Phil Tyler

How to Design a Split Routine Weight Lifting program for Bodybuilding.

The purpose of this split routine page is to teach you how to schedule your weekly workout routine. The first thing you should do is determine how many days per week that you can workout.

The ideal number of times would be from 4 to 6, but you need to pick a number that you can do consistently. For example, if you decide to work out 6 times per week for your split routine, but your schedule is so hectic that you end up missing 1 or 2 workouts almost every week, you are going to be unbalanced in your training. You will end up training some bodyparts twice and missing other ones. It isn't a big deal if this happens once in a while, but if this is a regular thing, you would be far better off scheduling your split routine for 4 days a week.

For this basic bodybuilding split routine, I will show you how to train each body part twice a week for the 4 and 6 day split routine, and show you how to make 5 days a week work as well. As far as more advanced training, I will be preparing some special reports covering some different ideas. Or if you want some individualized attention, contact me about personal training.

Let's assume that you have settled on a 4-day split routine. Ideally, you will want to have a day off between Days 3 and 4 for better recovery. You can schedule Day 1 on any day of the week, depending on your needs, but for this example I will use Monday as Day 1. Your workouts would be scheduled like this:

MONDAY............TUESDAY...........THURSDAY..........FRIDAY

WORKOUT #1......WORKOUT #2......WORKOUT #3......WORKOUT #4

Sunday, Wednesday, and Saturday would be off days for recovery purposes.

Supplements to enhance your split routine training program.

The next step in developing your split routine is to divide up your body parts into two groups.

You have 4 days to train every muscle group twice, which means that you have to divide them in half. Is everybody still with me? All right, now I am going to list the muscle groups the way I usually do.

Muscle Groups

Chest
Back
Legs
Biceps
Triceps
Shoulders
Calves
Abdominals

There are a number of ways that you can divide up the muscle groups, such as Pushing and Pulling, or Upper and Lower body. In the Push/Pull method, you group the "pushing" muscles together and the "pulling" muscles together. This grouping would look like this:

PUSHING...............................PULLING

Chest...................................Back

Shoulders..............................Biceps

Triceps.................................Abs

Calves..................................Legs

If you were to break them up into Upper and Lower body groups, it would look like this:

UPPER...................................LOWER

Chest....................................Legs

Back.....................................Calves

Shoulders...............................Abs

Biceps

Triceps

As you can see, the Upper body seems to have a lot more work to do, but if you work your legs hard, the Lower body day could be your most difficult to survive. Both of the groups above work well, but I prefer to group my body parts like this in a split routine:

TORSO...................................LIMBS

Chest.....................................Legs

Back......................................Biceps

Shoulders...............................Triceps

Abs.......................................Calves

I think that this is the best way to divide up the workload in a split routine and I like the fact that my arms get some general work on the "Torso" day as well as specific work on the "Limbs" day.

Now let me show you what a 6 day split routine would look like using a push/pull grouping.

MONDAY.....TUESDAY.....WEDNESDAY.....THURSDAY.....FRIDAY.....SATURDAY

Chest.........Back...........Legs...............Chest............Back.........Legs

Shoulders....Biceps........Calves.............Shoulders.......Biceps........Calves

Triceps.......Abs..................................Triceps..........Abs

A 5 day split routine is almost the same as the 6 day, except you only train legs one time a week. For most people, that is plenty, and allows better growth due to the extra recovery time. You will have to experiment to find out what works best for you.

MONDAY.....TUESDAY.....WEDNESDAY.....FRIDAY.....SATURDAY

Chest.........Back...........Legs...............Chest........Back

Shoulders....Biceps........Calves............Shoulders...Biceps

Triceps.......Abs.................................Triceps.......Abs

Thursday and Sunday would be your days off.

There you have it! A weekly workout schedule for building muscle mass divided up into a great split routine.

Remember to use a rep range of approximately 8 to 12 repititions or 45 seconds of continuous tension, and to limit the workout to around 45 minutes in length. You can stretch it a little bit, but try to stay close to that limit. Rest periods between sets should be between 90 seconds and 2 minutes 30 seconds. You may not recognize all of the exercises and abbreviation I have used, but you can find detailed explanations on the individual muscle group workout pages for chest, back, shoulders, legs, calves and abs, and arms. Also check out our nutrition and supplement pages to help you make the most out of your time.

I hope you have benefited from this information on designing a split routine, and can use it to reach your bodybuilding goals. Thank you for visiting www.nlpbodybuilding.com!