Finding The Best Training Split… for you
Throughout my coaching career, the most commonly asked questions I receive are:
Will carbs make me fat? (no, only if you eat too much.)
How do I lose this stubborn body fat? (Calorie deficit and patience)
What’s the best training split? (It depends)
The “best” training split doesn’t exist as there is no one size fits all approach with fitness and training splits are no exceptions. It’s always best to find a program you’ll do consistently even when life gets in the way.
Training 5 times a week sounds ideal, but if you work full-time work, have a busy social life, AND family life demands, you’ll find it very difficult to get into the gym for more than 2-3 hours per week.
Simply put, if you overcommit, you’ll inevitably fail to achieve your training goals. Or that bodybuilding split you found on the internet just destroys your joints and taxes your body too much so you cannot go up the stairs, or leaves your muscles so sore and feeling crippled you cannot function outside the gym.
Instead of repeatedly destroying your body in hopes of building muscle, here are the major keys to choosing the most effective training splits.
Here are the five major keys to choosing the most effective training split for you:
1. It needs to provide adequate volume (number of hard sets) to stimulate the muscle-building effect you’re chasing.
2. It needs to allow for you to train every major muscle group/movement pattern 2x/week+ (proven by science to be superior for muscle growth).
3. It needs to allow you to train in a manner that’s fun and engaging for your (underrated aspect of program design).
4. It needs to match your training experience. Putting someone onto a more advanced program outside of your current capabilities and skills is essential for maximizing progress while adequately recovering between training sessions.
5. Training splits that match your realistic schedule and what you can adhere to. The best-designed training split won’t be worth anything if you cannot consistently make each training session.
Regardless of whether you’re training 2x, 3x, 4x, or 5+ times per week, an intelligently designed program will get you results.
A new program is exciting and renewing your motivation to attack each workout and getting into the best shape of your life. With that being said, I’m going to walk you through proven splits with the pros, cons, who they’re for, and how to decide whether or not that training split is right for you.
Option 1: Full Body Training Splits
Frequency: 2-4 times per week
Level: Beginner-advanced
Great for: Fat loss, beginners, strength development
Full body splits simply consist of training the entire body in every session throughout the week. Research and studies have repeatedly shown that training a muscle group 2+ times throughout the week is optimal for muscle growth.
Setting up a full-body session is fairly easy: select 1-2 foundational movement patterns (i.e. squat, hinge, push, pull, single-leg, carry) for each workout. Make sure to vary the intensity to stimulate strength and hypertrophy gains.
To do this, you’ll want to train the first big movement hard and heavy (2-5 reps), with some “functional hypertrophy” (6-12 reps), and finish it with a metabolical pump (15+ reps)
The Pros of a Full-Body Split
Full body splits, as the name implies, consist of training the entire body in every session throughout the week. Since the entire body is being trained every session, this allows for a high-frequency stimulation of muscle and moderate training volume that suits many goals, such as fat loss, strength building, and hypertrophy.
Most research shows that the optimal training frequency for a muscle group is 2x a week. So, even if you're only able to workout 2 times a week, full-body workouts accomplish the job of providing the optimal frequency necessary for both metabolic and muscle adaptations to occur. This is great for minimizing the “fluffy” to focus on the essential items, not 13 variations of bicep curls.
Full body splits are an excellent option for beginners and athletes. For beginners, this allows for mastering the basics and becoming confident within the foundational movements. For advanced trainees, training each body part more frequently without experiencing too much muscle soreness is a phenomenal way to improve the neurological aspects of your strength while mastering certain movements.
For athletes, this allows athletes to train their body as one functional unit and places a focus on functional movement patterns. In addition, these are an excellent tool to build their work capacity while keeping the body fresh for practice, games, and other activities outside the gym.
Full body training splits are excellent for fat loss as they increase the metabolic aspect of your training since your hitting every major muscle group and movement pattern.
The Cons of a Full-Body Split
It becomes difficult to program more than 3-4 times per week without knowledge and self-awareness of autoregulation. It can be difficult to properly structure the optimal amount of exercises, sets, reps without burning out.
