DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
Copyright © 2020 by Bill Wong
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced,
distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without
the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial
uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as
a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice.
Use of the information herein is at the sole choice and risk of the reader. The
author will not assume liability for any direct or indirect losses or damages
that may result.
Design Specialist: Nao Takahashi
Cover Photographer: Alison Saya Helton
First Edition – May 2020
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
ABOUT DR. SWOLE ............................................................................. 1
PREFACE ............................................................................................ 2
WHAT IS EVIDENCE-BASED BODYBUILDING? ................................... 4
DEFINITIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS ................................................. 6
DR. SWOLE’S STAIRCASE OF TRAINING PRIORITIES ........................ 8
CONSISTENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY .......................................... 9
PROGRESSIVE OVERLOAD .......................................................... 10
LINEAR PROGRESSION ........................................................... 13
DOUBLE PROGRESSION ......................................................... 15
TRIPLE PROGRESSION ........................................................... 18
WAVE-LOADING PROGRESSION ............................................... 19
VOLUME ...................................................................................... 23
FREQUENCY ................................................................................ 27
INTENSITY AND REP RANGES..................................................... 28
EXERCISE SELECTION ................................................................. 34
HOW TO USE THESE PROGRAMS ...................................................... 42
BEGINNER LOW VOLUME PROGRAM ................................................ 46
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
SAMPLE MESOCYCLE ........................................................................ 53
INTERMEDIATE LEG-FOCUSED PROGRAM ........................................ 62
INTERMEDIATE MODIFIED PROGRAM ............................................. 67
QUADS, BACK, AND DELT-FOCUSED PROGRAM ................................ 72
WARMING UP ................................................................................... 79
REST PERIODS ................................................................................. 83
ORDER OF EXERCISES...................................................................... 85
DELOADING ..................................................................................... 88
PROS AND CONS OF THE UPPER LOWER SPLIT ............................... 91
YOUR BODY IS A LABORATORY ....................................................... 93
TROUBLESHOOTING......................................................................... 96
ABS, TRAPS, AND POSTERIOR DELTS ............................................ 100
AFTERWORD .................................................................................. 102
REFERENCES .................................................................................. 103
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
Bill Wong is a medical doctor and natural men’s physique athlete
based in Vancouver, Canada.
He completed his MD at the University of British Columbia and is
currently training to specialize in radiology. As the first author on multiple
peer-reviewed publications and internationally-presented scientific posters,
he has extensive experience with publishing and interpreting research. His
medical background and passion for the scientific method provides him with
a unique, cutting-edge perspective on bodybuilding.
He runs a YouTube channel (Ask Dr. Swole) and a podcast (Swole
Radio), which provide evidence-based recommendations to help people lose
fat and gain muscle. His content is tailored to the intelligent athlete who
wants to improve their physique using current scientific research.
Dr. Swole’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/AskDrSwole
Dr. Swole’s Website: www.askdrswole.com
ABOUT DR. SWOLE
1
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
Issues surrounding exercise selection and substitution are perhaps the
most common questions I get asked about my programs. You should use the
following criteria to choose exercises:
1. The intended muscle should be the limiting factor. This is a measure of
how specific an exercise is to a certain muscle group. If the intended
muscle is not fatigued first, you won’t get an optimal stimulus for it.
For example, in a close-grip bench press, the triceps will likely fatigue
and cause you to fail before the pecs do. Thus, a close-grip bench
press would be a good triceps exercise but not the best chest exercise.
2. The exercise should allow you to load the target muscle through its
entire ROM. Greater hypertrophy has been demonstrated with training
with full ROM19,20. Muscles contracting at greater length (in a “stretch”)
show more activation and receive more stress21. Furthermore, you’ll
produce less systemic fatigue with the lighter loads used. It follows
that, for instance, squatting to full depth (or at least parallel) is
superior for bodybuilders than squatting to partial depth.
3. The exercise should be amenable to progressive overload. A good
proxy question for this is: can I microload this movement over time,
EXERCISE SELECTION
34
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
and eventually reach heavy loads in the 6-12 rep range? Examples of
where this fails would include calisthenics and any exercise without a
stable base of support. While push-ups might produce a great stimulus
for you, you can’t easily add small increments of load to accommodate
improvements over time. Furthermore, you will eventually get strong
enough to do 30, 40, 60 reps… And you’ll get outside of our intensity
recommendation of > 30% 1RM. Another example of this would be the
single-arm reverse cable pressdown; these might be difficult to safely
execute heavier loads with. Such exercises can serve specific
purposes, but they shouldn’t be the focus of your program.
4. You should have a good mind-muscle connection during the
movement. There is some early data showing a link between this type
of internal of focus and hypertrophy22. Most people find that different
movements allow them to “feel” their muscles contracting better than
others: this is individual-specific and will require you to experiment to
see what feels best for you.
Beyond these general criteria, the specific exercise you choose doesn’t
matter a whole lot. You will still be able to grow great quads using hack
squats as your primary overloading movement, versus barbell squats.
