Introduction
How you divide your workouts throughout the week can significantly impact your progress and attainment of fitness goals. With a plethora of options available, understanding which split aligns with your objectives is key to optimising your time in the gym. In this blog, I’ll point you in the right direction.
What Is It?
Put simply, a workout split refers to how you divide your muscle groups and training sessions throughout the week.
Common Workout Splits:
1. Full-Body
What is it? Workouts targeting all major muscle groups in one session.
Suited To: Beginners and/or those with limited time. For absolute beginners, I recommend 2 or 3 full-body sessions per week.
2. Upper/Lower
What is it? Alternating between upper-body and lower-body workouts on separate days.
Suited To: Those with limited time, hybrid athletes, runners or individuals training for specific sports. Very time efficient. Allows for a balance between strength-orientated gym work and running/sport-specific training.
3. Push/Pull/Legs
What is it? Dividing workouts into push exercises (chest/shoulders/triceps), pull exercises (back/biceps), and leg exercises on separate days.
Suited To: Intermediate and experienced individuals looking to build strength and size. Incredibly effective if training 6-days per week (push/pull/legs/push/pull/legs/rest), as you can target muscle groups more frequently and with greater volume.
4. Body Part Split
What is it? Devoting each workout to specific muscle groups, such as chest day, back day, arm day, shoulder day, and leg day…
Suited To: Experienced lifters specifically focussing on hypertrophy training (muscle size). Usually used by bodybuilders.
Which Is Best?
It's essential to emphasise that there isn't a universal "best" split. The most suitable split for you depends on various factors, including your routine, preferences, and schedule. What works for one person may not work for another. Therefore, experimentation and adaptation are key; don't hesitate to try different splits and adjust things based on what aligns best with your lifestyle and goals. The key is consistency and finding a routine that you can maintain over the long-term.
Summary:
In conclusion, selecting the right workout split and training frequency is pivotal for achieving your fitness objectives. However, the perfect split doesn’t exist, it all depends on your goals, routine and preferences. Therefore, the optimal workout split is actually one that you can consistently stick to.
More Info:
If you have any questions, please feel free to get in contact with me, my inbox is always open.