How to effectively divide the lots into training splits?

The training split, or the splitting of muscle parts into workouts, is a system that has actually been around as long as bodybuilding itself. However, most beginners train, or at least learn to train the whole body and choose to train three times a week - Monday, Wednesday, Friday. This may be fine for learning technique and developing initial training and physical skill, but this type of training has some drawbacks when it comes to muscle growth. Why? Because as you gain experience over time and start to train at higher intensities and loads, you'll find that it simply becomes more and more challenging to train your entire body in one workout .

In other words, you stop being able to load every part of your body with the proper weight, intensity and meaningful number of sets in one workout. That's when splitting the lots comes in . How to split the lots, however, is another rather alchemical matter. Why? Because you need to approach batch splitting individually and take into account a lot of factors that are quite specific to each of us. The main ones include:

1. Training experience - beginners will logically choose lower training volumes and intensity, but often need a higher frequency of training than advanced lifters.
2. Goals - are you trying to gain some fitness or lose a little weight, or is your primary goal a significant body transformation, muscle gain or even a fitness competition? Each of these goals will require a specific workout.
3. Your time availability - can you afford to go to the gym five times a week for an hour, or is your schedule so busy that you can barely afford two visits a week? Either way, you need to take into account that it is advisable to commit to training at least 3 times a week for visible results .
4. Your personal rest needs and ability to recover - Depending on your work, lifestyle and ability to recover (including sleep) you will need more or less days dedicated to rest. Rest days should not be trivialized in your quest for greater muscle strength . In fact, muscle growth happens outside the gym through a combination of proper nutrition and adequate rest. When it comes to recovery, don't over-train a muscle group that is still too sore from a previous workout too soon, you simply have to learn to listen to your body.

In addition, recovery can also be a mental rest. There is no harm at all in setting aside at least one day for a different type of training than you are used to. Try going for a swim, playing some ball games, or just taking a walk. Active recovery counts too, and mental rest is very important to be able to perform well (not only) in the gym.

Your training weaknesses - if you have a lagging area, then its training should be on the first day after a day without training, when you have the most energy and nothing hurts. If you have the split spread over a longer period of time, you can train the weak part more than once a week.

Article content:

• So how to split your workout?
• Full-body workouts
• Two-day lower body/upper body split
• Push/pull workouts
• Four-day split
• Example of a split of such a workout
• Five-day split

So how to split the workout?

Let's take a look at split workouts, or rather the 5 most common ways to split a workout. The point options are ordered starting with the simplest and progressing to the most advanced. Of course there are many more options, but this is sort of a basic overview of how to actually navigate the splitting of the lots. For training beginners, it will be best if they choose the first option, but more experienced exercisers should consider the factors listed above when choosing which split to choose.

You'll find that as you gain training experience and become more advanced in fitness, you'll be able to train much more in terms of either intensity or volume. However, higher volume and intensity workouts require more days for recovery. Enough talk, let's take a look at some of the most common training splits and their specific advantages and disadvantages.

Full-body workouts

Training all the important muscle groups in one workout is usually the domain of the beginner's training split. Most often, this type of workout is characterized by the inclusion of one, maximum two exercises per body part and only a few sets and reps. One of the primary reasons why it is advisable to choose a lower load for each of the muscle parts is that the primary adaptations of beginners come through the nervous system. You will teach your body to activate and utilize more muscle fibers, rather than building up god knows what volumes. This requires a higher frequency, and because the training volume is so low, this exercise should be repeated three times a week, but there should be at least 48 hours between workouts.

Another reason why lower volume and intensity is preferable for newbies is to try to minimize muscle soreness caused by the workout. In fact, if newbies' muscles hurt too much, it could discourage them from training further. In addition, for beginners, it is advisable to ask for advice from someone more experienced or contact a trainer. Full-body training can be a very good way for them to familiarise themselves with the equipment in the gym, but it can also be seen as a "life-brake" because if you train the whole body, choosing only one or two exercises for each part, you are unlikely to "overdo" it as beginners tend to do. If a beginner jumps straight into a split workout and leaves out the legs, for example, it may be difficult for them to go to any other workout that same week due to pain.

However, evena full-body workout must have some order and rules, so that we don't run around the gym frantically, jumping from shoulders to legs, biceps to back, and so on. We should respect certain rules of the order of the parts - start with big parts and heavy exercises, end with smaller parts and complementary exercises. There is no harm at all if a beginner takes a trainer for the first few classes, because it is the best way to avoid developing imbalances, injuries and also the best way to learn the correct technique of the exercises and learn to engage the muscles you are actually supposed to engage.

How to full-body stagger?

Two-day lower body/upper body split

If you choose a full-body program, the volume of training (number of sets and reps) performed on each body part is low, the next level of splitting the workout is a split in which you cover the entire body in two days, and therefore have two different workouts. Usually, this is the way to divide a workout to train upper body muscle groups and lower body muscle groups.

By increasing the amount of training for each body part, you can train that particular part more intensely and from more angles, thus increasing the intensity of your workouts. This type of routine usually revolves around basic exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench and more. It is usually performed 4 times a week. You can train in two different rep ranges; the first focuses more on strength (you pick a weight that you can do a maximum of 6-8 reps with), or conversely scale the other end of the hypertrophy scale (you pick a weight that you can do 10-15 reps with). Because you're exercising each body part more intensely, you'll likely need the longer rest breaks necessary for muscle recovery.

