What muscles are involved in push vs pull exercises
The best workout split 4 days a week. Full push, pull and training included!
One of the keys to push vs. successful pulls is to ensure that you are targeting the correct muscle groups for each movement. Muscles involved in pushing include the pectoralis major and pectoralis minor in the chest, the deltoid and rotator cuff muscles in the shoulders, and the triceps along the back of the upper arm.
Muscles involved in the pullup include the latissimus dorsi, trapezius, and rhomboids in the back, the biceps in the front of the upper arm, and muscles in the forearms such as the brachioradialis.
While there may be some overlap in muscle involvement with pushing and pulling movements, these are the general muscle groups that pushing and pulling exercises target, respectively.
How to program a 4
4-day training splits are a popular way to train and for good reason. You'll see many bodybuilders doing a chest day, a back day, a leg day, and an arm day. And that might work, depending on how you do it. You will see many athletes doing upper/lower splits, alternating between upper body days and lower body days. This can also be great for gaining mass. And one of my favorite ways to train is to combine full-body workouts with a split routine, doing 23 full-body workouts and then 12 workouts focused on something more specific, like highlighting a target area.
So not only are 4 day workout routines great for building muscle, but there are many different ways to schedule them, all of which can be quite effective for gaining muscle mass and strength.
In this article, we'll talk about the pros and cons of 4-day training splits, how they compare to 3-day full-body routines, how to best schedule them, and then we'll provide some exercise examples.
Push/Pull Training Plan Dia: Pull
sets4representatives6Rest60 sec
Grab a pull-up bar with an overhead grip so that your palms are facing away from you and your hands are shoulder-width apart. Contract your upper back muscles to help push your chest toward the bar. Descend under control.
sets3representatives8Rest60 sec
Holding a barbell with an overhand grip on the outside of your legs, bend your knees slightly and rotate forward from your hips, keeping your back slightly concave and your shoulder blades back the entire time. Pull the weight towards your lower chest, then slowly return to the start.
sets3representatives10Rest60 sec
Grab a barbell with your hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing forward. Keeping your chest up and elbows close to your body, raise the bar until it is level with your upper chest. Descend under control.
sets2representatives12Rest60 sec
Sit with your feet flat on the footrests, bending your legs slightly. Grasp the handle, using the attachment so that your palms are facing, retract your shoulder blades and sit upright. Without leaning back, pull the strap towards your lower chest.
sets1representatives20Rest60 sec
Sit on the seat with your knees firmly under the support. Grab the wide bar with your hands shoulder-width apart, palms facing forward, retract your shoulder blades and sit upright. Without leaning back, pull the strap down in front of your face until it is level with your chin.
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How to do the ham raise with glutes
Now to run them correctly:
For those who have difficulties or do not have equipment for this, a good alternative is to perform a similar movement, but with a Bosu ball against the wall. The same form tips apply here. But you can make it even easier not to go down so far before going up, or just start by doing the negative, controlling yourself on the way down each rep and then going back to the top and repeating that.
You should work to use a rep range of around 10-15 reps. And even add weight over time once you are able to do it with proper form.
Include lots of different exercises
Combining exercises is the best way to get the most out of push-pull training and avoid boredom. Use various cable and dumbbell attachments instead of barbells or vice versa to achieve this. By practicing unilateral and bilateral exercises with cables or dumbbells, you can change your regime and add a lot of variety to your routine.
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Day 4 Top Drive Emphasis:
- Incline barbell bench press:3 sets of 5 to 10 repetitions
- sled push: 4 sets of 60-90 seconds, as hard as possible
- Dumbbell bench press: 3 sets of 10-15 reps
- Compatible dumbbell row: 4 sets of 15-20 reps
- rear deltoid reverse fly: 4 sets of 15-20 reps
- skull crusher: 3 sets of 10-15 reps
Incline bench press with barbell
sets:3Representatives:5-10
The incline barbell bench press targets your upper chest while also adding some training volume to your shoulders and triceps. The incline bench variation was selected to train a different area of the chest, but also to add additional shoulder and triceps volume to the weekly total.
