<\/p>\n
What is the best way to train each body part for your goals?<\/strong><\/p>\n Let me guess \u2013 when you started training, you copied workouts from the \u201cPros\u201d. You took screenshots from social media (or, if you\u2019re really old school, tore them out of magazines). Mr Olympia\u2019s brutal biceps workout revealed! The World Champion\u2019s secret to insane calves!<\/p>\n But as time went on, you realised that those Pro-level workouts aren\u2019t the best way to approach your own training.<\/strong> (Honestly, they\u2019re probably not how the pro bodybuilders train anyway!).<\/p>\n So now you\u2019re here. Ready to move away from the classic body part split, but not sure what\u2019s best.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s examine the most popular training splits.<\/strong><\/p>\n What is it?<\/strong>\u00a0This is probably the way you started out in the gym. It\u2019s a old-school bodybuilder approach to training. You know the kind of thing: usually chest and triceps on a Monday, back and biceps on another day, legs separately, and shoulders on a different day. If you were really going for it, you might train legs twice in a body-part split training style, with quads one day and hams\/glutes another.<\/p>\n Pros<\/strong>: lots of volume and variety in this approach, means you can really hit each body part hard<\/p>\n Cons<\/strong>: each body part only gets worked once a week, which is sub-optimal in terms of frequency<\/p>\n How many days per week?<\/strong>\u00a0Usually 4, 5, or 6<\/p>\n Suits you if<\/strong>: you prefer to focus solely on one body part to feel you\u2019ve hammered it hard<\/p>\n What is it?<\/strong>\u00a0Push (chest, shoulders, triceps), pull (back, rear delts, biceps), and legs on separate days<\/p>\n Pros<\/strong>: hitting more muscle groups per day means you will work them with more frequency across the week<\/p>\n Cons<\/strong>: you may feel that you don\u2019t work certain muscles enough (although if you train properly, you will!)<\/p>\n How many days per week?<\/strong>\u00a03+<\/p>\n Suits you if<\/strong>: you want to reduce the amount of time between training the same muscle groups<\/p>\n What is it?<\/strong>\u00a0Upper body one day, lower body another day<\/p>\n Pros<\/strong>: a simple approach to getting it all done, with enough frequency during the week to do different exercise choices<\/p>\n Cons<\/strong>: you may feel that you don\u2019t have time to work everything<\/p>\n How many days per week?<\/strong>\u00a04+<\/p>\n Suits you if<\/strong>: you can\u2019t always predict how many days a week you train, and you want to be sure you work everything<\/p>\n What is it?<\/strong>\u00a0Full body training every session<\/p>\n Pros<\/strong>: great for frequency, and you will know that you\u2019ve worked every muscle group every time you train<\/p>\n Cons<\/strong>: not much volume per muscle group per session (so training frequency is key)<\/p>\n How many days per week?<\/strong>\u00a03-4<\/p>\n Suits you if<\/strong>: you have at least one day off between sessions, but can guarantee 3-4 sessions per week<\/p>\n Whatever training split you choose, it\u2019s important to look at training volume across the week. Split total volume between the sessions you have available. Remember that smaller muscle groups can be trained more frequently and with less recovery between sessions. Larger muscle groups can be trained two or three times a week, if total training volume is taken into account.<\/p>\n In general, think about training large muscle groups for 9-15 working sets across the week, and smaller muscle groups for 6-9 working sets across the week. This is a baseline: see how you feel and add to this volume if you recover well.<\/p>\n You\u2019ll need to factor recovery into your training split plans.<\/strong> Muscle groups, CNS, and energy levels all need sufficient recovery time. It makes sense to not train \u2013 say \u2013 back and deadlifts on concurrent days. Monitor your recovery time as well as your results. Make sure you are getting enough protein to support recovery, and consider using\u00a0Instant BCAAs<\/a>\u00a0if you don\u2019t already do so.<\/p>\n What\u2019s your training age? How many days per week will you train? How long do you have for each session? Do you have any favourite body parts and exercises? What body parts are lagging and weak?<\/p>\n Almost any training split will work to an extent.<\/strong> You need to choose one that works for you \u2013 right now \u2013 with your lifestyle, work, social life, and training goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n Hopefully you\u2019re in the lifting game for the long term, so there\u2019s plenty of time to try a different style.<\/p>\n Then choose the training plan that hits your preferences. Stick with it, and you\u2019ll see results.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What is the best way to train each body part for your goals? Let me guess \u2013 when you started training, you copied workouts from the \u201cPros\u201d. You took…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":1574,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[825,826,827,828,829],"class_list":["post-1572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-training-exercise","tag-body-part-splits","tag-push-pull-legs","tag-upper-lower-splits","tag-full-body-workouts","tag-total-training-volume"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1572"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1581,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1572\/revisions\/1581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bulk.com\/ie\/the-core-ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}BODY PART SPLITS<\/h2>\n
PUSH\/PULL\/LEGS<\/h2>\n
UPPER\/LOWER<\/h2>\n
FULL BODY WORKOUTS<\/h2>\n
TOTAL TRAINING VOLUME<\/h2>\n
RECOVERY IS KEY<\/h2>\n
WHICH TRAINING SPLIT FOR YOU?<\/h2>\n