The Best Workout Split for Gaining Muscle—Full Guide

A workout split refers to how you organize your exercises throughout the week. Should you do 2, 3, or 9 workouts? Should you stack all your chest exercises into one of those workouts, split them between two, or do a few sets every workout? We’ll break down all of that.

There are a few different workout splits, each of them good, but each with its own pros and cons:

1. Body Part “Bro Split:” This split focuses on one body part per workout. Monday is Chest Day, Tuesday is Back Day, and so on. This type of split is incredibly popular with bodybuilders—and for good reason.
2. Upper/Lower Split: This split severs your workouts into upper-body days and lower-body days. This split shifts more emphasis toward your lower body, making it great for gaining strength and athleticism. When Marco was helping professional and Olympic athletes bulk up, he had almost all of them on upper/lower splits.
3. Push/Pull/Legs Split: This split organizes workouts by movement pattern. Pushing exercises work the triceps, chest, and shoulders. Pulling exercises target the back and biceps. Leg exercises focus on the entire lower body. It’s more logical than a Bro Split but also less clever and efficient.
4. Full Body Split: With full-body workouts, you train your entire body every workout, which is ideal for beginner and early intermediate lifters. I gained my first 50 pounds this way. It’s an incredibly powerful split for building muscle in a hurry.
5. Hybrid Splits: This split combines different ideas together. For example, maybe you add an upper/lower split to a push/pull/legs split, giving you a 5-day workout routine for gaining strength, athleticism, and muscle size. Or if your arms are lagging behind, maybe you add an Arm Day to your full-body routine.

Without further ado, let’s break all these splits down so you can find the one that’s best for you.

Splitting Up Your Training Volume

Before we delve into workout splits, we need to talk about how much and how often you should train your muscles. Once we know that, we can figure out how to divide your workouts into a split that gives you the best training volume and frequency.

How Many Sets Should You Do?

Let’s start with how much you should train your muscles. Schoenfeld and colleagues found that our rate of muscle growth increases with every additional challenging set we do, at least to a point (study). If we look at another study by Aube and colleagues, we see that by the time you’re doing 6 sets per muscle per workout, we start building less muscle with every extra set (study).

That gives us a relationship that looks something like this, with 9–18 sets per week yielding a maximal amount of muscle growth. The catch is that we need to spread that volume out so that we aren’t doing more than 6 sets per muscle per workout. For instance, doing 3 sets of bench presses on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday gives us 9 sets per week to bulk up your chest, which is perfect.

Now, there’s a caveat here. We’re assuming that you’re doing hypertrophy training, lifting in a way that’s ideal for building muscle.

• If your sets are too heavy (under 6) or light (over 40), you won’t stimulate muscle growth as efficiently and may need more sets.
• If your rest times are too short, your muscles won’t be able to do as much work, so you may need extra sets.
• If you aren’t choosing good exercises, you may not be challenging your muscles in as deep of a stretch, so you may need extra sets.
• If you take each set to total failure, you won’t be able to recover from as many sets.

9–18 sets per muscle group per week is a good default, but a little more or less is fine, and everyone is different. For beginners, 9 sets per muscle per week is a great place to start. (For more, we have a full article on training volume.)

How Often Should You Train Your Muscles?

The next thing to consider is how often you should train your muscles. We’re aiming for at least 9 sets for each muscle each week. But if we do more than 6 sets per muscle per workout, it stops being effective. In fact, it may begin to reduce your muscle growth. So ideally, you want to split those 9+ sets into at least two workouts.

If we look at another meta-analysis by Schoenfeld and colleagues, we see that the logic holds (study). If we train our muscles at least twice per week, we gain muscle quite a bit faster than if we only train them once. When we’re training more than twice per week, though, it stops mattering. (For more, we have a full article on training frequency.)

How Long Should You Rest Between Workouts?

One of the main purposes of training splits is to let your muscles grow and heal between workouts. It usually takes around three days for a muscle to finish growing and healing. But it can take even longer if you’re new to training, taking your sets to failure, or doing a ton of sets for each muscle (study).

Here’s the part that few people talk about:

• Some parts of your body are stressed each workout, even if you aren’t training them directly. You hold the barbell in your hands whether you’re doing deadlifts or bench presses. You’re putting weight on your spine, whether you’re doing squats or overhead presses. Even if you split your workouts into different muscle groups, you may still hammer some areas every single workout.
• Even if your muscles have recovered, your tendons and joints may not have.