Be sure to set the incline to 15-30 degrees, and bring the barbell up to your chest as possible for maximum muscle stretch.
sled push
sets:4Representatives:60-90 seconds
The sled push is the only lower body movement of the day. When done correctly, it will train your quads, glutes and calves to a great degree. At this point in the week, the legs should be tired and sore and generally need more recovery than the smaller muscle groups. The sled push has no eccentric muscle contractions, making it a great way to train sore muscles and increase blood flow.
Set a timer and push a heavy sled continuously for 60 to 90 seconds.
Dumbbell bench press
sets:3Representatives:10-15 seconds
Flat bench press with dumbbellstrain chest and triceps. This exercise is added to Day 4 to add additional emphasis to the chest, while still training the entire body.
Compatible dumbbell row
skull crusher
Which muscle groups do the work of pulling
Pulldowns can be a little more difficult to master than other bodyweight exercises, but the benefits are far greater. Pulling activates more muscle groups and acts as a core training exercise.
There are several muscles responsible for stabilizing the shoulder and forearm during a push-up.
Pull work is one of the most effective compound exercises you can do, but it's also notoriously taxing on your body. This is especially true if you are an advanced lifter or do a lot of reps.
People who lift weights often engage a body part in a traction pattern due to its popularity. The pull pattern is different from a push pattern because it is more of a tilting move than a tilting move.
The muscles that are targeted during this exercise are those on the back of your body. This is a great way to tone your body and get rid of those unwanted fats.
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Pulling List of Exercises
Some women prefer pushing exercises and neglect pulling exercises, and this is not the right approach if a balanced physique is your goal. The fact is that pull-ups work your back and posterior delts, the muscles you need if you play any kind of sport or simply want to do your first pull-up. They are also essential for good posture.
Pay attention to push-ups, barbell rows, and double rows to strengthen your back. Here is a short list of the top 10 pulling exercises.
Exercise: Split Squat
4-day push/pull workout for size and strength
Then it's time to move on to the split squat. This exercise focuses even more on the quadriceps. But also with considerable gluteal and hamstring involvement. It's important to include at least one unilateral movement in this routine that trains one leg at a time. This prevents imbalances from developing over time.
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Ensures you accumulate adequate training volume for muscle growth
As discussed above, training volume per week is one of themost significant factors that drive muscle growth. Most powerlifters who train four times a week should aim to train muscle groups directly with at least 12-16 total sets per week, even 20-24 total sets.
That said, in a single session, lifters should aim to train one muscle directly with 8-12 sets total, as doing more than that often means poor quality work or the reason to do more. This is exactly why training a muscle group at least twice a week is much better than training a muscle group once a week.
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Push/Pull Training Plan Day: Push
sets4representatives6Rest60 sec
Lie down on a flat bench holding a barbell with an overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your feet firmly on the floor and press the weight down hard, then slowly lower back to the starting position.
sets3representatives8Rest60 sec
Lie down on a slightly sloping bench, gripping the barbell with an overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Push the weight up hard, then slowly lower back to the starting position.
sets3representatives10Rest60 sec
Lie down on a bench placed at a 45° angle holding a barbell with an overhand grip, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Place your feet firmly on the floor and press the weight down hard, then slowly lower back to the starting position.
sets2representatives12Rest60 sec
With feet shoulder-width apart, grip a barbell level with your upper chest, hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Keep your core and glutes engaged so your hips don't tilt forward, and press the bar directly overhead, propelling your head forward as you straighten your arms to encircle your upper back. Go back to the beginning.
sets1representatives15Rest60 sec
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you can push
While a push-pull split is technically a two-day split, it can be done four days a week for two reasons.
First, as this article points out, having a higher training frequency of at least two sessions per week per muscle group leads to greater muscle growth.
Also, 4-day push-pull splits like the ones in this article have two separate push-pull workouts, which means that yes, four days a week is great for push-pulls.
Training sessions can be longer
There are many muscles in the body, and trying to train most of them in one day during a full body training split can be difficult to do in an hour. When all muscles are trained in a single session, it can take a long time.
