Just wondering which split you all think is more effective for hypertrophy.
Split 1:
Monday - Arms + Shoulders
Tuesday - Legs + Abs
Wednesday - Chest + Back
Thursday - Arms + Shoulders
Friday - Legs + Abs
Split 2:
Monday - Legs
Tuesday - Arms
Wednesday - Chest
Thursday - Back
Friday - Shoulders
Just wondering because I’ve read a lot of different things saying that 1 day a week for body parts is better, but I’ve never actually tried it.
are you married to making a routine fit all nicey nice into a week schedule?
How else can you make a routine fit? If the routine doesn’t fit into a single week, I feel like there would be too many rest days.
I just ran the data through my hypertrophy quantum computing device and split number 1 came out ahead by 1.5 courics.
Oh shit my hypertrophy quantum computing device is broken, thanks bro
lol, low carbs is fucking with my head at night and I get in silly moods for some reason.
The answer to your question depends on volume, intensity, years training, your strength numbers, your diet etc. Can you give a little more info in that regard?
FTR, BOTH will work if your intensity is there, it’s just a matter of figuring out what’s more optimal for your current situation.
And as previously mentioned, you don’t have to fit your split into 7 days. You could do a 4, 5, or 6 day cycle for example. Something like:
shoulders/arms
legs
off
chest/back
off
repeat
Bleh it’s cool we all act like dicks sometimes lol
I’d say the volume is relatively high, for each of the “small” bodyparts (arms, shoulders, chest) I do 2 exercises, one for 5 sets of 12 reps and the other for 5 sets of 5 reps. For legs and back I do 4 or 5 exercises of varying reps depending on how I’m feeling. I’ve been training for about two years, I’m 5’ 10", 175 lbs, ~7% body fat.
What about my diet did you want to know? I just take in anywhere from 4500 to 6000 calories a day of moderately clean foods, attempting to avoid as much junk food as possible.
I’ve been doing the first split I mentioned, but I was considering changing it next week. I could see myself doing that thing you said, but I’ve found that it’s much harder to get myself to go to the gym on the weekend than it is during the week, which is why I’m trying to do the split during the week.
Why do you find it absolutely necessary to adhere to a particular routine? Most of the biggest guys that I’ve met more or less follow guidelines (very loose guidelines at that) instead of following a specific routine week after week. You should take some time to read “the bodybuilding bible” thread and some of professor X’s (along with all of the other “how the big became the biggest” threads, as these helped get off the “OMG what is the best workout” train.
[quote]Peter Noto wrote:
Bleh it’s cool we all act like dicks sometimes lol
I’d say the volume is relatively high, for each of the “small” bodyparts (arms, shoulders, chest) I do 2 exercises, one for 5 sets of 12 reps and the other for 5 sets of 5 reps. For legs and back I do 4 or 5 exercises of varying reps depending on how I’m feeling. I’ve been training for about two years, I’m 5’ 10", 175 lbs, ~7% body fat.
What about my diet did you want to know? I just take in anywhere from 4500 to 6000 calories a day of moderately clean foods, attempting to avoid as much junk food as possible.
I’ve been doing the first split I mentioned, but I was considering changing it next week. I could see myself doing that thing you said, but I’ve found that it’s much harder to get myself to go to the gym on the weekend than it is during the week, which is why I’m trying to do the split during the week.[/quote]
Ok. You could go with something like a 3 way split spread over 4 days, just cycling the workouts.
Week 1:
M: delts/arms
T: legs
Th: chest/back
F: delts/arms
week 2:
M: legs
T: chest/back
Th: delts/arms
F: legs
etc, etc…you get the idea…what do you think? It’s kinda midway between 1x/week and 2x/week frequency for each bodypart.
@Zonaguy10 I realize there’s no one best workout scheme, I’m mostly trying to find out whether working a particular muscle group once per week is less or more effective than training it twice per week. Is the bodybuilding bible an article here or is it in the forums? I prefer sticking to a routine more because without a routine I never get anything done. I’m not just talking about training, without a routine or a schedule I just blow most things off so knowing what exactly I’m doing helps me get it done.