If you’re desperate to build muscle, it can be tempting to go all in. It can be tempting to lift in lower rep ranges, to bring every set close to failure, and to train as often as possible. That can be risky. It’s fine for building muscle in the short term—neither better nor worse than a more sensible approach—but it can take a real toll on your body in the longer term.

Everyone has different predispositions for injury. Many people get away with reckless training. But many people also wind up injured, aching, and nursing chronic injuries. It often helps to start with full rest days between workouts, only 3 sets per exercise, and only 3 workouts per week. That’s enough to stimulate a maximal amount of muscle growth but not so much that it starts truly beating you up.

Your muscles usually recover within 1–3 days, especially once you get used to your training routine. Some training splits are designed to allow you to train every day, alternating between different muscles. Those can be great, but as a beginner, it’s often best to take full days of rest between your workouts.

A Breakdown of the Best Training Splits

To build muscle at full speed, we need to do at least 9 sets per muscle per week, and we need to train each muscle at least twice per week. That gives us a ton of freedom when designing our training splits. Many different workout splits can be perfect for gaining muscle.

So, how do you pick your training split? It depends on your experience level, your goals, and your preferences. Each split has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The Full-Body Workout Split

A full-body workout is one where you train most of the muscles in your body. You don’t need to train every muscle in your body. For instance, if you do a goblet squat, bench press, Romanian deadlift, and chin-up, you haven’t trained your neck or calves, but it still counts as a full-body workout. These big compound lifts are incredibly good for packing on muscle mass, and so if we’re doing all of them every 2–3 days, we can gain muscle at a tremendous pace.

Full-body workout routines aren’t always training splits. Some full-body routines will have you repeating the same exercises every workout. Every workout, you’d do the goblet squat, bench press, Romanian deadlift, and chin-up. That’s not a split. Every workout uses the same exercises to train the same muscles. These routines are amazing for practicing the big compound exercises, but less good for building muscle.

Most full-body workout routines are splits. Each workout trains the entire body, but each workout uses slightly different lifts. Maybe one workout, you do goblet squats, bench presses, chin-ups, bicep curls, and tricep extensions. Then the next workout, you do Romanian deadlifts, push-ups, rows, lateral raises, and crunches. This gives you greater exercise variety and more balanced muscle growth.

Most popular beginner routines try to get the best of both worlds. If you look at a program like Starting Strength, you’ll see that they repeat the back squat every workout, but they alternate between different pressing and pulling movements. That gives more practice on the hardest lift (the squat) and less on easier lifts (the row). We take a similar approach. We practice the difficult movements (like squats, push-ups, and chin-ups) while alternating the isolation movements (like bicep curls, tricep extensions, and lateral raises).

Most full-body routines are done 3x per week, like so:

• Monday: full-body workout.
• Tuesday: rest.
• Wednesday: full-body workout.
• Thursday: rest.
• Friday: full-body workout.
• Saturday: rest.
• Sunday: rest.

Full-body workout routines boast several advantages:

• There’s a huge emphasis on the big compound lifts. If you need to train your entire body in a single workout, you need to rely on compound lifts. These compound lifts are incredible for building muscle.
• Full-body workouts are the most efficient way to build muscle. Every workout, you’re stimulating growth in every muscle. Even with just three workouts per week, you can build muscle at full speed.
• Full-body workouts are amazing for gaining strength. Frequent practice is a huge aspect of improving your coordination. If you’re squatting, benching, and deadlifting three times per week, your strength and skill will improve extremely fast.
• There’s plenty of emphasis on recovery. There’s a full day of rest between each workout, giving your muscles, joints, and tendons plenty of time to recover. This is especially important for beginners, who may not have built up much toughness yet.

Full-body workouts also have several disadvantages:

• They leave less time for isolation lifts. After doing compound lifts for all your major muscle groups, you won’t have much energy left for isolation lifts. For beginners, this doesn’t matter very much. For intermediate and advanced lifters, getting stronger at isolation lifts is an important part of developing all of your muscles.
• As you get stronger, lifting weights becomes more tiring. You need to do more warm-up sets, lift more weight, do more sets, and add in more isolation lifts. Trying to fit all of that into just three workouts per week gets hard.
• Full-body workouts don’t suit higher training frequencies very well. You could do five full-body workouts per week, choosing different exercises each workout. But at that point, it’s hard for your joints and tendons to recover. If you want to train more often, training splits are usually better.
• The workouts can be long. Most full-body workouts take at least 45 minutes, and 90-minute workouts aren’t uncommon.

