Step 3: Choose your workout split and get it on the calendar

WHAT IS A WORKOUT SPLIT?

A workout “split” refers to breaking up your training sessions by body region.

Your split can go by days of the week (i.e. on Mondays I train legs, Tuesdays I train back, etc.) or be sequentially based, where you train in a specific cycle regardless of what day it is.

For example, in the past I’ve followed this 4-day sequence: Day 1 – shoulders/biceps/triceps, Day 2 – legs/glutes, Day 3 – back and core, Day 4 – active rest day (aka cardio). And then back to day 1 to start the cycle over again!

HOW TO CHOOSE THE BEST WORKOUT SPLIT FOR YOU

Finding the right workout split for you is a process of trial-and-error, and is something that will most likely change throughout your fitness journey.

Factors such as your current condition, training experience, goals, availability, and rest and recovery needs all play a vital role in determining your optimal training schedule.

Let’s discuss some common training splits and who they are good for:

1. FULL-BODY SPLIT
When you first begin working out, you’ll most likely experience a pretty notable increase in strength right away.

A lot of this is due to neuromuscular adaptation – which is the fancy way of saying the process of your brain and body learning how to work together to perform a particular movement. As the movement itself becomes more familiar and habitual, you free up cognitive resources and tend to get stronger at the movement as well.

Because your muscles require less stimulus to see results initially, you won’t need to spend as much time per body part or lift as much weight as someone who has been at it for a while to see results.

Instead you’ll want to focus on nailing your form and building muscular endurance, which lends itself well to a full-body workout split.

This split may be a good fit for you if: you’re completely new to weightlifting, you have minimal days to dedicate to the gym, or your fitness goals are simply to remain healthy and able to perform activities of everyday living (without as much emphasis on muscle-building for aesthetics).

2. UPPER-BODY / LOWER BODY SPLIT
This is a step-up from the full-body split and allows you to increase the volume and intensity of your workouts without having to take as many rest days (because your upper body is able to “rest” on your lower body day, and vice versa).

When I first began taking weightlifting seriously, this was the type of split that I used.

It’s still great for building muscular endurance, but allows you to make greater strength gains by increasing the total volume of work per body part, as opposed to trying to hit everything in a full-body workout.

This split may be a good fit for you if: You have a little bit of experience in the gym and are ready to step up your game, you’re new to the gym but are involved in athletic activity outside of the gym, or if you only have 4 days to commit to the gym per week.

3. “BODYBUILDER” SPLIT(S)
Don’t let the title intimidate you – a “Bodybuilder split” refers to a training program where each muscle group (or groups) has its own dedicated day in the gym.

This is the type of split used by most body builders and people training with aesthetic goals as a top priority.

As you begin lifting heavier weights, your muscles will likely need more time to recover both during your workout (between sets) and after your sessions (between workouts).

Using a bodybuilder split, you’re able to really focus on lifting heavy and burning out your muscle(s) because they will have ample time to recover during the following days in which you focus on other muscle groups, as well as your rest day(s).

This type of split also allows for the most specificity and customization towards your goals.

For example, if you really want to focus on building your lower body, you might have one day dedicated to quads & calves, another day focused on glutes & hamstrings and a third lower-body day that focuses on all of the above but at a lower intensity, whereas you only hit shoulders/bis/tris all in one session, once per week.

This split might be a good fit for you if: You have 4-6 days to dedicate to the gym per week, you have some experience in the gym and are ready to move from endurance to hypertrophy training (more on that later), you have specific physique goals (i.e. defining your shoulders, adding X cm to your glutes), and/or your primary focus is increasing muscle size/definition.

Keep in mind, there are SO many training splits out there – this isn’t even the tip of the iceberg. I encourage you to google around for more examples and experiment until you find what works best for you, your goals, and your lifestyle.

HOW MANY REST DAYS SHOULD I TAKE?

It’s while you REST – not while you’re actually exercising – that your muscles are able to strengthen and rebuild, so it’s essential not to discredit the importance of recovery time or skip it altogether.

The amount of rest you need will largely come down to how you’re training and your level of fitness.

For beginners on a full body split, you’ll generally want to allow 1 – 2 days between workouts for recovery.

If you’re training 1-2 specific muscle groups per day (using a “bodybuilder” split), then you’ll want to allow 48 – 72 hours before training the same muscle group(s) again, but can train other muscles in the meantime (one of the main advantages of this type of workout split).

Regardless of which split you choose, I recommend having 1 – 2 rest days built into your week.

Taking a rest day doesn’t mean that you have to lie in bed watching Netflix all day or else risk losing your gains from overtraining.

You can also take an “active” rest day, which involves doing an activity at a significantly reduced intensity from your normal workouts (i.e. going for a walk or doing yoga, rather than a heavy leg day).