@jskrabac Yea it could work, but I don’t know if I can work legs twice in the same week, that’s what spurred this thread in the first place lol
[quote]Peter Noto wrote:
@Zonaguy10 I realize there’s no one best workout scheme, I’m mostly trying to find out whether working a particular muscle group once per week is less or more effective than training it twice per week. Is the bodybuilding bible an article here or is it in the forums? I prefer sticking to a routine more because without a routine I never get anything done. I’m not just talking about training, without a routine or a schedule I just blow most things off so knowing what exactly I’m doing helps me get it done.
@jskrabac Yea it could work, but I don’t know if I can work legs twice in the same week, that’s what spurred this thread in the first place lol[/quote]
Well, it’s just food for thought. Keep in mind you’d only be training legs 2x/week once every 3 weeks with that set up. Makes it more manageable.
Go ahead and give the 5 day split a shot then if that’s more what you wanna try. I was asking about strength levels because the load used will affect how much recovery you need. Squatting 225 for 4 sets of 10 can definitely be done 2x/week, whereas 315+ for 4 sets of 10 may take you the whole week to recover from.
If you end up settling with the 5 day split though, be prepared to bump up both the volume and intensity a bit with each day.
Yea that’s another reason why I wanted to try the 5 day split with one body part on each day. On my chest/back day sometimes I’ll push too hard on the bench or something and then not be able to deadlift, so I figure splitting it up might make it so that I can always do every exercise, every day. Plus with the 5 day split you don’t have to worry about soreness, I’ve never been sore in the same place for a week.
[quote]Peter Noto wrote:
Bleh it’s cool we all act like dicks sometimes lol
I’d say the volume is relatively high, for each of the “small” bodyparts (arms, shoulders, chest) I do 2 exercises, one for 5 sets of 12 reps and the other for 5 sets of 5 reps. For legs and back I do 4 or 5 exercises of varying reps depending on how I’m feeling. I’ve been training for about two years, I’m 5’ 10", 175 lbs, ~7% body fat.
What about my diet did you want to know? I just take in anywhere from 4500 to 6000 calories a day of moderately clean foods, attempting to avoid as much junk food as possible.
I’ve been doing the first split I mentioned, but I was considering changing it next week. I could see myself doing that thing you said, but I’ve found that it’s much harder to get myself to go to the gym on the weekend than it is during the week, which is why I’m trying to do the split during the week.[/quote]
I am no expert, but if you have been doing the 1st workout for 2 years, change to the 2nd workout for 12-16 weeks then maybe to a 5-3-1 then back to 1st routine. Changing up routines every once in a while is good to see how your body responds. If you have been making progress on your 1st routine and still are? Stick with it until you start to stall out then mix it up.
[quote]jskrabac wrote:
[quote]Peter Noto wrote:
Bleh it’s cool we all act like dicks sometimes lol
I’d say the volume is relatively high, for each of the “small” bodyparts (arms, shoulders, chest) I do 2 exercises, one for 5 sets of 12 reps and the other for 5 sets of 5 reps. For legs and back I do 4 or 5 exercises of varying reps depending on how I’m feeling. I’ve been training for about two years, I’m 5’ 10", 175 lbs, ~7% body fat.
What about my diet did you want to know? I just take in anywhere from 4500 to 6000 calories a day of moderately clean foods, attempting to avoid as much junk food as possible.
I’ve been doing the first split I mentioned, but I was considering changing it next week. I could see myself doing that thing you said, but I’ve found that it’s much harder to get myself to go to the gym on the weekend than it is during the week, which is why I’m trying to do the split during the week.[/quote]
Ok. You could go with something like a 3 way split spread over 4 days, just cycling the workouts.
Week 1:
M: delts/arms
T: legs
Th: chest/back
F: delts/arms
week 2:
M: legs
T: chest/back
Th: delts/arms
F: legs
etc, etc…you get the idea…what do you think? It’s kinda midway between 1x/week and 2x/week frequency for each bodypart. [/quote]
This is what I was thinking about posting until I saw you already posted it.
@mbdix Yea that’s what I planned on doing, but the problem I had was that I was getting too sore from one day to do the next. I’ll probably do the second routine for a while.