Overall, full-body workouts are usually ideal for beginners who are trying to build muscle, gain strength, and improve their health. They’re a great default during your first couple of years of lifting. (I gained my first 40 pounds with full-body workouts.)

The Upper/Lower Split

When Marco trains college, professional, or Olympic athletes, he almost always uses upper/lower workout splits. They’re incredibly good for improving athletic performance.

An upper/lower split has you dividing up your workouts into upper-body and lower-body workouts. For instance, maybe you do squats, Romanian deadlifts, and calf raises during your lower-body workouts and bench presses, chin-ups, and arm exercises during your upper-body workouts.

The classic upper/lower split will have you training 4 days per week, like so:

• Monday: upper-body workout.
• Tuesday: lower-body workout.
• Wednesday: rest.
• Thursday: upper-body workout.
• Friday: lower-body workout.
• Saturday: rest.
• Sunday: rest.

This is a great training split for intermediate lifters who are beginning to struggle with full-body workouts. It spreads the workload out a bit more, making each workout easier. It also allows them to add extra emphasis to their lower-body training, which can be helpful for a lot of sports. When Marco was a strength coach working with college, professional, and Olympic athletes, these routines were very popular with his clients.

Advanced bodybuilders often prefer the 6-day version:

• Monday: upper-body workout.
• Tuesday: lower-body workout.
• Wednesday: upper-body workout.
• Thursday: lower-body workout.
• Friday: upper-body workout.
• Saturday: lower-body workout.
• Sunday: rest.

There are a few advantages to upper/lower training splits:

• You get an extra 1–3 days in the gym, giving you more freedom to do shorter workouts or add in more isolation exercises. It also spreads out the effort, making each workout easier.
• Upper/lower splits emphasize the lower body, which is great for athletes who need a ton of lower-body power. Think rugby or football players. It’s also great for bodybuilders who are trying to build huge legs. And for powerlifters who are eager to gain squat and deadlift strength.

There are a few disadvantages, too:

• You need to spend 1–3 extra days in the gym.
• Some areas of your body are stressed each workout, including your hands, core, and spine. You can mitigate this by choosing lighter lifts with less axial loading (like split squats instead of squats) or using exercise machines (like the leg press).

Overall, upper/lower splits are ideal for intermediate and advanced athletes, bodybuilders, and powerlifters who want to spend 1–3 extra days lifting weights and put extra emphasis on leg development.

The Push/Pull/Legs Split

The push/pull/legs split divides our body up into the push muscles (chest, shoulders, and triceps), the pull muscles (back and biceps), and the leg muscles (glutes, quads, and hamstrings). These muscles work together, such as the bench press working the chest, shoulders, and triceps or the chin-up working both the back and biceps.

There are two common variations of the push/pull/legs workout. The first is the 3-day variation:

• Monday: chest day.
• Tuesday: rest.
• Wednesday: back day.
• Thursday: rest.
• Friday: leg day.
• Saturday: rest.
• Sunday: rest.

These workouts were extremely popular back in the day, but they aren’t a great way to build muscle. They only train each muscle once per week, and the volume is far too high in each workout. If you’re only training 3 days per week, it’s better to do full-body workouts.

There’s a 6-day push/pull/legs variation, though, and it solves all of these problems:

• Monday: chest day.
• Tuesday: back day.
• Wednesday: leg day.
• Thursday: chest day.
• Friday: back day.
• Saturday: leg day.
• Sunday: rest.

Each muscle is trained twice per week with a reasonable volume. It’s a much better way to train, and it’s very popular among advanced bodybuilders who eager to bulk up their upper bodies.

Push/pull/legs splits have a few notable advantages:

• Push/pull/legs splits put proportional emphasis on the upper body, which is great for improving your appearance. A chest day can include the bench press, overhead press, and triceps extensions. Back Day can include chin-ups, rows, and biceps curls. Leg Day can include squats, Romanian deadlifts, and calf raises. All the big compound exercises and muscle groups can be trained with ferocious fervour.
• They also spread out the effort, giving you more freedom to do shorter, easier workouts or add in more isolation exercises.

There are a few disadvantages, too:

• You need to spend 3 extra days in the gym.
• Some areas of your body are stressed each workout, including your hands, core, and spine. If you’re careful, you can choose a mix of lifts that won’t have you overdoing it. Think of leg presses instead of squats and one-arm dumbbell presses instead of barbell overhead presses.

