What is a training split?
Training split is somewhat similar to periodization. Periodization is when an athlete spends a chunk of time training a specific aspect of his/her fitness. For example, I may decide to work on cardiovascular endurance from September to January (one period) and then work on Muscular strength from February to July (2nd Period). Similarly, a training split divides what you do every week for a specific period of time which is bodybuilding in our case. As an example, I decide to take a break Monday-Thursday then lift from Friday to Sunday. This is a horrible split but it’s still a split.
What Makes a good training split?
That’s a good question. I myself have trained using a 3 day splits to even a 7 day split. One day and two day splits are non-existent. I will try to discuss the 5 different types of split (3-7 day splits) and a good way to set them up.
3 day split
Three day split is the most simple split which is a push/pull/leg split. People might think that a 3 day split is the easiest but it’s probably the hardest. This is because 3 day split is usually done twice in a week.
- Sunday-Push
- Monday-Pull
- Tuesday-Leg
- Wednesday-Off
Push (in one workout)
- Bench Press
- Overhead Press
- Dumbbell Press-Incline/Decline
- Flyes
- Front raise
- Lateral Raise
- Rope extension
- Skull Crushers
- Dips
- Pronated
- Suppinated wrist curls
enough said this took me 2 hours if I’m rushing but usually over that, I’m always tired even after my rest day.
However not all 3 day splits are like that. here is an example I got from bodybuilding.com:
As you can see for the first place winner, you have 3 exercises per workout which is ideal if you don’t want to spend too much time in the gym and still hit every muscle you need to hit. This is a good workout which focuses on compound lifts but this will not build definition on your muscles. This 3 day split is good for putting on size. Very ideal for beginners. On the other hand, the 3 day split I made is probably ok if it’s done in 2 one-hour sessions per day. 4 day split This is my fave and rightly so. It’s not exhausting (it’s challenging if you make it challenging which I do). It fits in a tight schedule like midterm weeks in university. You get results. 3 rest days every week. Workouts aren’t too long or aren’t too short. You are guaranteed to get a pump and results if you do your workouts properly. Sunday- off Monday- Chest, Triceps, Lagging Body Part A Tuesday- off Wednesday- Back(lower and upper), Biceps, traps, Lagging Body Part A Thursday off Friday- Shoulders,Forearms, Lagging Body Part A Saturday- Legs(not including calves) You may have noticed that I didn’t include calves or Abs. Because I noticed from experience that it is a waste of time to train these muscles using a training split. If you want to develop these 2 muscles or any lagging body parts choose one of your lagging body parts (calves, abs or anything else that don’t respond well to your training) then train them every other day as permitted by your training routine/split. Also, Calves and Abs gets stronger as your other lifts gets stronger as well. Also, training shouldn’t be viewed as a workout. You train hard not to fill in the blanks of your workout sheet but to improve. I recommend that you get into the habit of reading workout articles and compose your own workout that works for you. My suggestion for any workout is to take the muscles that you are working on for that day and make 3-4 exercises for that specific bodypart. Example if i’m working on chest: I’d do dumbbellpress, dumbbell flyes and low cable crossover. Those are only 3 exercises. I have to set up my sets and decide whether i’m doing anything special such as pyramid, drop-sets, supersets and failure. I only have 3 exercises but I have so many things I can modify to make it difficult for me. This is why people need to read working out articles and expand their knowledge on training. To be honest, I learned how to drop-set before I even encountered the word drop-set. I encourage anyone to experiment in the gym and find things out through trial and error. Note that you would be doing 6-9 exercises per workout not including training lagging body parts. 5 Day Splits Slightly harder than the 4 day split but not hard because there’s 2 days of rest. Increased intensity because of a lower work volume due to more work days so you don’t have to train as much body part per day. Sunday-Off Monday-Chest, Triceps, Lagging Body Part A Tuesday-Back, Biceps, Lagging Body Part B Wednesday- OffThursday-Shoulders, Forearms, Lagging Body Part B Friday-Legs, Lagging Body Part A Saturday-Traps, Lagging Body Part B You may notice that I didn’t include abs and calves for the same exact reason as a 4 day split. 6 day split I’d like to call this a catch up split mostly because you should only do this if you’re trying to catch up two body parts that are lagging. Work volume is very little. Sunday- Chest, Biceps Lagging Body Part A Monday- Back, Triceps, Lagging Body Part B Tuesday- Quads, Lagging Body Part A Wednesday- Off Thursday- Shoulder, Forearms, Lagging Body Part B Friday- Traps, Lagging Body Part A Saturday- Hamstrings, Lagging Body Part B 7 Day Split Sunday- Chest, Lagging Body Part A Monday- Back, Lagging Body Part B Tuesday- Quads, Lagging Body Part A Wednesday- Shoulder, Lagging Body Part B Thursday- Traps, Lagging Body Part A Friday- Hamstrings, Lagging Body Part B Saturday- Biceps, Triceps, Forearms Sunday- Off The only differencebetween a 6 day split and a 7 day split is that there is a separate day to work on arms specifically. Very Important. Don’t do a 6 day or 7 day split for a long time or your body will become sickly. I was bulking when I did a 7 day split and I was tired all the time. It got to the point where I had a sniffle everytime I finished a workout. The effect is very similar to doing a crazy 3 day split twice a week.
