What split do bodybuilders use?

The Traditional Bodybuilding or Bro Split Day 1: Chest. Day 2: Shoulders. Day 3: Back. Day 4: Arms (Biceps & Triceps) Day 5: Legs (Quads, Hamstrings & Calves)

elitefts.com - The Optimal Bodybuilding Split - Elite FTS

Can a VPN trick DraftKings?

If you're in a state where the service is restricted, you can bypass DraftKings location blocks with a Virtual Private Network (VPN). Using a VPN,...

Last updated Apr 7, 2022

Why is it called love?

The origins of 'love' as a score lie in the figure zero's resemblance to an egg. In sport, it's common to refer to a nil or nought score as a duck...

Last updated Aug 6, 2020

Make Your Bookie Cry And Pull The Hair By Generating $23,187

Promotion

Over the next few articles, I’ll share a few philosophies I’ve developed during that time.

We’ll start with one of the most popular topics: the training split.

Do You Even Need a Split Routine?

The answer is probably not. The biggest mistake I see among lifters is rushing into advanced training too soon. The vast majority of you will be best served by following a full body or upper/lower training schedule. A split routine is neither necessary nor appropriate until you have developed very high levels of strength and size. Until you are at an advanced level, you need to spend time mastering the basics—demonstrating sound technique on the compound lifts, even at very high intensities or effort levels, and building a balanced strength base. If you cannot squat and deadlift triple bodyweight and bench press double bodyweight with excellent technique, I believe you should use a full body or upper/lower training split. I realize the vast majority of you will ignore this advice, but it’s important to me to give it anyway so that I know I’ve not misled anyone who desires to do things the right way.

The Problem with Traditional Splits

Let’s assume you have reached the point where a split routine is appropriate. In most cases, implementing a split routine will serve one or both of these purposes to increase the: Amount of training volume that can be performed for a given lift or body part in a microcycle* Frequency of training for a given lift or body part in a microcycle* *A microcycle can be defined in multiple ways, but consider it a training week for our purposes. Here’s why a split routine is necessary to achieve those goals. Let’s say your best squat is 800 pounds, and your best bench press is 500 pounds. If you were to train both lifts on the same day, it would probably require over a dozen warm-up sets just to get to your working weights on both lifts. Furthermore, by the time you finished the session, you’d be so fatigued that you would be unable to train intensely again for several days. And you only performed two lifts! Instead, if you trained squat on one day, bench press on another, and deadlift on a third day, you could add in a few accessory lifts after each main one and still finish in less time than in our first example. And you wouldn’t be so wrecked after a single day, either. So, in theory, split routines make a great deal of sense for advanced lifters. However, in practice, most traditional splits fall a bit short in one aspect or another.

The Traditional Bodybuilding or Bro Split

Are people without jobs happier?

Becoming unemployed not only means that one has less income, it also makes the ideal life seem farther away. Thus, many studies have shown that the...

Last updated Aug 27, 2018

Does a bet void if a player doesnt play?

Every sportsbook will cancel your bet if the player is inactive per the league or team's official injury report. That's the case if you bet the...

Last updated Jul 6, 2021

Promotion

You’re likely familiar with the traditional bodybuilding split. It usually divides the week into four or five training days, one for each body part:

Day 1: Chest

Day 2: Shoulders

Day 3: Back

Day 4: Arms (Biceps & Triceps)

Day 5: Legs (Quads, Hamstrings & Calves)

Sometimes Days 1 and 2 are combined, and the order of body parts can vary, but most traditional bodybuilding splits are pretty close to what’s listed above. This split allows for a great deal of volume to be performed for each body part. For example, you could easily do 20 or more sets for chest, if that’s the only muscle you’re training on a given day. The problem with a traditional bodybuilding split is that the frequency of training per body part is quite low. Training a body part once per week is, for most people, less effective than training twice or even three times per week—even when the volume is constant over the course of that week. So while a traditional split allows for higher training volume, it comes at the expense of training frequency.

The Push-Pull-Legs Split

This split is arguably just as common as the bro split:

Day 1: Chest, Shoulders & Triceps (Push)

Day 2: Back & Biceps (Pull)

Day 3: Quads, Hamstrings & Calves (Legs)

Dividing all of the major muscle groups among just three days allows for a higher training frequency—the downfall of the traditional split. For example, you could set up a PPL split across four training days per week like this:

Day 1: Push

Day 2: Pull

Day 3: Off

Day 4: Legs

Day 5: Push

Day 6: Off

Day 7: Pull

And so on.