While hitting a muscle group 2-3x per week is ideal, it’s more difficult for more advanced trainees to accumulate the necessary volume for muscle growth to occur. Also, it may be difficult to
While these are time efficient, the elimination of isolation exercises and other “show” muscles is a potential downside for stimulating target muscle growth or improving the mind-body connection.
Here’s what an example 3x week of full-body training looks like:
Workout A
1. Bench Press 4x4
2a. 2KB squat 3x8 reps
2b. SA DB Rows 3x8reps/arm
3a. Goblet Split Squat 3x10 reps/leg
3b. Half Kneeling OH Press 3x8reps/arm
4a. Farmer’s Carry 3x75 steps
4b. Bodyweight Push-Ups 3x20+
Workout B
1. Trapbar Deadlift 4x3
2a. Slightly elevated DB Bench Press 3x8 reps
2b. Rear Foot Elevated Split Squats 3x8reps/leg
3a. Goblet Squat 3x15 reps
3b. SA Renedage Rows 3x8 reps/arm
4a. Banded Good mornings 3x25 reps
4b. Walking Lunges 3x15reps/leg
Workout C
1. Back Squats 4x6
2a. 2KB Deadlift 3x8 reps
2b. Chin Ups 3xAMRAP
3a. Loaded Push Ups 3x12 reps
3b. Hip Thrust 3x8 reps
3c. Db Reverse Lunges 3x12 reps ea.
4. Bodyweight Squat Combo: 3x25second hold + 25reps AFAP
Option 2: Upper/Lower Training Split
Frequency: 4 times per week
Level: Intermediate-advanced
Great for: muscle gain, strength development
Upper-lower training splits are an excellent progression for those accustomed to total body training splits as they allow more recovery and training volume. In addition, upper-lower training splits are excellent in building strength and muscle. Over the course of a 7 day period, an upper/lower split consists of 2 upper body days and 2 lower body days. This is a very popular training split as this allows for a ton of creativity and flexibility.
The Pros of an Upper/Lower Split
Upper/lower training splits are excellent for those coming from a full-body training split and works well with everyone that wants to gain size and strength concurrently.
There’s a ton of flexibility and creativity within each training day. You can mix and match days focusing on max effort, dynamic effort, strength, or hypertrophy days throughout the training week. In other words, this is a simple way to optimize both strength improvements as well as muscle growth.
In order to build muscle, there’s a minimum weekly volume threshold that needs to be met, and this split makes doing so fairly easy. With an upper/lower training split, you can increase the weekly volume without hindering recovery.
Training four days a week may seem much, yet it can fit into most individuals’ schedules without becoming a hassle. Each training session is still time efficient so the amount of time you spend in the gym very do-able.
The Cons of an Upper/Lower Split
For beginners and intermediate gym-goers, isolating upper and lower body days has the potential to create a significant amount of Delayed-onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS). DOMS can make your normal daily activities (i.e walking upstairs, sitting down, etc.) especially difficult after a lower body training session.
Also, they often present an unbalanced training time with upper-body sessions taking longer than lower body sessions. In addition, there will be a shorter recovery time between training sessions compared to the body part.
Here’s what an example week of full-body training looks like:
Monday: Upper body (Upper Body Strength Focus)
Tuesday: Lower Body (Lower Body Strength Focus)
Wednesday: Off/ Active Recovery /Cardio Day
Thursday: Upper Body (Upper Body Hypertrophy Focus)
Friday: Lower Body (Lower body Hypertrophy Focus)
Saturday: Off/ Active Recovery /Cardio Day
Sunday: Off
Option 3: Full Body Upper/Lower Training Split
Frequency: 4-6 times per week
Level: intermediate-advanced
Great for: Fat Loss, Muscle Gain
With a full-body push/pull split, you’ll alternate between pushing and pulling days and breaks the training up by movement patterns.
The movements on the posterior side of the body are predominantly responsible for pull actions while the front/anterior side of the body responsible for pushing days.
