The Push/Pull Workout

By Adam Sinicki

Designing a Workout for Beginners

Designing a workout for beginners is damn hard. If you make it too intense then, as happened to one or two of my friends, they end up accidentally ripping their muscle in half. But at the same time, far too many beginners are doing workouts that are just too relaxed and easy for them to ever expect to see any results. If you’re among the hundreds of people who do something like 50 press ups and 100 sit ups every night before bed, then you need to seriously rethink your strategy. The problem is also that a ‘full body workout’ just isn’t going to offer enough intense training for any particular muscle groups in order to increase muscle size, while training a separate body part on each day is something that a lot of people who want to start getting into shape just don’t have time for and would often find too intense at the same time (we’re back to the muscle tearing problem).

Introducing The Push/Pull Workout

Fortunately there is a great solution, a workout that is half split, half full body; and it's probably the best workout for beginners. It is called the ‘push/pull workout’. This means that you essentially split your main upper body workout into two separate sets. This means you have one dedicated session for everything that involves pushing movements (bench press, shoulder press, tricep push down etc) and one separate one for everything that involves pulling (bicep curls, pull ups, rows etc). The reasons for this? Because as a rule, pushing movements and pulling movements train the opposite muscles. At the same time they train whole groups of muscles together that mean those exercises are perfect for being grouped together. Look at press ups for example – these work your pecs, your shoulders and your triceps primarily. Then a shoulder press will train your shoulders, but also your triceps and your pecs slightly. Dips will then train your triceps and pecs. Thus, even just doing these few exercises will mean that your pecs and triceps have gotten quite a beating. The same goes for the pulling exercises which will all be slight variations on using the same muscle groups.

If you can do this push/pull session once a week that will start you growing because it will feel intense. At the same time though you will need to train your legs and abs, so for absolute beginners who want an easy start I put these on a separate day and it tends to work a treat. Here is a very very basic week-plan for the push/pull workout.

Best Workout for Beginners

Monday: Push Day

Warm up
Bench press 3 x 8 (heavy enough that eight is the most you can do)
Shoulder press 3 x 8
Dips 3 x 10
Tricep extensions 3 x 8
Press ups 3 x 20

Tuesday: Day Off

Wednesday: Abs and Legs

Warm up
Crunches 3 x 20
Sit ups 3 x 30
Press ups 3 x 20
Leg press/Squat 3 x 8
Leg extensions 3 x 8
Hamstring curls 3 x 8

Thursday: Off

Friday: Pull Day

Warm up
Pull ups 3 x failure
Chin ups 3 x failure
Bicep curls 3 x 8
Bent over rows 3 x 8
Lat pull down 3 x 8

Weekend: Off

Eat a lot of protein in the meantime and ensure you get lots of rest. Even if you’ve never worked out before that should not only mean you start building muscle, but will also mean that you don’t rip yourself in half. And everyone’s got three days right? Make sure you train hard and the whole thing doesn’t last too much more than an hour each time. To step it up a notch if you want to grow really quickly, simply do two push workouts and two pull workouts – you can keep the abs and legs day or share it on the end of the other four workouts.

If you’ve been struggling to get started in bodybuilding and want to see rapid results without killing yourself, then this is the workout programme for you.