For some reason for years I had it stuck in my head that I should only train each bodypart once per week. I have made some progress but now it seems many are recommending once every 2-5 days and I feel I could make better progress with this type of schedule…I’m just having some problems with the programming. For you guys that train that way can you give me an idea of how you set it up. I’m thinking of a few diff ways:
Mon : Back/Chest
Tues: Legs
Weds: Arms
Fri or Sat : Back/Chest
Sat or Sun: Legs
Than start next training week on Tues with Chest/Back again
or
Mon : Chest/Back
Tues: Legs
Weds: Arms
Sat: Chest Back
then the next week
Mon: Legs
Weds: Chest/Back
Fri: Arms
Sat: Legs
then back to the first week schedule
Ideally I’d like to lift 3-4 days a week so it seems like the second one makes more sense but I’m wondering if that’s enough frequency. What do you guys think or what does your training look like? Any help is greatly appreciated.
Training body parts twice a week is good if your body can recover from it in time. Everyone is different so I’d say try it out and see how you feel buuuuuuuuut I would definitely NOT do chest and back on the same day while giving arms their own day. I know I couldnt do a good chest workout and a good back workout all on the same day.
I’d recommend switching that up and doing a chest/tri’s day and a back/bi’s day… something like that.
EDIT: You don’t have any shoulders in there??? Is there a reason for that?
I like my current split:
Mon: Back(thickness)/Bi’s
Tues: Chest/Tri’s
Wed: Legs(ham emphasis)/Traps
Thurs:Back(width)/Bi’s
Fri: Upper Chest/Tri’s
Sat: Legs(quad emphasis)/Delts
Everything gets enough rest. Traps are away from thickness back, hamstrings are trained at least 2 days from the heavy back day.
If you only want 4 days a week then:
Mon:Back/Bi’s
Tues:Chest/Tri’s
Wed:Legs/Shoulders+Traps
then 1 day of whatever two bodyparts need the most work wherever you can fit it in.
[quote]gregron wrote:
Training body parts twice a week is good if your body can recover from it in time. Everyone is different so I’d say try it out and see how you feel buuuuuuuuut I would definitely NOT do chest and back on the same day while giving arms their own day. I know I couldnt do a good chest workout and a good back workout all on the same day.
I’d recommend switching that up and doing a chest/tri’s day and a back/bi’s day… something like that.
EDIT: You don’t have any shoulders in there??? Is there a reason for that?[/quote]
Like Gregron said, everyone is different.
My split, which is the same as some others and typically works well for beginners because the weights we are handling aren’t too heavy yet:
Monday: Chest, Tri’s, Shoulders
Tuesday: Back and Biceps
Wednesday: Legs and lower back
Thursday: Chest, Tri’s, Shoulders
Friday: Back and Biceps
Saturday:Legs and lower back
Sunday: Rest
Typically I will BB bench only one of the chest days, Squat both leg days, and deadlift one of the leg days.
Can any of you guys put up some more splits that have worked for you? How about more experienced or “older” lifters? 10 or more years or in their 30/40’s? Thanks
[quote]scottgomez wrote:
Can any of you guys put up some more splits that have worked for you? How about more experienced or “older” lifters? 10 or more years or in their 30/40’s? Thanks[/quote]
This is The Mighty Stu’s CONTEST Split, not sure if he does this all the time:
[quote]Okay, to clarify a bit about my current split:
1- Chest / Gastroc
2- Back / Bis
3- CARDIO
4- Delts / Traps / Tris
5- Legs / Soleus
6- CARDIO
[/quote]
Obviously the cardio is because of the dieting down for the contest.
