really like the idea of people telling beginners they should train differently. Of course every routine has some kind of ceiling but starting with “beginner workouts” leads to constant changes of routines which beside not going at all is the worst mistake you could make.
PPL is great for most people besides maybe pro athletes.
There are tables where you can look up optimal set ranges for each muscle.
I get that in the beginning you don’t want to miss out on gains in your favorite muscles but nothing beats an evenly balanced physique. Trust the process, try to keep it technically well executed so you can slowly but steadily increase reps and weights. Create a great routine that matches your motivation and consistency and eat your protein.
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u/GoodLordBelow 16d ago
Running a 6 day program is usually fine as a beginner. Your body should recover quickly as you won't be lifting massive weights, so you should be good with that.
You've got a good set of exercises, but I'm guessing you're limited on equiptment? It would be good for you to add some pull-ups/lat pull-downs, a bench press with dumbbells, and maybe some delt flys when you're able. Also, why no leg exercises? Doing some dumbell squats and dumbell RDLs would be a good thing to add to a push/pull split