If you spend enough time in the gym or the fitness realm, you’ll find that there are a lot of things to spend your time doing. Strength, mobility, plyometrics, conditioning… but never cardio. F*** that shit (calm down, this is a joke, people).
You may also figure out that there are a lot of muscles to work. How on earth are we supposed to even begin exercising everything in a feasible and practical way?
One day, you’ll stumble upon training splits. This is essentially the answer to the given problem: How do you address all of the things that a training program is supposed to address?
Training Splits
At the very root, training splits divide and organize your workouts. This allows you to address specific things during each workout so you don’t need to try and hit every exercise and muscle group known to man.
There are plenty of training splits to choose from: individual muscle groups like arms, chest, back, and legs; Bill Starr’s 5×5; push, pull, legs; upper body and lower body.
Did I use those semicolons correctly…?
Once you choose a training split, you can start to see some resemblance of structure and organization to your training. This will also allow you to cycle through your workouts to allow for rest and recovery between specific sessions (i.e. your legs will recover during your upper body workouts).
My Favorite Split: Upper Body/Lower Body
I only ever program one type of split: upper body sessions and lower body sessions. From my philosophy, it’s the best balance between volume, frequency, and ability to train like an athlete. Is it THE best? That is up for debate, but the best split for you is the one you’re going to stick to.
I’ve done this split since I played football in high school. It allows for efficiency and hitting every muscle group every other session.
Each training day is further split into primary movements, assistance exercises (movements that directly improve and support the primary movements), and accessory work (prehab, bodybuilding, and work to improve muscularity). For example, every upper body workout will consist of horizontal pressing, vertical pressing, horizontal pulling, vertical pulling, triceps, and biceps. Every lower body workout will consist of squatting, hinging, hamstrings or quad dominant assistance, and abs. You can add a power exercise at the beginning if needed.
Workout Structure
While it may not seem intuitive to stuff all of those things into single workouts, it is actually simple to organize.
Day 1 – Upper Body
- Horizontal Pressing: 5×5 (MAIN MOVEMENT)
- Horizontal Pulling: 3×5-8
- Vertical Pressing: 2-3×5-8
- Vertical Pulling: 2-3×5-8
- Triceps: 2×5-10
- Biceps: 2×5-10
Day 2 – Lower Body
- Jumping Variation or Olympic Lift: 5×3 (for power)
- Squat: 5×5 (MAIN MOVEMENT)
- Hinge Assistance: 3×5-8
- Unilateral Squat (Lunge or Squat): 2-3×5-8
- Abs: 2-3 sets
Day 3 – Upper Body
- Vertical Pressing: 5×5 (MAIN MOVEMENT)
- Vertical Pulling: 3×5-8
- Horizontal Pressing: 2-3×5-8
- Horizontal Pulling: 2-3×5-8
- Triceps: 2×5-10
- Biceps: 2×5-10
Day 4: Lower Body
- Jumping Variation or Olympic Lift: 5×3
- Deadlift: 5×5 (MAIN MOVEMENT)
- Squat Assistance: 3×5-8
- Hamstring Accessory: 2-3×5-8
- Abs: 2-3 sets
Nuances to Keep In Mind
The logic behind the training structure is to ensure that movements that require either speed or power are performed at the very beginning of the session, as that will be the time that peak velocity will be able to be reached.
Most of the training effort will be spent on the main movement. These are the exercises that will yield the greatest gains in strength. If you need a rough number, 35-40% of your effort and energy will be spent here.
5 sets of 5 reps is pretty high volume. Start with weight that is a little lower than you may think to use. Remember that at this point in training, you are aiming to accumulate volume and work and not make each set a maximal effort. You will burn out and quickly hit the ceiling of your progress if you start too heavy.
The rest of the effort will be split amongst the assistance and accessory work with the assistance exercises being priority. The assistance lifts can be seen as exercises that indirectly improve the main movement. To build the squat, deadlifting movements and direct work for the quads, hamstrings, and abs will be done.
Accessory work can be seen as exercises that indirectly improve the assistance lifts.
Some may say that the volume per exercise is too low. Once you warm up, the aim is to get a training effect within the prescribed volume. If you need 20 sets to “really hit” your biceps, you’re doing something wrong or you’re not using enough load (remember that one aim of training is to use the minimum required dose, not the maximal).
The given rep ranges are meant to give wiggle room for progress. If you perform Romanian deadlifts after your squats, you may only do 185 lbs for 3 sets of 5 reps during the first week. The next week, aim to get 6 per set. Once you are able to hit every set for 8 reps, increase the weight and drop down the rep range.
Training Frequency
How often should you be training?
There are two ways to use this split during the week.
Method 1: Do every workout each week.
Sunday: Day 1 – Upper Body
Monday: Day 2 – Lower Body
Tuesday: Off
Wednesday: Day 3 – Upper Body
Thursday: Off
Friday: Day 4 – Lower Body
Saturday: Off
Method 2: Three training days, MWF, just perform the next prescribed workout. (Shortened for brevity)
Monday: Day 1 – Upper Body
Wednesday: Day 2 – Lower Body
Friday: Day 3 – Upper Body
Following Monday: Day 4 – Lower Body
Wednesday: Day 1 – Upper Body
Friday: Day 2 – Lower Body
And so on with the pattern.
Wrapping Up
The training split is a valuable tool to organize and structure your training. While there is no perfect training split, some are more logically designed than others. However, the greatest workout program won’t do squat if you cannot bring yourself to stick to it.
Some people will find bodybuilder style splits fun. That’s fine. Do what works for you. This was simply a quick breakdown of my methods.
