I've had my best results from push / pull / legs with 2 workouts for each:
- Push A - upper chest, front delts, triceps
- Push B - mid chest, medial delts, triceps
- Pull A - back thickness, traps, biceps
- Pull B - back width, rear delts, traps, biceps
- Legs A - abductors / adductors / quads
- Legs B - abductors / adductors / glutes / hams
I start every workout with calves (one day press, next day seated; do tibia raises when I do seated calf raises) and end both back workouts with forearm work.
That’s almost exactly what I do, except I can’t recover from 6 days a week so I don
Pull
Push
Legs
Off......this gives my lower back a rest if pull day had rack dead’s or heavy BOR.
And to the OP. QUIT worrying about the most optimal split. Fun fact, there isn’t one. All things will work for a little bit, then they won’t. Then you change it up.
pick a split/style that YOU enjoy most. One you BELIEVE in. That’s the secret. Then, you train with brutality. Push beyond previous efforts than yesterday.
say you had John meadows build you a split perfectly for your lagging body parts and perfect volumes, but you hate the split and exercises. You give 75% in the gym. OR you pick a split that every time you walk in the gym you have a drive, malice in your heart, and on a fucking warpath. Even if the second split is less optimal, it will bring you so much more results.
so as long as your split isn’t fucking stupid, it’s fine. Because even the perfect program will eventually run out of gas, and you will have to change things up. My favorites....
pull, push, legs. Fortitude training, and the old school DC 2-way split EOD.