What’s the best training split?
Absolutely nobody:
Me: So, I get asked all the time, “what’s the best training split for gainz in the gym”.
Now firstly, this is completely dependent on your goals, i.e. increases in strength or hypertrophy (increase size in muscle mass), or both. So, let’s just assume we are talking about hypertrophy for now, with some strength gains likely to occur as a consequence, but the main focus being around increasing muscle mass.
When we talk about training splits, we typically refer to them as the method of breaking up our training routine throughout the week, with many different methods of doing so each with their own pros and cons. The most common being the “bro split”, which is extremely popular with top level body builders, from which general population have followed suit and aimed to replicate. This split breaks each body part up and trains each muscle group once per week. An example of a bro split might be as follows; Monday would be chest (international chest day..), Tuesday back day, legs on Wednesdays, shoulders on Thursday, arms and core on Friday, cardio Saturday, leaving Sunday for a rest day.
Now, this is not the only way this split can be broken down, but is a common example, some may combine two or more body parts into each session e.g. chest and triceps, back and biceps etc. However, the immediate flaw with this split is the amount of training sessions it will take to train the entire body (upper body and lower body). Now, imagine for the average person, let’s say something comes up on Monday, maybe a family occasion or they get stuck in work (which is normal for the everyday person). They might miss this session and therefore miss out on training that body part until the following week, leaving just shy of two weeks since that body part has been trained. This definitely isn’t optimal, given the time-course of protein synthesis, which lasts approximately 48 hours. Furthermore, the difference between body builders and the general population, may firstly be hours available to train. Those who have made a career out of body building will have substantially more time to train, potentially also being able to train multiple times throughout the day. Combined with the extreme difference in dedication, meaning training to them will be of a much greater importance, in comparison to those who have other other commitments such as kids, jobs, relationships and other hobbies etc.
Now a further reason, which I think sometimes gets overlooked and is of great importance is training requirements. As we are training and progressing, we increase volume, either through increases in weight, intensity, reps and sets, reduced rest or slowing down the movement etc. But the main focus with any body building program is to progressively overload the muscles, so they adapt and grow. Pretty simple right? Now you take a body builder who has been lifting weights quite seriously and consistently for 5-10 years and compare them to someone who has been training for less than 5 years, at an inconsistent rate? What’s the difference? Well, what’s required to overload that individual is dependent upon training experience. Why? Well because those more trained individuals are a lot more developed, are likely lifting a load close to the maximum they can for that given amount of reps and won’t be able to progress in load each week (without using anabolic steroids!!). Whereas, the “newbie” or less trained individual will not require this much overload at first, remember we are always aiming for progressive overload, not zero to 100.
Therefore, the stimulus required to stimulate increases in muscle hypertrophy, which is a combination of mechanical tension, muscle damage and metabolic stress, is extremely greater for more experienced lifters. Therefore, 45-75-minute sessions on one or two body parts may be required for those at that more advanced level, but not everyone. Do you see the point I’m getting at here? Just because all the body builders on YouTube do these “training splits”, does not mean you should. Also, these training splits may be completed in addition to the use of anabolic steroids which will greatly enhance the ability of the athlete to handle a greater amount of total training volume combined with a massively increased ability to recover from training alongside the 4-500% fold increase in protein synthesis due to the anabolic nature of steroids. In short, they can train even harder and recover even faster.
Now, there are other popular training splits which can be done which are a lot more time efficient. Some of these splits are called the push-pull or push-pull legs split, upper-lower split, or else a whole-body split. An example of these training splits across a 7-day training week cycle are shown below;
Table pictured above demonstrates various training splits to hit all major muscle groups / movements in a given 7-day week
Firstly, the push-pull split refers to training push and pull movements of the upper and lower-body together, so could be technically classified as a whole-body session too. Whereas the push-pull legs split will just train push and pull movements of the upper-body, while adding a leg day to train the lower-body. The upper-lower is as you guessed, upper-body and lower-body, but important to note with this one is, you can have more of a focus point on each session. For example, the first upper session of the week may target the chest and shoulders, with the second upper session targeting the back and arms. Same with the lower-body, one session can focus more on the posterior chain, so the hamstrings and glutes, with the other session focusing on the anterior, more quads etc. There can be a focus sessions with the whole-body split sessions too.
The rational for these more-high frequent training splits is based on research surrounding increased training frequency. A study published in the journal of Strength and Conditioning Research compared the effect of an 8 week training program on nineteen young men (average lifting experience of 4 years) who were randomly assigned to either a a total-body (all muscles worked in a session) or split-body routine (2-3 muscle groups worked per session). Both programs consisted of 21 exercises over a 3 day per-week training split with total volume of the routines matched ensuring both groups completed an equal amount of sets and reps (3 sets of 8-12 reps per exercise).
What did this study find? Both groups increased hypertrophy of the arm and leg muscles. Interestingly, this study reported a significant increase in biceps/brachialis in the group performing total-body training compared to the split routine group. Indeed, although not significant, there was a trend and large effect size (a measure of meaningfulness of results) for an increase in the quads (i.e. vastus lateralis) in the total-body training group also. Similarly, a large effect size was shown in the thickness of the triceps favouring the total body training, however, not statistically significant. As for strength gains? Both the total body training and split routine group significantly enhanced their 1 repetition maximum performance in the bench press and squat from baseline. However, no significant difference was observed between groups.
How can we apply practicality to this research? Taking the research into consideration, combined with the struggles of daily life for the general population it would seem rational to side with the higher frequency type training compared to the one muscle group per week routine. The biceps showed a statistically significant outcome, meaning the results likely didn’t occur by chance with a 95% probability. Triceps and quads did not reach this level of significance; however, other statistical measures suggest a strong advantage for the total body training routine. These findings are in support with the time-course of protein synthesis, which lasts approximately 48 hours. Now, before you drop your split and shake things up. It is important to note, this study equated for volume, which is a major driving factor for hypertrophy. A bro split with a greater volume would likely outperform a total body training routine for hypertrophy. Furthermore, the majority of the participants in this study reported previously utilising a bro split style training of one muscle group per-week, meaning those in the total-body training group may have benefited from the novelty factor of mixing up their training routine which has some research supporting its benefit. Therefore, gaining from the unaccustomed style of training with more frequency.
Given the information above, it seems advantageous to apply a more frequent style of training to your program if increasing muscle mass is the goal. Aiming to hit each muscle group twice per week seems optimal to stimulate protein synthesis frequently enough for hypertrophy. For more advanced lifters, or for additional periods of increased training volume, hitting each muscle group three times per week may provide a further benefit for hypertrophy. Lastly, any increase in training frequency must ensure total weekly training volume is considered also.
To summarize this longer than planned blog, probably due to the consumption of multiple coffees (caffeine blog pending). Your training split should be what works best for you, yes it can be beneficial to mix things up, but you can also combine training splits to find what works most optimally for you. Research suggests increasing training frequency which could be via a the singular or combination of the upper-lower and whole-body split, with two of each session making up a four-day training split, just an example. Hope that helps.
Peter