Push days consist of squats and pressing variations, and focus on the chest, shoulders, triceps, quads, and abs. Pull days consist of hinge and rowing variations and focus on the back, biceps, glutes, hamstrings, and lower body.
The Pros of a Full Body Upper/Lower Split
This training split is very suitable for intermediate to advanced trainees. The full body upper/lower training splits is an economical way to train and allow for flexible planning. This allows each muscle group to receive ample stimulation from being trained 2+ times per week
Although the muscle groups differ on the alternating days (anterior vs posterior chain), the entire body is being stimulated in each training session. This has a powerful effect on fat loss as the body’s metabolic and hormonal response to this type of training is amplified.
Skill acquisition: The moderate frequency of movement patterns allow for more skill acquisition than possible with other training splits, so you’ll become more technical competency.
The Cons of a Full Body Upper/Lower Split
Not Ideal for Athletes: This split is very limited in athletic populations as it segregates the body based on a specific day. Athletes reap the greatest benefits by training the body as a single, functional unit.
For beginners and some intermediates, the push/pull split can be too advanced too soon. If the individual is fairly inexperienced with training, they should be focusing on developing the basic movement patterns without overdoing their training volume. Frequency, not volume, is the key for new gym-goers
With improper planning and implementation, it can be easy to overtrain and halt recovery if you’re training more than 4x per week.
Here’s what an example week of full-body training looks like:
Monday: Upper Body Push Day (Chest, triceps, shoulders)
Tuesday: Lower Body Pull Day (Deadlifts, hip thrusts)
Wednesday: Rest/Recovery/Cardio
Thursday: Upper Body Pull Day (Lats, rows, biceps)
Friday: Lower Body Push Day (Squats, lunges)
Saturday: Rest/Recovery/Cardio
Sunday: Off
Option 4: Push/Pull/Legs Training Split
Frequency: 3-6 times per week
Level: Advanced
Great for: Strength Performance, Muscle Gain
The Push/Pull/leg training routine consists of an upper-body push day (pressing exercises), an upper-body pulling day (pulling exercises), and a lower body day. This is an advanced training split that can have a number of different applications This training split can be done either on a 3x/week (i.e. Monday, Wednesday, Friday) or as a 6x/week program.
The Pros of a P/P/L Split
This training split works especially well with more advanced trainees. Since these advanced trainees are typically stronger, loading up on the heavy compound movements too often can lead to excessive fatigue and inadequate recovery. However, hitting each compound lift hard and heavy 1x/week is a great option for maintaining strength while ensuring adequate recovery.
When done on a 3-day split, the trainees’ recovery is maximized and the chances of overtraining are minimized. Despite a relatively low volume, the 3x/week split can build strength as this can take care of the bare essentials, thus eliminating the excessive “fluff” exercise
The 3x/week option is suitable for gym go-ers who are short on time and want to build/maintain their muscles
When doing the 6x/week training split, you’ll inevitably gain muscle. There’s ample volume and the intensity (i.e. load) can be manipulated to ensure the muscles are sufficiently stimulated with more than enough recovery.
The Cons of an P/P/L Split
Not realistic for beginners and intermediates doing the 6x/week split as recovery will be hindered, muscle soreness will be excessive, and the crippling fatigue will inevitably lead to burning out
Unless doing the 6x/week split, this will present less than optimal conditions for hypertrophy. With the 3x/week split, building muscle will be difficult due to a lack of optimal volume and frequency demands.
Here’s an example of the more advanced the 6x/week option
Monday: Upper Body Push
Tuesday: Upper Body Pull
Wednesday: Legs
Thursday: Rest/Recovery
Friday: Upper Body Push
Saturday: Upper Body Pull
Sunday: Rest
Option 5: Upper/Lower+Push/Pull/Legs Training Split
Frequency: 5 times per week
Level: Intermediate-Advanced
Great for: Muscle gain, strength development, fat loss
For individuals who can train 5x/week, this is absolutely one of the best options to accomplish any and every type of goal. This is a more advanced split. However, it combines the best of the upper/lower split along with the Push/Pull/leg split.
