The Best Workout Split for Building Muscle

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I am Nolan Vannata. This newsletter is a part of my mission to make health, fitness, and nutrition content that is evidence-based, digestible, practical, and accessible.

A workout split describes the way you divide your workouts to emphasize different muscle groups on different days. For example, you may do a full body workout 3-4 days per week, or perhaps you alternate between upper and lower body.

The “bro split” is a commonly used workout split for new lifters (usually men, as the name implies). It goes as the following:

• Monday: Chest

• Tuesday: Back

• Wednesday: Shoulders

• Thursday: Legs

• Friday: Arms

• Saturday and Sunday: Rest

This is… an odd workout split. Given that chest and back exercises work the arms, and shoulders are part of the arms, and there is an entire day dedicated to arms, this split is only good for someone who wants large arms and not much else.

However, if this workout split has worked for you then I advise you keep doing it.

The science of workout splits

Regarding workout splits, researchers have studied how changing exercise frequency results in different rates of muscle growth. For example, scientists might study muscle growth in a group that trains 8 sets of bicep curls 1 days per week, while another group does 4 sets of bicep curls 2 days per week. Both groups would do the same number of weekly sets but at different frequencies.

In a 2018 meta-analysis, “How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the effects of resistance training frequency”, the researchers found that there aren’t significant differences between different training frequencies under two conditions:

• When groups do the same amount of total sets

• When groups carry out each set to the same relative effort

According to the data, exercise frequency doesn’t seem to influence muscle growth as long the total number of sets and relative effort is the same.

HOWEVER… the authors conclude the article with the following quote,

There is evidence that even in resistance training protocols with non-equated total training volumes the individual hypertrophic response can substantially differ among subjects, with some responding better to higher resistance training frequencies (and volumes), while others respond better to lower training frequencies (Damas et al., 2018). Therefore, individualization of the training protocols is paramount from an exercise prescription standpoint.

As always, science reports averages, and you need to pay attention to what works best for you.

Practical limitations to specific workout splits

On one hand, you might be able to do more total sets per week with a higher exercise frequency. 15 difficult sets in 1 session sounds brutal, but 5 sets 3 times per week? Not too bad. While the research suggests that those splits would result in similar amounts of muscle growth, condensing all of the sets for a specific muscle group into a single session sounds much more difficult and could potentially increase injury risk.

On the other hand, a higher exercise frequency means more warmups, more driving/walking to the gym, and more showering, making it a less time-friendly approach.

So, what do you do? Personally, I recommend determining your exercise frequency first, and then determining a workout split that fits your schedule.

Workout splits for different exercise frequencies

Having an arm day and a leg day doesn’t make sense for someone lifting twice per week. Also, I don’t recommend doing a full body workout for someone going the gym every day.

Here is what I recommend:

Lifting two times per week

With very few exceptions, I recommend a full body workout twice per week. The exception to this might be if you can only exercise on back-to-back days, in which case an upper body and lower body session might make sense.

Lifting three times per week

I recommend doing either full body every day or 1 upper body, 1 lower body, and 1 full body workout. If you can give yourself at least 48 hours of rest in between each workout, having the specific upper and lower body workouts might be beneficial.

Lifting four times per week

I have two recommendations. One way is to do two upper body and two lower body workouts, alternating between the two. Another way is to do one upper body, one lower body, and two full body workouts.

Lifting five times per week

There are several strategies that I can see working well for different people. I’ll bullet point them to clean this section up.

• 2 upper body, 2 lower body, and 1 full body workout.

• 1 push day (chest, shoulders and triceps), 1 pull day (back and biceps), 1 leg day, 1 upper body, and 1 lower body day.

• 1 upper body, 1 lower body, and 3 full body workouts.

Lifting six or seven times per week

At this point, there are many combinations that can work, so it’s best to use your personal preferences and unique response to training to determine the best workout split.

If you are lifting six or seven times per week, I am assuming you are quite experienced and should have an idea of what workout splits you respond well to. If you are lifting this often but feel your workout split is suboptimal, play around with different workout splits and listen to your body.

Practical takeaways

My recommendations are simply what I have used with clients that got them results. However, I have not worked with everyone in the world, so you may find a different workout split that works best for you.

The best thing you can do to find your optimal workout split is to test, assess, and adjust accordingly.

What’s next? 5 Common Weight Loss Mistakes to Avoid

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