#39: What Is The Best Split For Weekly Gym Training?
Some of us train twice-a-week. Some of us three. Others four, five or even six times per week. Different lifestyles lead us into different routines, but the question remains: how best to split-up our workouts based on each muscle group?
Earlier on, I talked about the importance of compound exercises. And that one could be well on the path to serious results by simply using them regularly.
But rest is important too. So we must be mindful and give each muscle group time to recover by hitting different muscles on different days.
Training Twice Per Week
Two gym sessions per week is the minimum effective dose needed to pack on some gains.
In this case, the best split would be two full body workouts at least 48 hours apart. An ideal starting point, especially for gym newbies.
During each workout, hit as many compound exercises as possible (for example: the bench press) and do play around with variations of each exercise (example: incline bench press).
Training Three Times Per Week
Seeing as 48 hours is ample time for a muscle to recover (given correct sleep and nutrition), you can, and should go for three full-body workouts that are around 48 hours apart.
The plan, essentially, remains the same as the twice-per-week split. Only this time you can add an extra session. Like this you can hit the gym on, say, a Monday, a Wednesday and a Saturday.
There may not be a 48-hour period separating two workouts at one given moment. But if you’re still jaded from the previous session, you’re free to move your scheduled workout by one day to give your body a little more time to recover.
Training Four Times Per Week
From this point on, we start isolating different muscle groups because we have more time to play with. This in mind, I would suggest:
Push muscles - all muscles that generate a pushing movement away from the body during the concentric movement (chest, triceps, shoulders)
Pull muscles - all muscles that generate a pulling movement towards the body during the concentric movement (most back muscles; trapezius, rhomboids, latissimus dorsi, biceps, forearms).
Leg muscles - all muscles, be them pull or push, that comprise the legs (quadriceps, calves, hamstrings).
Full Body - in the final workout of the week, hit a full body blaster using a few compound exercises.
Training Five Times Per Week
Training five times per week is an opportunity to divide the body into ‘upper’ (anything above the waistline) and ‘lower’ (anything below the waistline) sections. We can use the following approach:
Upper Body on a Monday
Lower Body on a Tuesday
Upper Body on a Wednesday
Lower body on a Thursday
Full body on a Saturday
The center-focus of each upper body workout should be compound exercises like pull-ups and bench press. Conversely, the lower body segment should be dominated by exercises like squats and deadlifts.
Training Six Times Per Week
The six-times-a-week protocol is just a scale higher of the four-times-a-week split:
Push muscles
Pull muscles
Leg muscles
Push muscles
Pull muscles
Leg muscles
To get some gains, aim for the ‘sweet spot’ of 2 - 4 sessions per muscle group per week). Results, however, can vary from one person to another.
If two sessions aren’t cutting it, push it to three. What matters most is that serious work is done in those sessions. No slacking.
Each exercise should ideally be carried out to failure (or close to failure, at least). Because ultimately, what we are trying to do is overload the muscle. To stress the muscles by giving them the correct stimulus they need to adapt, through growth.
