Stop Choosing Sides: How to Build an Efficient Upper Body Workout That Actually Works

Drew Donaldson at the S5 | Human Performance | Hypertrophy Training

I've been at this for over 40 years. In that time, I've watched more arguments about training methodology than I can count. Science guys vs. old-school guys. Bro splits vs. conjugate. Studies vs. experience. And here's what most of those arguments have in common: they're both missing the point.

The people winning that debate aren't the ones picking a side. They're the ones figuring out how to use both.

That's exactly what human performance coach Drew Donaldson brought to the S5 when he walked in and laid out one of the most efficient upper body sessions I've seen filmed on this platform. Drew has 20 years of coaching experience across bodybuilders, powerlifters, strongmen, professional athletes, and everyday people who just want to train hard and live well. He's not trying to sell you a system. He's trying to show you how to think.

Watch the full session below.

The War Between Science and What Works

Here's a problem I've seen play out a thousand times.

Someone gets deep into the research. Reads everything. Starts filtering every exercise decision through the lens of peer-reviewed studies. And then they look down their nose at the stuff that's been working in gyms for 30 years because it hasn't been formally tested.

On the other side, you've got the old-school guys who refuse to adapt. Won't touch a machine. Won't adjust their rep ranges. Won't consider that some of what they believe might be incomplete.

Both camps are leaving results on the table.

Drew's point is simple. Take what science has shown us works. Take what decades of proven gym practice have produced. Stop pretending one cancels out the other. Mesh them together and build something that gets results, keeps you motivated, and holds up over time. That's the foundation this upper body workout is built on.

The Warm-Up: Two Phases, One Purpose

Most people either skip the warm-up entirely or turn it into a 30-minute production that eats time and drains energy before the real work starts.

Drew's approach is tighter than that.

Phase one is six minutes of low-intensity cardiovascular work. Something parasympathetic. Get the blood moving, raise the heart rate without spiking it. You're not training here. You're preparing the system.

Phase two is six minutes of higher-intensity work. He likes assault bike sprints for this. The goal is norepinephrine. You want the brain switched on and the body ready to actually move weight. This is the difference between grinding through the first few sets and walking into them sharp.

Twelve minutes total. Done right, that's enough.

The Architecture: Zigzag Sets, Three Movements Per Muscle Group

Here's the core of what makes this session work.

Drew selects three movements for back and three movements for chest. He alternates between them throughout the workout, not in traditional supersets, but in what he calls zigzag sets. The difference matters.

A superset takes you from one exercise directly to the next with minimal rest. Zigzag sets keep the same alternating structure but include rest between movements. You're still getting more volume into a shorter window than straight sets would allow, but you're not gassing yourself to the point where the quality of each set collapses.

Does this create maximum mechanical tension on every single set? No. And Drew is honest about that. Mechanical tension is the primary driver of hypertrophy. But it isn't the only lever. For a lifter with a real life, training three to four days a week, chasing muscle and conditioning at the same time, the zigzag structure is one of the most practical ways to get serious volume done without destroying your schedule or your recovery.

Movement One: Free Weights First

Every muscle group starts with a free weight movement.

Free weights force you to produce internal stability. There's no machine constraining you to a fixed path. Your entire body has to work to keep the movement clean. Every surrounding muscle is involved in holding the position. That co-contraction work gets the whole system firing before you start offloading that demand to machines later in the session.

It also keeps you honest. If the free weight movements are buried at the end, when you're fatigued and the machines are right there, they get skipped. Starting with them guarantees they get done.

Drew went with single-arm kettlebell rows for back and incline dumbbell press for chest. The principle applies regardless of the specific exercise. Lead with free weights. Work through full range. Hit the muscle from a position that requires you to earn the movement, not just go along for the ride.

On the row, he's not hyper-focused on isolating only the lat or only the traps. He's driving the elbow back, squeezing at the top, and using everything in the back to produce the movement. The goal is efficiency across the whole structure.

Movement Two: Machine with an Intensifier

The second movement shifts to a machine or externally stabilized setup.

You've already done the demanding free weight work. You've earned some external stability. Now you can apply that focus with more specificity. You can target a specific part of the muscle more precisely. And because the machine is handling some of the stabilization demand, you have enough left to add an intensifier.

Drop sets. Rest-pause sets. Cluster sets. Whatever format fits the equipment and the session. The point is to squeeze more output out of that working set without stacking another full set's worth of recovery demand on top of it.

Drew modified a machine row to bias more lat involvement by adjusting his body position. Small setup change, meaningfully different resistance profile. On the chest side, he tilted back in the pec deck seat to shift the movement toward a decline angle and target the lower costal fibers.

One of his favorite intensifiers on the pec deck: hold a lengthened isometric on one side while performing reps unilaterally with the other, then switch. It burns. It creates enormous output in a short window. And it's the kind of thing you can only do effectively when you're already through the harder, skill-demanding work of the session.

Movement Three: Grip It and Rip It

The third movement for each muscle group follows one rule. It needs to be fun.

You're not looking for a movement that requires a complex mental checklist to execute. You're not chasing a new PR. You've already done the heavy free weight work. You've already applied the intensifier in the machine. The goal now is to flush blood into the muscle, feel the pump, and finish the session on a high note.

Drew went to a cable lat pulldown variation for back, modifying the angle to hit the lat in a more lengthened position. For chest, he finished with the standing chest press station at the S5. Higher rep ranges. Quality sets. Maximum blood in the muscle.

This isn't complicated training philosophy. It's common sense. You want to want to come back tomorrow. The hard work is done. Let the finisher be what it's supposed to be. He mentioned that at home he likes throwing training chains over his back and doing push-ups to failure. Same principle, different tool.

The Glycolytic Element

One more layer worth understanding.

This session is deliberately glycolytic. Rest periods are shorter than you'd use in a strength-focused block. That's intentional.

Burning through muscular glycogen creates a nutrient partitioning effect. If your nutrition is calibrated correctly, you can use this style of training to drive body composition changes alongside hypertrophy. You're not going to add a slab of muscle and get shredded simultaneously, especially without pharmaceutical assistance. But training in this fashion shifts how the body stores and utilizes substrate. Over time, with the right diet, that matters.

Stop Picking Sides. Start Training.

Three back movements. Three chest movements. Alternated in zigzag sets.

Start with free weights. Move to a machine with an intensifier attached. Finish with something you can grip and rip.

Fit it into an upper-lower split. The specific template matters less than showing up and doing the work consistently.

If you're setting up your training environment to support sessions like this, browse what we carry at elitefts.com. The equipment you train on matters. Get the right stuff and stop making excuses to skip the work.

This session works. The science supports the structure. Decades of proven training practice support the structure.

You don't have to choose between them.