Shane's Push / Pull Hypertrophy System
A hypertrophy-focused upper body split that keeps every movement intentional. Legs are self-managed and deliberately kept simple - the flow includes them, this page just doesn't overdevelop them.
- Muscle growth
- 1-3 RIR
- 3 sets
Pull Day
Vertical pull, horizontal row, rear delts, and both curl patterns.
Push Day
Chest press, dips, side delts, and a triceps isolation.
Legs
Self-managed and intentionally kept simple.
Legs are intentionally kept simple and managed on their own. The Push / Pull / Legs flow still includes a Legs day between Pull and Rest, but this page only carries a placeholder - no prescribed leg movements live here.
Why this structure
Every cut in this routine is a deliberate trade-off. Here is the reasoning behind the compromises.
- 01
Flat vs incline chest compromise
The pectoralis major has two heads: the clavicular (upper) and the sternal (lower). A flat press biases the sternal head; an incline press shifts load toward the clavicular head. Running both in a single session is redundant - the total chest volume just gets split across two near-identical pressing patterns, and the upper chest is already covered on incline work. Instead of stacking both every session, rotate the emphasis: run one Push day incline-dominant and the next flat-dominant, so the whole chest gets full volume across the week without wasting a slot on a duplicate movement.
- 02
Vertical pull redundancy cut
Pull-ups and lat pulldowns train the same primary muscles - the latissimus dorsi - in the same vertical plane. Doing both in one session duplicates the stimulus and eats volume that belongs to a horizontal row. Pick one vertical pull: weighted pull-ups if you can progress them, lat pulldowns if you need to control the loading, and stick with it. The same logic applies to rows: choose one horizontal row pattern (seated cable or elevated) rather than stacking two near-identical row variations.
- 03
Fatigue management
Push / Pull / Legs / Rest sequencing keeps related muscles fresh: pushing and pulling land on separate days so each recovers while the other trains, and the rest day is where growth actually happens. RIR - reps in reserve - is how hard you push each set: 1-3 RIR means you stop one to three reps shy of failure. Keeping most working sets in that zone drives growth with far less systemic fatigue than grinding to absolute failure every set. Reserve true failure for safer isolation movements - lateral raises, cable pushdowns, curls - where a failed rep is low-risk, and keep heavy compounds (presses, pull-ups, rows) in the 1-3 RIR range.
Grab the routine
Copy the raw structured data - exercises, sets, reps, and the science - as machine-readable JSON.