6 Awesome Training Splits

Training

Here are six of the most common training splits you can use to customize your training program!

Six Star Pro Staff

There are many different ways to structure your training program. How you design your program will depend on a variety of factors such as experience level and available time commitment. Here are six of the most common training splits you can use to customize your training program!

FULL BODY

Training your entire body in one workout session has a variety of benefits. One reason people favor this style of training is that it’s a fantastic time saver. By sticking to compound, full-body movements, you can elicit a powerful training effect for every muscle group in your body all in one session! This style of training is great for beginners who need to spend significant time becoming proficient in the big, important lifts, like the squat, bench press and deadlift. Full-body routines should only be done 3 to 4 times per week in order to properly recover from week to week.

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Full Body	Rest	Full Body	Rest	Full Body	Rest	Rest

FULL BODY LIGHT/HEAVY

To put a different spin on your full-body training, try switching between heavy and light days. Your heavy days you will focus on compound movements with lower reps (3-5), and light days will consist of your isolation and accessory work for higher reps (8-12).

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Full Body Heavy	Full Body Light	Rest	Full Body Heavy	Full Body Light	Rest	Rest

UPPER/LOWER

The upper/lower split consists of splitting your training sessions between all of your lower-body muscles and upper-body muscles. On your upper-body days, you will train your chest, back, arms and abs. Lower-body days will consist of training your quads, hamstrings, calves and glute muscles.

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Upper Body	Lower Body	Rest	Upper Body	Lower Body	Rest	Rest

PUSH/PULL

The push/pull breaks up your training into pushing and pulling movement patterns. Both days will consist of upper- and lower-body exercises and will help to ensure you are getting a complete balance of both these important movement patterns. For more details on what exercises fall into the push and pull categories, click here.

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Push	Pull	Rest	Push	Pull	Rest	Rest

UPPER PUSH/LOWER PULL/UPPER PULL/LOWER PUSH

This split further separates your pushing and pulling into upper- and lower-body days. This is better for more advanced lifters who are looking to add some more complexity to a regular push/pull split. For more details on what exercises fall into the push and pull categories for both upper- and lower-body, click here.

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	THURSDAY	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Upper Push	Lower Pull	Rest	Lower Push	Upper Pull	Rest	Rest

BODY-PART SPECIFIC

Body-part specific splits are effectively used by more advanced bodybuilders. This type of split is very time-consuming and requires a significant amount of recovery effort in order to gain results. This type of training focuses on engaging specific muscle groups in one session from a variety of angles and intensities. This split shouldn’t be used by beginners who may have trouble getting results from training a muscle group only once per week.