While it may not be as intense as the 6x/week full body push-pull split, but it’s enough to reap all the benefits of both systems.
The Pros of an Upper/Lower + Push/Pull/Leg Split
Similar to the upper/lower split, this training split allows plenty of room for manipulation and creativity for programming. Regardless if your focus is building muscle, fat loss, or strength development, you can organize your training days to fit your training goals. For example, the first upper and lower body sessions can be strength-focused, while the other days (push/pull/elgs) can focus on hypertrophy or conditioning.
Due to the flexibility, there are tremendous ways to target muscle gain and strength simultaneously. The strength-focused days will inevitably build strength while the hypertrophy-focused days will provide more than enough volume to adequately build muscle and/or lose fat.
Since the total volume is spread fairly evenly, your recoverability will be good. Instead of working for every muscle group 3x weeks without much rest (i.e. the full-body training splits), this split provides the same amount of volume with more time to recover in-between days.
Fat Loss: If your primary goal is fat loss while maintaining or building muscle simultaneously, you can thrive on this training split. With the combination of both high volume and high frequency, this will facilitate the necessary metabolic and hormonal response as this serves as a powerful tool to increase caloric expenditure.
The Cons of an Upper/Lower + Push/Pull/Leg Split
It requires going to the gym 5x/week. For individuals with busy schedules, this can be extremely tough to make it to the gym that often and are better off choosing another training split.
The high frequency coupled with upper/lower body isolation may provide too much soreness for beginners and some intermediate trainees.
If your schedule fluctuates frequently, planning and making each training session can be difficult. Instead of leaving certain muscle groups untrained or missing training sessions, you’ll be better off doing a full-body training split.
Here’s an example of the Upper/Lower + Push/Pull/Leg Split
Day 1: Upper Body Strength
Day 2: Lower Body Strength
Day 3: Rest/Recovery
Day 4: Upper Body Push Hypertrophy
Day 5: Upper Body Pull Hypertrophy
Day 6: Lower Body Hypertrophy
Day 7: Rest
So, Which Workout Should I Choose?
I understand that I covered a lot of material and you may want a crystal clean “what should I pick”, so I’ve created this training split cheat sheet for you.
Your training must be specific to you.
Almost any training split will work to an extent, assuming you’re adhering to progressive overload and focusing on your main goal. If your main goal is fat loss and looking your best, then substitute a leg day for more of an arm farm kinda day. If your main goal is to build muscle and getting strong as possible, then don’t start your workouts curling in the squat rack.
How much time will you dedicate to training?
Regardless of how busy you are, you still have the same 24 hours as everyone else. The most important factors are consistency, adherence, and enjoyment. If your training schedule doesn’t fit your schedule, or you simply don’t enjoy the workouts, then that program isn’t for you. Life is too short and busy to suffer through an inspiration, lackluster training session.
Regardless of whether you’re training 2, 3, 4, or 5+ times a week, an intelligently designed program will get your results.
That’s where having an experienced coach comes into play. They can do all the hard work in creating a handcrafted workout that you’ll actually look forward to doing.
If your current training is helping you build that powerful, lean physique, then you need to make a change.
Don’t fall into the trap of endlessly pursuing one goal at the sacrifice of living a purposeful life.
Ready to Build The Leanest, Strongest
Version of YOU??
Take all the guesswork out of building your best body with online coaching with individualized training, and nutrition, specifically designed for your goals and lifestyle.
The goal of this guide (and online coaching) is to empower you through education.
I want to help you stop guessing when it comes to making sustainable progress and start achieving the results you desire.
Realize that all the knowledge you’ve gained from this guide doesn’t equal real change.
If you’re fed up with how COVID fucked up your year, invest in a coach.
If you’ve read LITERALLY DOZENS of guides like this in the past and still haven’t made the change nor the confidence you want, invert in a coach.
If you’re overwhelmed by the content in this article, invest in a coach.
If you cannot be consistent with the strategies within this article, invest in a coach.
If you are ready for a change, I’m here to coach you.