- Thomas Bouchard
- Jan 27, 2022
- 3 min read
Updated: May 26, 2022
Importance of Workout Splits
I was 14 years old the first time I went into a gym. I had been instructed by someone who had gym experience to do a couple exercises, and I was under the impression that there were just three muscle groups to train - biceps, triceps, and shoulders. I worked every one of those muscles without any rest or recovery days for a couple of weeks. As you could expect, I became exhausted. I lost motivation after not seeing any results, and I was most perplexed by my lack of development.
The night after I was about to give up, I stumbled upon a video made by Bradley Martyn. The video, if I recall correctly, was about a protein shake. Although it was not necessarily tied to the gym, I realised, with a bit of research, that their was a lot more to weight lifting than I had previously understood.
That's when I started doing my own study and devised a workout regimen that I'd follow. I began by doing a full-body split, this time exercising more than just my arms... I saw progress, gained confidence, and began working on my muscles individually, transitioning to an upper/lower body split. To keep my athletic ability, I eventually went to a PPL split.
But, as cliche as my experience may seem, it demonstrates that I, like many others, most certainly began my fitness journey on the wrong foot. Unfortunately, many people aren't as persistent as I was and have given up on weight lifting entirely. I've chosen to write a short article regarding exercise splits. This is something I wish I had known about before I started, which is why I urge all of you to read this.
To begin, exercise splits are simply the method you split or divide the numerous muscle groups you train, typically over the course of a week. Each workout split is distinct from one another. Choosing the proper one is critical to growth, and as the story above shows, the choice of exercise split may make or break your progress, regardless of how hard you train. Below you will find essential information about which split matches with your goals, as well as the overall advantages and downsides of the top 5 exercise splits I would recommend.
What to Consider When Picking the Right Split?
First and foremost, you need to establish your objectives and availability. Consider the following questions:
What do I want to take from fitness (mental or physical)?
How many times per week will I take time out of my day to workout?
How long can I spend on each workout?
What are my specific goals?
Once you've grasped the fundamentals, you can move on to learning about the different possible workout splits and how they may be tailored to your specific preferences.
Pros and Cons of My Top 5 Recommended Workout Splits
1. Full Body Split
Advantages:
Forces you to commit to compound lifts (fastest way to get stronger, and helps with functionality)
Flexibility in terms of schedule
Easy for variation
Great for beginners
Disadvantages:
Focus on compound lifts, can lead to lack of precision lifting
Each muscle is trained less frequently
2. Lower/Upper Body Split
Advantages:
Can be used as strength or hypertrophy training
Flexibility (can vary the amount of weekly sessions)
Simplicity
Great for beginners
Disadvantages:
Recover time can easily be neglected
3. Push-Pull-Legs Split
Advantages:
Great for athletes (strengthens and develops athletic movements)
The split structure allows for faster recovery
Good feeling of balance (motions aren’t overlapped)
Relative flexibility and volume training
Disadvantages:
Can become repetitive (can lead to lack of motivation)
4. Bro Split
Advantages:
Very long recovery periods
Focus on certain muscle groups more than others
Heavily strength bed
Disadvantages:
Low frequency training of each muscle group (not ideal for muscle growth)
Very long recovery periods (Yes, it’s also a disadvantage. Long recovery periods can hinder progress and prevent maximum performance as the Muscle Protein Synthesis Process (‘MPS’) deteriorates 36 hours after training.)
Less flexibility
5. Arnold Split
Advantages:
Great to focus on strength training (agonist/antagonist training)
A lot of focus on each muscle group (helpful for imbalances)
Very high-volume
Disadvantages:
Less flexibility
Requires a lot of time + energy to commit to every training session
What Now?
Hopefully, after reading over each of my proposed splits, you have a better idea of which split you want to go with. Each split is equally good, thus choosing your split is ultimately determined by your specific goals.
If I were you, I would read through the questions just above again to acquaint yourself with your objectives, and then make a selection.
Your next step is to design your own program. This was the most difficult thing for me to complete in all the years I've been weight lifting. I had no idea which exercise was the best, and I had no idea how many sets or reps each exercise required. Fortunately, HustleNow has set up a page just for you. Visit the 'Create Your Program' tab to get a customised training program made especially for you!
