"Which Strength Training Split Should I Use?"
We often get asked “what is the best way to break up your workouts each week?”. There really is no such thing as a perfect split, it’s all about finding what works best for you, your body, and your schedule. To give you a better idea of the options you can choose from and the things you should consider when picking your routine, we’ve mapped out 7 different ways you can set up your weekly lifting schedule and how to pick what makes the most sense.
7 Different Strength Training Splits
3x/week Full Body - Every time you work out, you would target movement patterns that train all of the main muscle groups in your body. With this approach, you provide your body with a lot more time to recover, having at least one rest day after every workout. This is a great way to build up your metabolism and functional movement skills.
4x/week Upper/Lower - Here you would alternate between upper and lower body focused lifting days, resting 1-2 days in between your first and second push/pull workouts. Ex= Monday Upper, Tuesday Lower, Wednesday Rest, Thursday Upper, Friday Lower, Rest Saturday and Sunday.
4x/week Full Body + Accessory - This is one of our most popular training splits with our clients and also our personal favorite. With this split you would target movement patterns that train all of hte main muscle groups in your body for 3 of your 4 workout days. The 4th workout would be focused on any specific areas you would like to improve, allowing you some flexibility to double down on muscle groups or movements that you want or need to do more of.
4x/week Muscle Groups - One day per week you hit each of the following muscle groups: Back + Biceps, Chest + Triceps, Legs, and Shoulders. By spreading each muscle group out, you can increase your volume and intensity of each training day and not be as limited by fatigue going into your next workout.
5x/week Full Body + Accessory - Just like the 4x/week Full Body + Accessory, but you would have 2 days focused on accessory areas. For example, if you’d like to focus on improving your glute/ham and shoulder strength then you would have one workout specifically dedicated to training those target areas. Or if you’d like to improve your olympic lifiting and jumping skills, then you would have a day specifically focused on training only those areas.
5x/week Muscle Groups - Similar to your 4x/week muscle group split, but with an additional day to hit legs or separate your muscle groups into chest, back, legs, shoulders, and arm days. These can be quicker workouts since your frequency is higher and it also allows you to add more volume to each muscle group.
6x/week Push/Pull/Legs - With this split you’ll hit upper body push, upper body pull, and lower body training days 2 times each week with a rest day in between the first and second time through each style. Watch your recovery with this one, you’ll definitely want to vary the intensity of each session to make sure you don’t end up overtraining.
Things to Consider
What are your goals?
How much experience do you have training?
How much time do you have to train?
How much time do you have to rest & recover?
What are your weaknesses or areas you want to focus on?
Each of those questions are things you should be asking yourself as you narrow down your training schedule. The best place to start is with something that aligns with your goals and experience level. From there, you’ll want to make sure you go with a training split that fits well into your schedule so you can stay consistent. Once you have that mapped out, you can fine tune to ensure you are getting enough recovery between sessions and still making progress on the things you want to improve.
There is no one size fits all approach to training, so please feel free to reach out if you are struggling to find a routine that you love. It’s tough to stay consistent and enjoy the process when you don’t have a solid understanding of what you need and how to bring your goals to life!
~ Coach Nick