Example of an upper/lower body workout:

Pressure/stretch training - divided into three training days

The next stage is to split the training intothree different days in the style of a pressure day, a deadlift day and a little bit of a separate leg day. Although there are many ways to pair muscle groups, one of the most popular methods is just splitting them into pressure days, pull days, and legs separately. You can add abdominals to any workout.

The primary reason for combining pressure muscles is that in complex exercises, more synergistic muscle groups are involved. For example, in bench pressing , you engage not only the pectorals, but also the shoulders and triceps. If you train the pecs one day, shoulders the next, and arms the third, you may feel fatigued on the third day because you are engaging the different areas together to some extent, and this can lead to poorer recovery overall, especially if you don't set the volume and intensity of the workout appropriately.

This type of training can be applied either once a week - 3 training days, as in the case of full body (i.e. Monday, Wednesday, Friday), but with the change that each day you train a different group of parts, or twice a week, i.e. six training days. Of course, it significantly depends on your subjective needs for recovery and time possibilities, because not all of us can afford to go to the gym 6 times a week, and not all of us are able to recover 6 workouts a week. The advantage is that if we train this intensively, our workouts should be shorter. However, if we only train a muscle once a week, it means that it will be 7 days before we load it again and the intensity of our workouts should match that .

Four-day split

This split is for those who are already really serious about exercise. With fewer muscle groups loaded in one day, you can increase the volume and intensity of your workouts - factors that are important for further progress. An effective way to group body parts in this type of workout is topair a large muscle group with a smaller one, such as the chest and triceps (again, both muscles engaged during the push exercises). Since the triceps are already engaged during many of your chest exercises, you simply follow up with just one or two exercises to train them in isolation afterwards. The same reasoning applies to the back and biceps.

Alternatively, we can pair muscle groups in reverse, such as chest with biceps and back with triceps.In this case, however, make sure to insert a rest day or leg workout in between these workouts so that you don't train the same muscle group twice in the following days - i.e., back triceps on Monday and biceps and chest on Tuesday, during which you do a bunch of exercises that involve the triceps again, and then you won't be able to do the exercises with as much intensity and range because your triceps will be sore from the previous day. Of course, if this doesn't bother you, put together a workout of your choice.

If you are combining a large and a small muscle group, it is very important to train the main, large part first. This is because the smaller the muscle is, the faster it gets exhausted, making it more difficult to train the larger muscles with heavy weight. For example, you shouldn't train the triceps before training the pecs because the triceps help with most pec exercises. If the triceps are exhausted by the time you get to the breast workout, your weights and range of motion will be severely limited and you won't be able to train as well as you would if you left the triceps until last.

Example of the layout of such a workout:

Five-day split

This split is the next level, again at a higher level of training experience, essentially allowing you to give each body part its own training day, allowing you to increase volume and intensity to the maximum level as you don't have to save energy for any other part during the workout. There is virtually no variable in this layout, when put together correctly , that limits the intensity or volume of your workout.

In fact, you can manipulate this type of workout any way you want - rest any two days of the week, or work out all the parts and rest on the weekend. In short, it just depends on your needs, time availability and preferences. Of course, you need to take into account the involvement of individual parts during other exercises - for example, it may not be a good idea to train chest on Monday, shoulders on Tuesday and triceps on Wednesday. That's why we've separated the key parts with at least a one-day break for the sake of example. Some people even train the weak areas twice, so they basically train 6-7 times a week, but this needs to be compensated by proper recovery. This type of training is often used by top bodybuilders in preparation for competitions, but for recreational exercisers such intensity is, dare we say, even unnecessary and perhaps it is rather harmful, because in the long run it is difficult to regenerate such a volume.

An example of a partitioning of parts in this type of training frequency:

But which setting is best?

No one on the internet can (or at least should) answer that question. You need to take into account your personal feelings, your daily schedule, your physical condition, your recovery needs, and your training fitness. If you don't know what to do with your training setup, intensity, and frequency, yourcoach is the best person to evaluate you and offer you an adequate solution. Many of the splits we've discussed today are for advanced athletes and people who have time to train more often. Smaller muscles recover very quickly and can be trained every other day. The PUSH/PULL workout is very popular. The splits also don't contain carido, which you can allocate to your off days or include it after your workout if necessary. The best strategy is to stagger your workouts regularly to ensure the greatest variability, avoiding training adaptation and subsequent stagnation of progress.

What to take away from the article?

Today we've looked at the common dilemma of how to actually divide up the lots in a workout. We've shown that there are a multitude of variations and it's up to you which one you choose and which best suits your personal needs. In our article, the lot splits are given as an example only - you can, of course, adapt them to suit you. The most important thing to remember when using any split method is to set it up so that you have enough room for recovery. It's best to rotate the split parts regularly, this will prevent training adaptation and stagnation. Training is only a small piece of the puzzle, also pay attention to sleep and especially good nutrition.

Sources: www.bodybuilding.com