Guidlines for Forming a Training Split

1. To achieve maximum muscle growth, only work each body-part once a week.

Due to the realities that your muscles grow during rest, and that sufficient recovery cannot be attained for a muscle that gets worked more than once a week for 15 plus sets, it is only plausible to work each body-part once a week.  This approach is a fundamental standard established among serious bodybuilders, and has been proven to be the most efficient, in terms of increasing muscle mass and definition. Thoroughly working out a given muscle muscle more than once a week in your routine is considered “over-training”.

However, it would not be too detrimental to your body if you ever decided to work a specific muscle twice a week for a limited amount of time. Sometimes, professional bodybuilders strategically decide to prioritize a specific lagging muscle by temporarily working it out twice a week. However, they know that they cannot engage in this activity permanently and that they can only apply it for  1 or 2 muscles at any given time. Anything more that that would overly tax the body as a whole, zap energy levels, and thus lead to injury.

2. Certain combinations of body-parts should not be worked out on the same day nor on consecutive days.

It is virtually impossible to exercise any major body-part without other muscles entering into the equation. For example, if done right, the bench press works mostly the chest, but also significantly taxes the shoulder muscles as well. This consequence can be offset to a certain extent by using proper technique during lifts and engaging in more isolation exercises (as opposed to mass-building exercises), but is is physically impossible to completely isolate a major muscle in a workout. For this reason, there are certain combinations of muscles with this type of overlap which should trained at least 48 hours apart from each other.

Hitting overlapping muscles during consecutive days results in over-training, and working them out in the same day provides an injustice to the second muscle being trained in the equation by pre-fatiguing it, and thus not allocating enough energy to it. For example, if you work your chest right before your shoulders on the same day, you will not be able to lift as much weight with your shoulders as you could when you are fresh since the chest exercises will significantly wear your shoulders out even before you engage in your first exercise for it. The next several guidelines for forming a bodybuilding training split will address some of these specific overlapping combinations.

3. The chest, shoulders, and triceps are an overlapping combination and should not be worked out within 48 hours of each other in most cases (there is debate as to whether the triceps can be worked out on chest and shoulder day) .

Chest exercises like the bench press significantly tax the shoulders, but not as much as an isolation chest movement such as dumbbell flys would. Conversely, the main shoulder exercises (shoulder press with both a barbell and dumbbells) significantly tax the upper chest, but not so much with isolation movements like side or rear laterals. Also the main exercises for both the chest and shoulders inevitably tax the triceps.

Some bodybuilders like to work their triceps right after their chest or shoulders in their routine because they believe its an effective way to more heavily burden that muscle, but the majority of them do not since they prefer to exercise their triceps while they are fresh.

4. Back exercises greatly tax the biceps, so therefore, the biceps should not be trained right before your back in your routine.

Back exercises such as the lat pull-down, if done without proper technique, may target your biceps even more so than some bicep specific exercises do! Using proper form on back exercises in order to isolate the back is probably more difficult than isolating any other specific body-part. As was the case with the triceps and chest, some  prefer to hit their biceps right after they work out their back but it is certainly not plausible to do the reverse.

5. The back and legs should not be performed on the same day or on consecutive days in your routine.

Squats and leg presses are fundamental components of any legitimate thigh routine and stiff legged dead-lifts are essential for properly targeting the hamstrings. What all of these exercises have in common is that they all heavily involve the use of the back muscles. Therefore,  the back and legs should not be worked out within 48 hours of each other.

6. Your calves and abs may be worked more than once a week.

The calves and abdominals are dense body-parts with the capacity to recover very fast. For this reason, they can be worked up to 3 or 4 times a week. But just because they are allowed to be hit more than once a week does not mean that they have to be. Some professional bodybuilders opt to train their calves once a week and not even work their abs at all.

The path to a visible 8-pack is not mainly contingent upon doing ab exercises. Instead, it is engagement in cardio and staying lean which will make your abs visible. Even Branch Warren, who has already in his young career achieved the status of being a bodybuilding legend, hasn’t trained his abs throughout most of his career.

However, it is not advisable to exclude the calves from your routine. Neglecting your calves will cause them to remain underdeveloped. And having what is referred to as “chicken legs” is not a favorable look. Don’t be like one of those guys at the gym with legs that are so thin relative to the rest of their body that they have to wear sweatpants to cover them up to ovoid embarrassment. As to the number of days a week you should train your calves, you must experiment on your own to figure out what works best for you.