The Lift League Upper Lower split uses two workouts to target the upper and lower body on separate days. The upper body workout targets both the push and pull muscles while the lower body workout targets the legs and core.
The 4-week Upper Lower training block follows a Monday Wednesday Friday training schedule. Where the PPL gave you a full week of recovery time before retraining muscle groups, the Upper Lower reduces that time to four days, allowing you to train each muscle group twice per week.
Each training session can be completed in less than an hour if you follow the recommended rest times.
The Upper Lower block is a powerbuilding program for beginners. Powerbuilding combines strength training and hypertrophy training into each session, allowing beginners to get their practice reps in while increasing their strength.
All beginner-level powerbuilding blocks start with a strength-building compound movement using a 4x6 rep scheme followed by several complementary lifts using a variety of hypertrophy rep schemes.
There is an intentional amount of overlap in the lift selections between the PPL and Upper Lower as well as the other blocks within The Lift League. Variability in the form of different rep schemes, rest times, lift progression, intensity, and the use of complimentary lifts has been woven throughout all 12 blocks allowing you to avoid plateaus and continually make progress.
The upper body workout maintains balance and provides additional recovery time by alternating between pushing and pulling movements. The Upper body workout begins with the overhead press because it is literally the most difficult lift and the more practice you get, the better. Following the overhead press, the strength-building set of lat pull-downs found in PPL has been replaced with reverse grip lat pull-downs using a hypertrophy rep scheme. We then have bench press using the same rep scheme as used in the PPL to keep giving you those needed practice reps at one of the big three compounds. Face pulls have been moved up in the movement progression, and a tricep extension variation has been introduced, the overhead dumbbell tricep extension. Finally, we have barbell curls using a different rep scheme than the PPL.
The lower body workout, like many other League programs, starts with squats using a strength-building rep scheme. We then have a set of deadlifts that use a hypertrophy rep scheme. Like the bench press, you do not need to max out on these. Get your practice reps in. The lower body workout swaps leg extensions for the leg press, leg curls are replaced with lying leg curls, and seated calf raises for landmine calf raises. Your core work comes in the form of weighted ball crunches.
When you purchase any training block, you get a training guide for that block. It has everything you need but the gym. It includes a one-rep max calculator and a body fat percentage calculator that generates caloric recommendations for macros based on your weight goal. Each training guide also includes a training log so you can easily track your progress. All logs run the entire 4 weeks of the block and are set up to be cyclical, so the numbers you log on your fourth week will show up as your previous lifts on your first week making it easy to repeat blocks as needed.