EXERCISE SELECTION
35
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
At a more advanced level, you should thinking about exercises
producing a certain amount of hypertrophic stimulus and also a certain
amount of fatigue. Note, however, that the amount of stimulus and fatigue a
certain movement produces varies by individual, depending on technique
and anatomy.
As a conceptual model, I like to think of exercises as falling into 3
tiers:
TIER 1 EXERCISES
These are heavy, free-weight movements that are most amenable to
progressive overload. For larger muscle groups, such as quads,
hamstrings/glutes, chest, back, these are also compound movements. They
tend to produce a high amount of stimulus and are staples for bodybuilders.
They also target a large amount of muscle mass due to their compound
nature, which makes them very efficient options. I would suggest that
beginners and people curbing their volume (i.e. < 10 sets per week)
because they’re short on time should focus on these movements. I separate
these from Tier 2 movements since my opinion is that heavy free-weight
movements tend to produce more stimulus overall. I’m not saying that they
are necessarily better, though. Tier 1 movements also tend to be the most
fatiguing exercises, and may impede your ability to perform large amounts
EXERCISE SELECTION
36
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
of volume. Start your workouts with these since they take the greatest
amount of coordination and mental effort to perform.
TIER 2 EXERCISES
These are more machine-type movements, usually still involving
multiple joints for larger muscle groups. These are great for adding in
volume without a whole lot of fatigue. Perform these after your Tier 1
movements.
TIER 3 EXERCISES
These are isolation movements. They are useful for adding in volume
for a minimal amount of associated systemic fatigue. Perform these last in
your workout.
My 3 tier model is a very loose categorization but may be helpful to
you as a framework for exercise selection. You can look at any exercise in
my training programs and substitute for another exercise in the same tier.
Note that the way you map exercises to certain muscle groups may depend
on how you perform them (lunges can be done to emphasize quads more
than glutes) – this list reflects my personal convention.
EXERCISE SELECTION
37
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
QUADS
1. Squat (narrow stance, sumo, back, front), Bulgarian split squat
(barbell, dumbbell), goblet squat
2. Leg press, hack squat, smith machine hack squat
3. Leg extension
HAMSTRINGS/GLUTES
1. Deadlift (conventional, sumo), Romanian deadlift (barbell, dumbbell),
barbell good morning, lunge (forward, backward, walking, barbell,
dumbbell), step-up (barbell, dumbbell), barbell hip thrust
2. Back hyperextension (barbell, dumbbell), glute-ham raise
3. Leg curl (lying, seated), cable pull-through, glute kickback
CHEST
1. Bench press (incline, flat, decline, barbell, dumbbell), weighted dips
(chest variation)
2. Smith-machine bench press, machine bench press, close-grip bench
press (I count these for both chest and triceps volume)
3. Flyes (cable, dumbbell, machine)
EXERCISE SELECTION
38
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
ANTERIOR DELTS
1. Overhead press (standing, seated, barbell, dumbbell)
2. Machine overhead press, Arnold press, smith machine overhead press
3. Front raises (barbell, dumbbell, cable)
BACK
1. Row (barbell, dumbbell), weighted chin-ups (supinated or pronated),
Meadow’s row, T-bar row, single-arm dumbbell row
2. Machine row, machine pulldown, cable lat pulldown, cable row, chestsupported row, seal row (barbell, dumbbell)
3. Straight arm pulldown, dumbbell pullover, single-arm cable row,
single-arm cable pulldown
BICEPS
1. Barbell curl, EZ bar curl, dumbbell curl, incline curl, lying curl, hammer
curl, pin-wheel curl, preacher curl, concentration curl, spider curl
2. Cable curl (bar, rope), machine curls
EXERCISE SELECTION
39
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
TRICEPS
1. Close-grip bench press (barbell, dumbbell), floor press (barbell,
dumbbell), board press, pin press, weighted dips (triceps variation)
2. Skullcrushers (barbell, EZ-bar, dumbbell), cable pressdowns (bar,
rope), overhead cable extensions, cable kickbacks, machine extensions
SIDE DELTS
1. Upright row (barbell, dumbbell, cable), lateral raise (dumbbell, cable),
machine lateral raises
CALVES
1. Standing single-leg calf raise, leg press calf raise, standing machine
calf raise, donkey calf raises
2. Bent-leg calf raises
ABS
1. Weighted hanging leg raise, weighted crunch, weighted toe touch,
weighted V-up, ab machine crunch, cable crunch
2. Ab wheel rollout, Swiss ball rollout, leg raise, reverse crunch, Russian
twists, bicycle crunch, weighted plank
EXERCISE SELECTION
40
DR. SWOLE’S GUIDE TO UPPER LOWER SPLITS
SAMPLE AB TRISETS
Perform one movement after the other with minimal rest between
exercises, and 1.5-2 min between trisets.
➢ Hanging leg raise, weighted crunch, bicycle crunch
➢ Ab wheel rollout, cable crunch, weighted toe touch
➢ Swiss ball rollout, weighted plank, weighted V-up
EXERCISE SELECTION
41