Pull and push.

For the last few months, I’ve been following a simple split. Chest/Tri, Back/Bi, Legs, Shoulders. I was in the middle of a pretty routine chest workout last Monday when I felt a little tightness in my shoulders, and was also starting to get a incredible pump in my lats from the new focus I’ve been putting on activating them during my bench press. Not really thinking too much about it, I hopped up from the bench and did a set of 10 pullups.

When I got down from the bar, I realized that not only did I get an incredible stretch on my shoulders, lats, and chest, but also, I had an INSANE pump. My entire upper body- pecs, shoulders, triceps from the benching, back and biceps from the pull-ups. When I laid down to do my final set of bench, the extra blood in my lats helped me crank out a few extra reps. I was intrigued.

As I sat and caught my breath after this brutal superset, I thought back to my readings in Arnold’s Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding. While I haven’t read it in years, I remembered that he was also an advocate of push-pull supersets. And, I'm pretty damn sure it worked for him.

Here’s Arnold’s original workout from the book:

Barbell Bench Press 15 15 12 8 6

Wide Grip Pullups 15 15 12 8 6

Incline Barbell Press 15 12 12 10 10

T-Bar Rows 15 12 12 10 10

Flat Bench Dumbbell Flyes 15 12 10 10 10

Wide-grip Barbell Row 15 12 10 10 10

Weighted Dips 5x15

Close-Grip Pullup 5x12

Stiff-Arm Pull-Over 5x15-20

This  is a GREAT starting point, mainly because it uses only big, compound lifts that hit multiple muscle groups. This was Arnold’s specialty. I also love the volume as well- 45 sets! This is just the thing to shock your body and help bust plateaus. Also, it helps to balance your body and keep healthy shoulders. If you do too much pulling, or too much pushing, without the opposite to even it out, it can lead to injuries.

Anyway, here’s the workout I did today, which was very similar..

Incline Bench Press 20 20 15 12 8 8 5

Wide Grip Pullups 12 10 10 8 8 5 5 (Palms facing out. Adding weight on a belt at the end)

Incline Push Ups 5x25 - used the 5lb dumbbells on the ground instead of palms on the floor

Shoulder Width Chins 5x12 (palms facing towards me)

Flat Bench Press 12 8 8 8 8

Yates Rows 15 15 12 10 8

Cable Flyes – High pulley, low weight, leaning over slightly with a pec squeeze at the bottom of the movement. Use open palms and touch them together for a rep. 25 25 20 20 15

Wide Grip Barbell Row – 15 12 12 10 8 (I know this is very similar to the Yates row- you can sub in one arm rows for this if you really want. However I felt it hitting different spots than the previous exercise due to varying stances and where I was pulling to.)

I was completely spent after this lift and couldn’t bear to do anymore. Last week, I tossed in some supersetted tri/bi work at the end, and some isolation exercises for the rhomboids. This week I was just too dead from all the big movements.

This isn’t something you’ll see a lot of people in the gym doing. However, there are a few reasons I really enjoyed doing this:

-          It will allow me to hit chest and back twice a week

-          I got incredible pump and a great stretch

-          Will help to correct any imbalances in my body

-          Muscle confusion

My only concern is that over the last few weeks, I’ve been training chest and back with HIGH volume: 25-35 sets total for each muscle group. This lift today only got me 20 working sets each. However, I think it will be good to dial down the volume a bit and hit the groups twice a week. I also would definitely work the stiff-arm pullovers into the lift next time, just because that’s an exercise that hits both chest and back in a single motion. You need to really concentrate on the form to get that one right though.

Anyways- if you feel like trying something a little different, give this a shot!