Weight Training Split 101
This Wednesday we are going to discuss five different training splits. Of course there are many other different training splits but we are discussing the most common ones here. Based upon your training age and fitness goals you can choose what works best for you.
Before you commit to a fitness program, you should always assess your availability, your lifestyle, and your focus. If you have a very labor intensive job, then you should follow a training program that gives you more rest days. Likewise, if you are a very busy person then you may want to follow a less frequent training program. If you want to focus on legs or chest, you may want to add an extra training day for this muscle group. Now let’s talk about the five most common training splits:
1. Whole body split: this is a relatively low volume and low intensity training program and it is best for beginners. It doesn’t work a specific muscle too much and you won’t feel too sore to continue on your training program. Its goal is to get you adapted to working different muscle fibers. Typically, you want to perform one exercise for each major muscle with 3 sets of 10 to 12 reps. You should perform this split 3 times a week.
2. Upper and lower body split: as you are getting more accustomed to weight training, you can increase the intensity and volume for each muscle group by following a 2-day split. In this split, you will target all of your upper body on one day (chest, back, shoulders, arms) and your lower body on a different day (hamstring, glutes, and quads). You will typically perform two exercises for each muscle group to bring up the volume a bit. You can perform 3 sets of 6 to 8 reps or 12 to 15 reps for either strength or muscle size, respectively. You want to repeat this split twice a week with the following schedule: upper, lower, rest, upper, lower, rest.
3. Push/pull/legs: as you become more experienced in lifting, you may want to increase intensity and volume for each muscle group. One way to do this is to work all of your push muscles on one day (chest, triceps, shoulders), pull muscles on the next day (back and biceps), and your legs on a third day, hence the name, Push/Pull/Legs. In this routine you want to target the bigger muscles first and perform low rep compound movements at the beginning follow by high volume isolation exercises at the end to maximize intensity. You should perform this twice a week with the following training pattern: push, pull, legs, rest, push, pull, legs, and rest.
4. Four-day split: This is a great split when you are getting more serious and you want to target particular muscle groups more. In this split you can rest 3 days per week or train 4 days then rest one day then repeat. You should always pair a small muscle with a big muscle in this training split, for example: back/biceps, chest/triceps, shoulder/traps, legs;or you can try: back/triceps, legs, chest/biceps, shoulders, and rest.
5. Five-day split: this is a quite advanced training routine and you will rest during weekend. In this training split you can target each muscle quite intensively while allowing each muscle group to be fully rested. You will want to make sure you separate the push and pull muscles so you don’t hit them on consecutive days to allow full recovery. A typical five-day routine is chest, back, shoulders/traps, legs, bicep/triceps, rest weekend. You can of course insert a second leg day to make it a six-day training split if you want to target your legs or an extra training session for a muscle you want to focus on, but make sure to allow a 48-hour rest for that muscle group.
Abs and calves are not mentioned in the training split because they are quite small muscles and they recover quite fast. You should be able to train them every other day, and I suggest you put them at the end of your regular training session and target them 2 to 3 times a week. You can of course add in cardio session as well either at the end of your training session or on your rest day.
Finally, I just want to point that you need to give your muscles enough rest and nutrition. If you work out hard in the gym but you are not fueling your muscles or allow your muscles rest properly, then you are wasting your hard work. Hopefully you all find this information helpful. In this next video I want to discuss blood lipids.
For more videos like this, click here: Nutrition and Sport Science Basics for Cutting and Bulking