Overall, 6-day push/pull/legs splits are ideal for advanced lifters and bodybuilders trying to fully develop their physiques. They’re also ideal for recreational lifters who prefer doing short workouts every day instead of longer workouts every second day.

The Body Part “Bro Split”

Bro Splits are similar to 3-day push/pull/leg splits, except that there’s an extra day dedicated to arm training (and sometimes another extra day dedicated to shoulder training). They look like this:

• Monday: Chest
• Tuesday: Back
• Wednesday: Legs
• Thursday: Shoulders
• Friday: Arms
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest

3-day push/pull/leg workout splits aren’t ideal for gaining muscle, but the Bro Split solves some of those problems in an interesting way. It’s not ideal for athletes or powerlifters, but it’s a great way for bodybuilders to train for muscle growth and aesthetics.

Bro Splits have a few advantages:

• You can train your upper-body muscles 2–3 times per week. To do this, include some compound lifts on Arm Day and Shoulder Day. Think of chin-ups for your biceps, close-grip bench press for your triceps, and overhead presses for your shoulders.
• Your arms get extra emphasis. It’s common for skinny guys to have thinner, lagging arms. That was certainly the case for me. The Bro Split solves that problem with a dedicated Arm Day, where you prioritize smaller lifts ideal for building bigger arms: close-grip bench, skull crushers, biceps curls, and forearm exercises.
• The workouts are slightly easier. Because of the extra training day, you aren’t trying to cram as much work into each workout.

There are a few disadvantages to Bro Splits, too:

• You have to spend an extra 1–2 days in the gym.
• Your legs aren’t trained often enough. One leg day per week isn’t enough to maximize the rate of muscle growth in your legs.
• The big compound lifts are only done once per week. That’s not ideal for improving your coordination and strength. As a result, these splits are a poor choice for beginners.

Overall, the Bro Split is a great workout split for building muscle. It’s ideal for intermediate lifters who want to emphasize their upper bodies. The catch is you need to train 4–5 days per week.

Hybrid Workout Splits

There are a million different workout splits, and you can invent any style you want. For instance, my favourite 4-day workout routine is a split that combines a full-body split with an upper/lower routine, like so:

• Monday: full-body.
• Tuesday: rest.
• Wednesday: full-body.
• Thursday: rest.
• Friday: deadlifts and squats.
• Saturday: upper-body lifts.
• Sunday: rest.

The heavy squats and deadlifts get their own day, keeping that work short, focused, and heavy. That frees up room for a fun Saturday where I can do my favourite upper-body lifts without worrying about my lower body. This is one of the options in our Outlift Intermediate Bulking Program, and it’s how I gained my last 10–15 pounds of muscle.

Summary

As a general rule of thumb, beginners benefit from fewer sets and more days of full recovery. This biases them towards full-body workouts. Intermediates, on the other hand, are lifting more weight, their training is more tiring, and they benefit from doing slightly more sets. As a result, they can benefit from splitting their work up over more days, which is where upper/lower splits, push/pull/legs splits, and Bro Splits come in.

• Full-body workouts: ideal for beginners who want to get bigger and stronger. A good default is to do these full-body workouts three times per week with 1–2 days of rest between each workout.
• 3-day push/pull/legs splits: not ideal. Full-body routines are better if you’re only working out 2–3 times per week.
• 4-day upper/lower splits: ideal for athletes and intermediate lifters who want to emphasize their legs.
• 4-day Bro Splits: ideal for intermediate recreational lifters who want to emphasize their arms.
• 6-day upper/lower splits: ideal for advanced lifters who want to emphasize their legs.
• 6-day push/pull/legs splits: ideal for advanced bodybuilders who know how to manage their recovery. Also ideal for experienced recreational lifters who enjoy doing short daily workouts.

There are a million other splits, and many of them are perfect for building muscle. All you need to do is make sure you’re training each muscle at least twice per week, that you aren’t doing more than around 6 sets per muscle per workout, and that you’re letting your body (including your joints and tendons) recover properly between workouts.

Alright, that’s it for now. If you want to know the ins and outs of bulking up, we have a free newsletter. If you want a full muscle-building program, including a 5-month workout routine, a bulking diet guide, a gain-easy recipe book, and online coaching, check out our Bony to Beastly Bulking Program. Or, if you want a customizable intermediate bulking program, check out our Outlift Program.