Hey, I’m new to body splits, I’ve trained full-body with big compounds since I started, which worked great as a beginner. I’ve been lifting for about a year now and I want to start doing some body splits, but I don’t really have a clue as to what the basic template is.
How about
M Chest and triceps
T Quads
W Shoulders (I suppose this includes traps)
Th Hams
F Back and biceps
Workouts like this last around what, an hour?
Sorry for the newbie questions, I really am 100% new to body splits.
Dan.
Maybe instead of a 5-day split like you have laid out, you ease into an Upper/Lower split. It would keep the frequency up a little bit and you could go a little bit harder on each body part. Then try a 3 day split(Chest/Tri, Shoulders/Back, Legs/bi’s or something) then a 5 day split.
You really need to know how to crank out the intensity for a 5 day split, otherwise all the rest is wasted. Ease into it.
My favorite thing about split routines is that you avoid fatiguing smaller muscles before working them, which sacrifices strength gains. For example if you do bench in the beginning, you’ll be able to do much less weight for your military press and dips.
And strength is IMO way underrated as a source of hypertrophy.
So I don’t really like split routines where you combine muscles that work together like, in your example, Chest and Tris. In fact, it worsens that effect because you’ll probably be doing more volume for chest than if you were doing full body. So, in my experience, you’ll be lifting much less for your tricep lifts than you did before.
My current split is:
Day 1: Chest+Abs
Day 2: Upper and Lower Back
Day 3: Shoulders and Forearms
Day 4: Biceps and Triceps
Day 5: Quads and Hams
Day 6: Olympic lifts+calves+more forearms
Notice that I try to keep the chest and shoulders and triceps far, and same for the upper back and biceps. There’s an added benefit that you’ll get a light and heavy workout for each muscle each week.
I’ve found that my arms have grown much better when I do this. Your mileage may vary, but these are my thoughts from personal experience.