There are many ways to arrange a PPL split to allow for increased frequency. However, training volume cannot be kept as high as in a traditional split because there is so much overlap among body parts. If you’re training chest, shoulders, and triceps all in one training day, you’re likely to be so fatigued by the time you’ve finished training chest and shoulders that you have little energy left to spend on tricep work. The same goes for biceps on pull day and hamstrings and calves on leg day.

The Revised Upper/Lower Split

One solution is to return to the upper/lower schedule and add an anterior/posterior consideration for each training day. You’re still training four days per week, but each day focuses on either the anterior (front) or posterior (back) of the body:

Day 1: Upper Anterior (Chest, Side Delts & Biceps)

Upper Anterior (Chest, Side Delts & Biceps) Day 2: Lower Posterior (Hamstring, Glutes & Calves)

Are bookies losing money?

We often get asked, do bookies ever lose? – and the answer is yes. In fact, they lose thousands of bets every day. They've even been known to take...

Last updated Jan 10, 2019

Can the FBI see your IP address?

Can the FBI trace your IP address? Usually, the IP address is enough to trace the connection back to the ISP (Internet Service Provider)....

Last updated Dec 25, 2019

Promotion

Lower Posterior (Hamstring, Glutes & Calves) Day 3: Off

Off Day 4: Upper Posterior (Back, Rear Delts & Triceps)

Upper Posterior (Back, Rear Delts & Triceps) Day 5: Lower Anterior (Quads & Abs)

Lower Anterior (Quads & Abs) Day 6: Off

Off Day 7: Off

Using this split, deadlifts are trained on the lower posterior day, and compound pushing movements are included for the triceps on the upper posterior day. Unlike the PPL split, this revised upper/lower split distributes overlap across the week rather than a single training day. Let’s take a look at how the revised upper/lower split plays out in practice. With the PPL split, training four days per week, you’re hitting most muscles once and a few muscles twice per week. Assuming you make good exercise selections, you’re training each muscle twice and only a few once per week. We’ll use this as an example:

Day 1 (Upper Anterior)

Chest

Incline Bench Press (also trains triceps)

Dumbbell Flye

Side Delts

Behind-The-Neck Press (also trains rear delts)

Lateral Raise

Biceps

Barbell Curl

Day 2 (Lower Posterior)

Hamstrings

Romanian Deadlift (also trains back)

Seated Hamstring Curl

Glutes

Lunge (also train quads)

Calves

Calf Raise

Day 3 (Upper Posterior)

Back

Barbell Row

Close-Grip Pulldown (also trains biceps)

Rear Delts

Reverse Pec Deck

Triceps

Weighted Dip (also trains chest)

Pushdown

Day 4 (Quads & Abs)

Quads

Squat (also trains glutes)

Leg Press (also trains glutes)

Abs

Hanging Leg Raise

Sit-Up

As you can see, this split guarantees a balanced level of development that will come at a faster pace than is likely to be achieved using the same movements divided in a traditional or PPL split.

Closing Thoughts

Please keep in mind that this is all theoretical. All advanced lifters will have weak points and imbalances that need to be accounted for in a training program. Very rarely will a balanced split like the one above be optimal in practice. Therefore, view it more as a sound starting point from which to work. For those who do not wish to compete in bodybuilding, it will likely serve just fine as written. If you would like to develop a training plan specifically for your needs and would like help, please contact me at ben@peakhd.net to set up a consultation.

elitefts.com - The Optimal Bodybuilding Split - Elite FTS

Who is the most famous horse in history?

Secretariat Perhaps the most famous horse in racing history, the record-breaking Secretariat was foaled in 1970. Secretariat had a powerful...

Last updated Nov 17, 2021

Can you use a VPN to use FanDuel?

With a VPN for FanDuel, you can easily get an IP address in the US to place bets on Sportsbook or to tinker with fantasy sports. If you are...

Last updated Apr 19, 2018

Promotion

What is a 4.5 spread?

For a bet on Pittsburgh to win at +4.5, they can either win the game outright or not lose by an amount that surpasses 4.5. For Cincinnati to win,...

Last updated Nov 16, 2020

Promotion

Do you go faster with bigger wheels?

Larger wheel diameters can result in faster and more composed handling; however, it can also result in slower acceleration capability. While there...

Last updated Jan 10, 2020