Opinions On Training Split

Bigger Stronger Leaner Competitive Bodybuilding
1

I can workout 3x a week. i’ve been doing total body workouts for some time, and i was thinking of going to a bodypart split. i was thinking:

Mon: vertical pushing/pulling + Arms

Wed: legs

Fri: Horizontal pushing and pulling + Arms

the other days are obviously off days, where i would perform only about 15 minutes jump rope, if that, cuz my job can get tiring. essentially, im working each muscle group every 7 days.

how many exercises and total sets should i do for each individual muscle (or in this case movement pattern)?

i want to be STRONG and big.

2

It seems like a fine program, although it sounds like you are favoring the arms a little bit. But if that’s what you want, go for it.

As far as sets, it really doesn’t matter too much, as long as you’re within reason. So don’t do 9 or 10 sets with your working weight. I personally have never enjoyed much success from more than one or two working sets, but that’s just me.

And for number of exercises, I’d say 3-5 per workout.

3

Training legs only once per week seems to me like you’re missing out on both muscle and strength gains.

Maybe something more like…

Monday: Lower (Squat, Romanian Deadlift, Calves)

Wed: Upper - compound lifts only
(ex. Dip, Military Press, Chin Up, Bent Row)

Friday: Total Body with upper body focusing on smaller muscle groups like arms.
(Squat, Lunges, Curls, Close Grip Bench Press, Calves)

Look through Christian Thibaudeau’s author archive – he’s got some great articles on program design.

4

I know this is out of left field but i recently set up an interesting split that i’d like to share; it’s set up for my personal style and schedule.

Mon: Workout A
Tue: Workout B
Wed: Workout C
Thu: Workout A
Fri: Workout B
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

Then the following week starts with C, so:

Mon: Workout C
Tue: Workout A
Wed: Workout B
Thu: Workout C
Fri: Workout A
Sat: Rest
Sun: Rest

And the rotation continues.
I know it is odd and somewhat ‘loose’ in it’s style but i’ve had so many other program designs either kill me or not challenge me, and this was the best way i figured out how to fix that.

The neat thing is that if you take workout A as an example, You do it twice a week for two weeks with varying days off, but on the third week you’ll only hit that workout once, but you never have more than 4 days off between workouts and never less than 2.

Currently my workouts are based on, not soley made up of, Workout A-Deadlifts, Workout B-Bench Press and Workout C-Squat.

There is more detail to the program but i just thought i would share with you my personal split

5

anthro, you just gave me one of the best splits i can do, an upper/lower/total body split. THANK YOU sooo much

chess pirate, your split is excellent too. mind showing me the details of your workouts?

6

Copyright to Christian Thibaudeau

UPPER
A1. Upper body horizontal push (e.g. bench press)
A2. Upper body horizontal pull (e.g. barbell row, T-bar row…)

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps.

B1. Upper body semi-vertical push (e.g. incline press)
B2. Upper body semi-vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso angled at 45 degrees)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push (e.g. shoulder press)
C2. Upper body vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso straight)

Same as A1 and A2

LOWER
A1. Compound quads dominant movement
A2. Compound hamstring/hips dominant movement

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Unilateral quads dominant movement (e.g. short steps lunges, Bulgarian squat)
B2. Unilateral hams dominant movement (e.g. long step lunges, 1-leg DB Romanian deadlift)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Isolation quads exercise (e.g leg extension)
C2. Isolation hams exercise (e.g. leg curl)

Same as A1 and A2

WHOLE BODY
A1. Lower body quads dominant compound
A2. Lower body hams dominant compound

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Upper body horizontal push
B2. Upper body horizontal pull

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push
C2. Upper body vertical pul

7

[quote]eeu743 wrote:
It seems like a fine program, although it sounds like you are favoring the arms a little bit. But if that’s what you want, go for it.

As far as sets, it really doesn’t matter too much, as long as you’re within reason. So don’t do 9 or 10 sets with your working weight. I personally have never enjoyed much success from more than one or two working sets, but that’s just me.

And for number of exercises, I’d say 3-5 per workout.[/quote]

ya, i know what you mean about the working set part. i was thinking about using coach poliquins GVT for it. mainly his advanced program though, since i’ve been working out for about 4 years,going on 5. i know with GVT, you’re supposed to use a weight you could lift 10x max, and only perform 5 reps. but, you have to perform 10 sets, which would lead to cumulative fatigue of course. after that, i would perform 3 sets to failure of an accessory exercise. you think thats enough to blast a muscle for one week?

8

[quote]Rampage74 wrote:
Copyright to Christian Thibaudeau

UPPER
A1. Upper body horizontal push (e.g. bench press)
A2. Upper body horizontal pull (e.g. barbell row, T-bar row…)

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps.

B1. Upper body semi-vertical push (e.g. incline press)
B2. Upper body semi-vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso angled at 45 degrees)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push (e.g. shoulder press)
C2. Upper body vertical pull (e.g. lat pulldown torso straight)

Same as A1 and A2

LOWER
A1. Compound quads dominant movement
A2. Compound hamstring/hips dominant movement

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Unilateral quads dominant movement (e.g. short steps lunges, Bulgarian squat)
B2. Unilateral hams dominant movement (e.g. long step lunges, 1-leg DB Romanian deadlift)

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Isolation quads exercise (e.g leg extension)
C2. Isolation hams exercise (e.g. leg curl)

Same as A1 and A2

WHOLE BODY
A1. Lower body quads dominant compound
A2. Lower body hams dominant compound

Perform in alternate fashion (e.g. 1 set of A1, rest 90 seconds, 1 set of A2, rest 90 seconds, back to A1, etc.) for 3-4 sets of 4 to 6 reps

B1. Upper body horizontal push
B2. Upper body horizontal pull

Same as A1 and A2

C1. Upper body vertical push
C2. Upper body vertical pul[/quote]

what you just gave me looks AWESOME! is there any way however, that i could include some (but not excessively) high rep work into this program?

so far, the program looks good, very damn good :slight_smile:

and thanks to all for the help. keep it comin.

9

if you mean something like 20 reps squat…

personnaly i would do it on the whole body day as the a1 exercices…

10

http://www.elitefts.com/documents/complication.htm

Another good 3 days a week…
See how the high reps squat is included!!

11

[quote]Rampage74 wrote:
if you mean something like 20 reps squat…

personnaly i would do it on the whole body day as the a1 exercices…[/quote]

i kinda meant in general. high reps for every body part. dont get me wrong, i love heavy lifting, cuz it gets me stronger, but i do feel the need to include some high rep stuff for my whole body.

12

also, i wanted to clear something up. at first i meant to do an upper/lower split, 3x a week, where i worked upper body 2x one week, and lower body once, then the next week its switched up.

for the workouts, i wanted to include Charles Poliquin GVT. essentially, i would pick one chest exercise, and one back exercise, do 10 sets of 5 reps, then pick one accessory exercise at the end for 3 sets of 10-12 reps. for the lower body its the same setup.

the caveat though is that one week my upper body would be hammered twice, and then my lower body would be hammered the next week twice, while the upper body just once.

to clarify:

week 1: upper/lower/upper - 10 x 5 then finish with 3 x 10-12

week 2: lower/upper/lower - same as above

too much volume?

13

no needs for complication!!intensity is the key!!and la

Watch this !!

just kidding!