That's why the above workouts include a ton of compound exercises and have no more than 6 exercises a day, with 1-2 of them isolation moves allowing you to move a little faster at the end of a workout.
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Exercise: Reverse Lat Grip Pulldown
So let's go back to a vertical pulling motion. We can do this with the lat pulldown. This hits the lats and other back muscles even harder. However, instead of the traditional wide overhand grip, we'll switch to a stronger underhand grip. And the reasoning for that is becauseanatomical studiesshowed that the lats are composed of an upper and lower region. Which actually can be activated preferentially during back training.
To understand why, it is crucial to know that:
- Exercises that involve more shoulder adduction– Have a pull angle more aligned with the upper dorsal fibers and teres major. And thereforereach this region more effectively.
- Exercises that involve greater shoulder extension– Have a more vertical traction angle and aligned with the lower dorsal fibers. And, therefore, it will reach this region of the back more effectively.
Since we've already worked the upper lats enough in the push-ups we did earlier in the workout, now we want to put more emphasis on the lower lats. This helps maximize back width even more. This can be done simply by using a handshake with the lat pulldown. With this exercise, you'll want to incorporate a slight backbend. And keep your elbows tucked at your sides to better activate your lats.
Push vs pull exercises can improve functional performance
Compared to split-body part routines that target only one or two muscle groups per workout, or full-body workouts that randomly include a variety of exercises, push-versus-pull workouts can improve strength, functionality, and performance. performance because you are training muscle groups that have to work together in real life to perform common functions.
Lower/upper body split exercises can be more effective and allow you to work at a higher intensity without completely tiring one or two specific muscle groups.
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How it helps to add a short pause at the bottom position
In fact, it doesn't just add a little more variety to chest pressing movements. But it also helps build more strength in the bottom position. What is the point at which most people are weakest? Now why does this break help build strength? Well, it does this by preventing you from getting the help of the stretch-shortening reflex that you would normally get in this lower position.
Also, short breaks in this position will also help you get stronger isometrically. Which, in turn, will help you improve your movement form. That's because now you're forced to maintain tension without breaking your form in this bottom position before moving on to the next rep.
And for this exercise, use a moderately heavy weight for a rep range of 8 to 12 reps per set.
The best leg exercises for people
The Smartest Push Pull Leg Routine 2022 (Full Explanation)
barbell squat
reverse thrusts
split squat
MH suggestion: Keep your weight on the heel of your front foot and make sure your knee goes over your toes to avoid overloading it.
hip thrust
romanian deadlift
kettlebell swings
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Can potentially fatigue the lower back during the toughest phases
When training the split push-pull, you often need to train larger compound exercises to ensure sufficient training volume and stimulus for the major muscle groups. This usually means you're training squats, pulldowns, and back-focused moves on a daily basis.
For example, let's say day one you train back squats on a push day. On the second day you practice curved strokes to shoot. On the third day you train front squats and on the last day deadlifts. While all of these movements target the pushing and pulling muscles, they all equally require a strong and stable lower back.
This can become a profound problem in a training program or with stronger lifters, who may find that the lower back becomes the limiting factor rather than the muscles they are trying to target. If that's the case, it might be wise to swap out some of the heavier compound movements for mechanical work that stresses the muscles without hitting the lower back.
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Unique Benefits of Front Squats in a Push-Pull Leg Routine
However, there are some unique benefits to front squats.
First, the front squat achieves a comparable level of muscle activation, even though it uses approximately 20% lighter weight than the back squat.
And second, research shows that the front squat produces significantly less:
Whencompared to back squats. And this is due to the position of the barbell and the decreased forward leaning of the torso experienced with the front squat. Which means that for those with knee injuries and lower back issues, the front squat, when performed correctly, can be the best option. And it won't require you to lift as much weight, but it will still beas effective as the back squat.
Regardless, incorporating both into your leg training routine is a great idea, as their complementary muscle activation patterns are a great idea. So do the back squat on this leg day and then the front squat the next day of the week, for example.
For both squat variations, be sure to:
- Use a full range of motion at least parallel and
- Relatively heavy weight with a moderate rep range of 6 to 10 reps.
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