How much volume, and how long, per session?

Posterior gets covered first: squats or DL's in one session, then snatches or C&J's go into the same one.

An accessory such as Good Mornings might get thrown in.

Dumb bell shoulder press and biceps are ones I try to get to.

After that comes core work — high intensity to failure: negative sit ups, upside down sit ups, ab roller, lateral bends.

Cardio follows, which usually means heavy bag and shadow boxing.

Too much, no doubt about it — squeezing all of that in every second day leaves me fatigued.

Cutting the cardio component is one thought, since that's the bit that leaves me exhausted at the end.

The other option is splitting anterior and posterior onto completely separate days.

What have your experiences been?

Everyone differs, but I have trained intensely across 60 days straight. That's 21 heavy sets plus 1 hour cardio daily, except this past week where an extra hour of cardio has gone in on 7 of the last 8 days. TRT and gh alongside Reta are in the mix, and surprisingly my strength and muscle have increased despite a 19.6lb weight loss over that period. Ultimately your body has to be listened to — if the workouts aren't suffering, keep pushing. If they are, more rest time is needed.

Did you just come out of a breakup, dang!! Jk! Each session of mine is built around the biggest compound movement, so PPL is what I run, anchored on bench, deadlifts and squats, with everything else in the training coming once those dedicated compounds are out of the way! Deadlifts on a back day isn't a given either — sometimes my second back day gets built around pull-ups, or inclined bench for the second push day. At 44y/o with your volume I would run out of steam and probably pick up an injury. But if you feel good, do you, that's what I say!

jrock said:

Did you just come out of a breakup, dang!! Jk! Each session of mine is built around the biggest compound movement, so PPL is what I run, anchored on bench, deadlifts and squats, with everything else in the training coming once those dedicated compounds are out of the way! Deadlifts on a back day isn't a given either — sometimes my second back day gets built around pull-ups, or inclined bench for the second push day. At 44y/o with your volume I would run out of steam and probably pick up an injury. But if you feel good, do you, that's what I say!

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I'm 43 too, and motivation is definitely not the problem — I let off the gas and drank too much beer for a year and a half. My starting weight was 278.8, and today I'm 259.2. At this weight the top 4 abs are already back. Roughly 15-20lbs is what I figure the full six pack needs. Being the best version of myself ever is the rampage I'm on. Peptides will make it fun for sure! Without the gh and TRT I think I'd be cooked.

For context, I'm in my early 40s. I've been reasonably active for most of my life, though little of it was strength work until the past few years, when I started lifting heavy on a consistent basis.

The short answer: I usually train with weights 3-4 days a week, 45-60 minutes a session, and follow it with 30 minutes of cardio at a moderate to vigorous pace when I can fit it in. On the days I don't lift there are usually 2 sessions of either basketball or a longer distance run, and one full rest day.

I train alongside a partner. We warm up quickly, then start with whichever exercise is heaviest for us. After that come the secondary movements for the same muscle group, normally paired as supersets with something complementary or a core exercise.

Chest day, for example, tends to go like this -

Warm up - cable fly (light)

Flat bench 4-5 sets

Incline bench 3 sets (superset with dumbbell curls & leg raises)

Decline bench 3 sets (superset with hammer curls & leg raises)

Finisher - dumbbell fly -> chestbusters -> preacher curls (3 sets)

Our split is generally back, then chest, then shoulders/legs, and day 4 is a bit of a catch-all upper body session.

Longer sessions don't do much for me personally, but everyone responds differently. Once I go past the hour mark it tends to mean more chatting, longer breaks, or simply running out of steam. Going longer can be worth it in a bigger group, or when you're trying something new. With my mornings being as tight as they are, the above is what works.

I'm on the holy trinity too, 150 test E pinned eod, 2iu HGH at night, 4mg reta split sun/thurs, and man do I feel amazing, sounds like your recovery is sorted as well. Keep pushing big dog!!

My PPL routine is extremely stripped down.

Push: 4 exorcises, aiming for 3 sets taken to failure or just shy of it, which usually comes out around 9, 7, 6 repetitions.

Pull: 4 exercises, the same target of 3 x failure

Legs: 5-6 exercises, 3 x 8ish

For the heavier lifts I normalt take 2-3 minutes of rest, while isolation exorcises get 1-2 minutes.

Given my own level, I lift heavy, and sessions tend to run about 45-55 minutes.

Minimum training frequency is 3 times a week, maximum 6. The number of days gets cycled across different periods.

My PPL runs twice per week and is pretty intense. Here's what my weekly averages look like.

Push falls on days 1 and 4: 7 exercises, 3 sets to failure with partials added. Roughly 70k lbs of volume.

Pull falls on days 2 and 5: 9 exercises, 3 sets to failure with partials added. Roughly 90K lbs of volume.

Legs falls on days 3 and 6: 5 exercises, 3 sets to failure, no partials. Roughly 120k lbs of volume.

Day 7 is rest.

Rest between sets is 2.5 min, though I sometimes stretch it out longer. Sessions typically run 90-120min. Every workout opens with a 1 mile treadmill run, and most nights I also walk 2 miles.

In the past this was pretty draining and I struggled with it a lot, but by now I've adapted. That said, I'm drifting into bodybuilder territory, so I doubt the typical gym rat needs to push as hard as I do.

That really does seem like a heavy load for a single session, particularly when it comes around every other day. My first move would be to drop the cardio and check how recovery responds, and if fatigue is still an issue after that, then separate the anterior and posterior work.

Roughly 30 sets is what I get through, and that takes me around an hour and a half, on MWF.

My opening is always 10 mins of walking backwards on an incline, and after that comes a combination of dynamic warm-up plus static stretching.

Then 2 big compound movements: squat/bench, or deadlift/overhead press. 1 pull accessory, 1 push accessory, and 1 accessory for single leg, core, or hip abduction. The compound lift gets 3 sets: 1 light, 1 medium, then 1 heavy taken to failure. After that I go back to the light weight for 5x5, supersetted with an accessory at 5x10. The accessory move that's left then gets 50+ total reps, either 3x20 or 5x10, depending on how heavy the weight is.

15 mins in the sauna is how I wrap things up.

On my off days I run cardio (a 5k training program) 3x a week, and yoga happens Tues and Thurs.