The Best Training Split For Strength and Muscle

A training split is how you organise your training volume over a training week/microcycle. You'll often read or hear about things like the bro-split, push/pull/legs (PPL), the upper/lower split, power/hypertrophy/upper/lower (PHUL) or full body workouts. With all these options and all these acronyms it can be to get overwhelmed, chop and change, or worst case scenario commit to one that doesn't serve you best.

So in this article I'm going to give you my top 3 training splits for strength and muscle for the everyday athlete, to help you understand what makes a great training split and pick the right one for you.

TL:DR

The best training split for YOU is going to be the split that allows you hit your weekly training volume consistently.

That is all it comes down to. If it means you hit around 10 working sets per week per muscle group week in week out, it's going to be pretty good.

Sure there is some research that will say "X frequency is optimal for Y outcome".

But at the end of the day, if it means you don't hit your training volume in the first place, it is going to be no bueno in terms of results.

As an everyday athlete you may find yourself an ambitious person, maybe even a perfectionist, and as such you get drawn towards what's "optimal".

But when you're juggling multiple stresses, responsibilities, and energy drains, whats optimal in the research doesn't often correlate with what's optimal in your specific set of circumstances.

So don't get bogged down in what the latest influencer or even worse (maybe, influencers are pretty bad as it is), biohacker recommends.

Remember imperfect action always outweighs perfectly planned inaction, and focus on what's going to help you hit your weekly training volume in the easiest way.

Understand Your Limitations

Before I get into what I believe to be the best training splits for everyday athletes, it's important to make sure we're on the same page.

I work with people who can't drop everything every day to prioritise the gym.

You're not a 20 something who lives at home, has all their meals cooked for them and has responsibilities that add up to eat, sleep, train, repeat.

You likely have a serious career or business, a growing family who you need to provide for, people you love who you need to be at your best for, and a group of friends who you have to make time for.

None of this means that you can't train hard and make epic progress.

It just means that you're more likely to:

• Be short on time for a session

• Be short on energy for a session

• Miss the occasional session here or there

So when picking a training split for a client, I need to take these things into account.

I can't write the best training programme for strength and size and give it to someone knowing that if they miss a session it's going to throw the whole thing out. Or if they miss a section it's going to ruin the perfect progression.

My programming needs to be much more agile and robust than that.

Which is why these are my 3 best training splits for strength and muscle as an everyday athlete.

1) 3x Per Week Full Body

It might seem or sound boring, but it works for countless people, over and over again.

This to me is the most robust training split for someone who's circumstances and constantly changing, and their training sessions need to adjust to make it all work.

3 times per week you're going to hit a session that includes as a minimum:

• 1 squat pattern

• 1 hinge pattern

• 1 upper body push

• 1 upper body pull

I'll programme in some extra parts like arms, abs, conditioning and mobility as finishers or fillers.

But the meat and potatoes of the programme is hitting all 4 of those movements every session.

Here's why I love this training split for everyday athletes:

1. It's easy to train intensely (with training intensity being the biggest factor in your progress), at it's 3 training days to 4 recovery days.

2. It's flexible as you only need to fit in 3 dedicated sessions within your week

3. It's adaptable if you need to do sessions consecutively as you do not annihilate any muscle group in any one session.

4. It's robust as if you do miss a session one week, you still accumulate 2/3rds of your training volume on every muscle group.

5. It's effective for strength and size, as you can prioritise one movement to load heavy with strength as the goal, and hit other 3 with a volume based approach for hypertrophy.

6. It's quick, as you can comfortably get 4 sets per movement done in 45 minutes, including a warm-up and finisher.

It's the Swiss army knife of training splits, and it's where I most often start new clients (including the first 60 days of STRONG IN 60).

2) Pull/Push/Full

In a pull/push/full split you're going to be completing:

• 1 session of upper and lower body pulling movements (i.e. deadlifts, pull-ups, rows, direct bicep and hamstring work).

• 1 session of upper and lower body pushing movements (i.e. squats, bench presses, overhead presses, direct pec, tricep and quad work).

• 1 full body session with 1x squat, 1x hinge, 1x upper body push, 1x upper body pull movement.

I love this as a progression from the 3x per week full body split if muscle gain is a higher priority goal than strength.

This is because you can format the pull/push sessions a little more like a traditional bodybuilding session, where you start with a big compound lift, and find more time for specific isolation work after.

A push session could look like this for example:

• High bar back squat

• Barbell bench press

• Seated dumbbell overhead press

• Pec Fly

• Tricep Pushdown

It's a very similar volume of work to then 3x per week full body session, but in that session the pressing muscles are getting a much bigger isolated dose.

You then work your weaknesses in the final full body session per week.

The downside is that if you miss a session, particularly either of the pull/push sessions, you will be missing a big dose of your weekly training volume.

This makes this training split slightly less robust or agile.

3) Lower/Upper/Full

In a lower/upper/full split you're going to be completing:

• 1 dedicated lower body session

• 1 dedicated upper body session

• 1 full body session

This is another variation of the 3x per week full body which I often use if strength is a higher priority than muscle gain.

This is because you can start your week with a lower body session dedicated to the squat and it's accessories, a midweek session dedicated to the bench press and it accessories, and a final full body session that starts with the deadlift and it's accessories.

The downside again is that if you miss a session, particularly either of the lower/upper sessions, you will be missing the majority of your training volume for the week.

As such I usually only programme this and the pull/push/full splits for people who have demonstrated good consistency in their training and have progressed their training age (these make an appearance after a couple of block of STRONG IN 60 once you've caught the bug for example).

With If I Want To Train 4x Per Week?

All of the above are 3x per week training splits, but can be completed over 4 days per week.

For your first session, simply rotate back to session 1, for example:

Monday: Session A

Tuesday Session B

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Session C

Friday: Session A

Saturday: Rest

Sunday Rest

Then the next Monday, start on session B.

For most people, I programme an optional 4th session which is highly accessible. On STRONG IN 60 I call this the "Weekend Warrior", with a "Run" (outdoor) or "Gun" (gym based) option.

These are full of additional work that is of a lower priority, so if you get it in, it's an great bonus, if you miss it, you've already hit all of the essential work.

The run option is also great to fit in a quick, low commitment 30 minute session when you unexpectedly find yourself with a free moment.

For 1-1 coaching clients, everything is bespoke, so if you want a 4 day split, you can have one, and I will write it specifically for you along the lines of the above, but with extra personalisation when needed.