How to Determine Your Workout Split

There is a lot of confusion when it comes to workout splits. How many times a week should you work out? What muscle group should I work on those days? How often is TOO often to hit legs. Below, you’ll find a list of some common workout splits and some splits that I like to incorporate for my clients. But first things first, let’s help to determine what your workout split should be.

The best way to start is simple, how many days a week can you work out? Notice how I didn’t say “how many times do you WANT to work out”. With busy schedules and responsibilities, it’s important to be realistic when answering this question. Keep in mind that this number may go up or down throughout life depending on your goals and changes in your life.

A good way to look at this is: if you’re working out more, you can be more specific. If you’re working out less, you should be more general. For example, if you’re working out three days a week, then you want to be sure you’re working out your entire body throughout those three days. Conversely, if you’re working out five or six days per week, you can be more specific with your workouts by targeting specific muscle groups on each day.

Let’s look at some examples:

Three Days per Week

• Three Full Body workouts

• Upper, Lower, Full Body

• Upper, Lower, Upper (switch to Lower, Upper, Lower the following week and go back and forth)

• Push, Pull, Legs

Four Days per Week

• Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower

• Legs, Push, Pull, Legs

• Chest, Back, Arms and Shoulders, Leg Day

Five Days per Week

• Legs, Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders and Arms

• Legs, Push, Pull, Legs, Shoulders

As you can see, each day becomes more specific as more workouts are added to the week. This list is FAR from all inclusive, but hopefully it will give you an idea of a workout split to try, or help you to change up your current routine. Remember that the best workout split is the one that works best for your body and your lifestyle, and you can always try a new one if you feel like you aren’t progressing. As long as you’re working your entire body each week (stop skipping leg day, guys!) and staying on track with your goals, then the workout split you choose is a good fit.