My Favorite Training Splits

If you have been following this blog or my previous training blog you will know that we change up our training split every so often. Sometimes we do this because we want to experiment with new methods. Recently we felt that training our legs one day a week was not enough. We decided to do two training sessions a week. One of the days would focus on more quad dominant lifts while the other day would focus on more hamstring dominant lifts. We will try this new method for a few months and see how it works. Sometimes we change things up simply to keep things fresh. The human body has a tendency to adapt to stimulus after repeated exposure. Small adjustments made to your routine might be just the thing you need to break through a plateau. Below is a list of some of our favorite routines.

Current Routine-
Sunday- Chest
Monday- Quad Dominant Leg Day
Tuesday- Shoulders/Arms
Wednesday- Back
Thursday- Hamstring Dominant Leg Day
Friday- Arms
Saturday- Off

Sometimes we will do some light back work on chest day and some light chest work on back day. It just depends on how we feel that week.

3 Days On and 1 Day Off
Day 1- Chest and Back
Day 2- Shoulders and Arms
Day 3- Legs
Day 4- Off
Then Repeat

This is a good split if you are a big fan of supersets utilizing opposing body parts. The chest and back work well in this regard.  5 Supersets of bench press with wide grip chin ups will really get you're heart rate up. This split pairs a pushing muscle group (quads, chest, triceps, etc.) with a pulling muscle group (lats, biceps, hamstrings, etc.). A variation would be pairing all your upper body pushing muscles on day 1, all your upper body pulling muscles on day 2, and your legs on day 3.

Day 1- Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Day 2- Back and Biceps
Day 3- Legs

The theory behind this is that when you train say your back you're biceps will also come into play quite a bit so it would make sense to train the biceps on that day as well. While in theory this works well a lot of people find that the first muscle group trained that day will be hit hard but the rest become an after thought. This can be quite true. Say on day 1 you train your chest first and hit it really hard with a lot of bench pressing movements. During those lifts the shoulders and triceps will be heavily utilized during the lifts fatiguing them. You may find that by time you start training your shoulders they are too taxed to really work them hard.

Another split we like is the two heavy and two light days a week split based around the 3 powerlifts  (bench press, squat, deadlift). It might look like this.

Sunday- Heavy Bench Press Day followed by chest, shoulder, and triceps work.
Monday- Off
Tuesday- Light Squat/Heavy Deadlift Day followed by leg, back, and biceps work.
Wednesday- Off
Thursday- Light Bench Press Day followed by chest, shoulder, and triceps work
Friday- Heavy Squats/Light Deadlifts followed by leg, back, and biceps work.
Saturday- Off

The benefits of this routine is that it allows for ample days for recovery (3), hits each bodypart twice a week, and never has two back to back heavy training sessions. This is a great layout for those looking to really build some strength while packing on some mass. I like to alternate between this layout and the one we are currently doing. Spending four months on each split before switching.

If you really want to push your training to a higher level you can do the 3 days on 1 day off double split routine.

Day 1 AM- Chest  PM- Arms
Day 2 AM- Back   PM- Shoulders
Day 3 AM- Quads PM- Hamstrings
Day 4- Off
Repeat

This means 12 training sessions a week. It would be hard for most people to make it to the gym twice a day 6 days a week but for those who live in the gym like we do, it can be a good alternative.

An even tougher split would be the one favored by Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Monday AM- Legs   PM- Chest and Back
Tuesday - Shoulders and Arms
Wednesday AM- Legs PM- Chest and Back
Thursday- Shoulders and Arms
Friday AM- Legs    PM- Chest and Back
Saturday- Shoulders and Arms
Sunday- Off

All I will say that this kind of split is not for the faint of heart. I am running out of time right now, but I will expand upon some of these double split high volume routines in a later entry.