^^synergy was a professional football player. I doubt he was doing a push pull legs split throughout highschool, college and in the NFL. I would be wiling to bet a lot of money that his strength and conditioning coaches had tons of different splits/WO set ups. That’s a little bit of a misrepresentation to use his physique as an example. Remember “what I’m doing now isn’t necessarily what got me here”
[quote]gregron wrote:
^^synergy was a professional football player. I doubt he was doing a push pull legs split throughout highschool, college and in the NFL. I would be wiling to bet a lot of money that his strength and conditioning coaches had tons of different splits/WO set ups. That’s a little bit of a misrepresentation to use his physique as an example. Remember “what I’m doing now isn’t necessarily what got me here”[/quote]
Very good point.
[quote]gregron wrote:
^^synergy was a professional football player. I doubt he was doing a push pull legs split throughout highschool, college and in the NFL. I would be wiling to bet a lot of money that his strength and conditioning coaches had tons of different splits/WO set ups. That’s a little bit of a misrepresentation to use his physique as an example. Remember “what I’m doing now isn’t necessarily what got me here”[/quote]
Very good point.[/quote]
but yeah synergy is a frickin stud… Not saying that a push pull legs split is bad (especially for a beginner) as long as your hitting two of each day a week
I gained a lot in chest, tris, shoulders. Both - in seize and a lot in strength. Every push were made in low reps scheme, so after 2 months of this I feel little overtrain. So now is a week of rest and after that it’s time to do PULL twice a week so:
PULL
off
push
off
PULL
off
legs
off
repeat
So PULL twice a week. I will change deadlift for pendlay rows in this routine.
after that I will do legs in twice a week scheme…
What I have from that? first of all a lot of rest cause only few bodyparts are my main goal at one time - I hit them twice a week. And it’s obvious that those parts are going forward.
But thinking about every fucking bodypart twice a week??? way to lots for me, until you’re on GEAR, or have great GENETICS.
No matter what you will choose… you should also add twice more of calories in your diet
Ill give my input. Some studies suggests that a muscle can recover sufficiently in a 36 hour period. So with that being said, one should be able to train a muscle group every other day with no problem. But thats in theory. The fact is that the CNS takes up to a week to recover if you train haphazardly. Can you train a muscle 3 times a week with no problem? yes Can you train a muscle 6 times a week with no problem? yes. But in order to do so one needs to manage CNS fatigue (through avoiding failure, ultra high volume, etc.) I train each muscle 3 times a week at the moment and im doing great. But with a higher frequency you have to manipulate the training variables accordingly.
What I am doing now seems to be working quite well. I do legs/biceps on Mondays and Thursdays. Rest of the upper body is on Tuesdays and Fridays. Wednesday, Saturdays, and Sundays are reserved as cardio or off days. I will usually do 4 sets per body part on each day, so I am not overdoing it. I find that when I do only one muscle group in a workout then I just get sick of working it. I also hate being deathly sore the next day after smashing a single body part.
Everything is hit twice every 8 days for me and muscles like biceps and triceps, delts etc. are hit 4 times every 8 days if you count direct and indirect stimulation…
It’s all about volume, how you are lifting ie. Heavy and Light days or going all out and taking all your top sets to absolute failure, and food intake…You should be training a muscle as often as it is fully recovered otherwise you are wasting time.
[quote]gregron wrote:
Training body parts twice a week is good if your body can recover from it in time. Everyone is different so I’d say try it out and see how you feel buuuuuuuuut I would definitely NOT do chest and back on the same day while giving arms their own day. I know I couldnt do a good chest workout and a good back workout all on the same day.
I’d recommend switching that up and doing a chest/tri’s day and a back/bi’s day… something like that.
EDIT: You don’t have any shoulders in there??? Is there a reason for that?[/quote]
Recovery is crucial. If you can recover then go for it. If not, the you will be fighting a losing battle.
Then one or two days rest like above depending on how I feel.
When I say something like “horizontal dominant” but still have a vertical exercise in there, I mean I am doing more horizontal than vertical that day, and I am more likely to do a max rep set on the horizontal exercises that day.
So far my body seems to like the increased frequency. I am not an advanced lifter though. I can see that this setup would be impossible if I was benching like 315, squatting 400 etc. You’ll have to see how you recover.
