MH Answers: Are Workout Splits Better Than Full-Body Sessions?
It may be a platitude, but it’s true: the best training plan is the one you’ll stick to. If you enjoy your current routine, don’t rush to adopt one you might have less fun with.
However, there’s a reason why many gym-goers prefer to split up their weekly workouts to control how often they hit specific muscle groups – chest day, legs day and so on.
‘Adding structure to your routine can help you reach your goals faster than simply doing what you feel like on the day,’ says Milo Macdonald-Thomas, co-owner of The Strength Room in London.
Training specific muscle groups on specific days naturally means you’ll work them harder. However, it also means you’ll need more time to recover before you focus on them again.
‘Whether training for hypertrophy [muscle growth] or general strength, what matters most is intensity,’ says Macdonald-Thomas. In other words, as long as you’re challenging yourself with an adequate stimulus and making consistent progress, there’s no great benefit to following specific splits versus adopting a pick-and-mix approach to your exercise choices.
To put it another way, spending 10 minutes on your legs three times a week isn’t more or less beneficial than one 30-minute squat and lunge sesh.
Want to experiment? There are a few protocols you could adopt. ‘Upper and lower splits are straightforward and effective,’ says Macdonald-Thomas. ‘If you’re hitting multiple sessions per week, add “biases” to them – for example, making your first upper-body workout chest-focused and the second biased towards your back and lats.’
Or you can try the pull, push, legs method. ‘Pull might be back, biceps and rear delts; push day chest, front delts and triceps; then lower body on your third day,’ he says. Let us know how you get on.
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