Finding a Workout Split That Matches Your Goals

Okay, so now we get to the fun part: the gym! There is no one way to do fitness, I hope through all this you remember that. What one person does in the gym, or what one person eats doesn’t mean it will work for you, even if you think you have a similar body type. Finding a workout split that fits your lifestyle should also fit the goals you decided on in the last post. Can you commit to going to the gym every day, three times a week, do you have gym access, do you work crazy hours and going to the gym seems like the thing that will break the camel’s back? All these things determine what your workout split should look like.

Here I have written out some different plans that could fit with different schedules and different goals. For individual movements that correlate with the body part I suggest using the free resource of bodybuilding.com.

Scroll through to find which workout split works for you, remember it may not be perfect and you have the freedom to adjust things!

5 Day Bro Split

This is the split for you if you have 5 days to commit to the gym, your goal is not to build muscle as fast as possible (muscle still takes a long time to build but this is a slower method).

The “bro split” targets 1-2 muscle groups a day so therefore that muscle group is targeted less frequently over the course of the week. This split is not the best if your goal is to gain muscle, as your muscle needs to be targeted more frequently for the most optimized growth. For muscle growth, you want volume and time under tension. Your muscle still needs rest in between, but not necessarily this long. Now, if you just want to start being active, you only have 5 days to go the gym, or really want to focus on certain body parts so you can get individual pumps, this may be for you.

6 Day Push Pull Split

This is the split for you if you have 6 days a week to commit to the gym, you want to target specific muscle groups more frequently, and grow muscle/”tone”.

This is the split I do! It allows me to target upper body and lower body parts multiple times throughout the week. This is called a push/pull split because chest and triceps are all pushing motions and those muscles support each other in the related movements. For example, bench pressing mainly targets the chest, though your triceps are also activated and assist in your bench press performance. Same thing for the pull day: Back and Biceps. In a bent over row which targets your back, your biceps are activated. My goals are focused on my upper body right now, which is why I have three days that involve my upper body. This can be adjusted for your individual goals, as long as you give your body adequate rest in between.

3 Day Full Body Split

This is the split for you if you are a beginner, you can only commit 3 days a week to the gym, or you are incorporating other athletic goals with this schedule (training for a marathon/5k/etc).

This 3-day a week workout split calls for 3-full body workouts a week. The idea for this is that you would do a full body circuit every other day. Now, this may fit into your life, schedule wise, but it is important to allow your body adequate rest. Depending on the intensity of your first workout of the week you may not feel rested to train those same muscles again two days later. I suggest focusing movements that target the lower or upper body while incorporating a few movements that target the other. This will allow your body more rest time. In addition, think about incorporating or alternating with bodyweight circuits.

Get Started

Okay, peeps those are just three examples of workout splits that may fit into your lifestyle. Nothing here is the “right” way to do it. There are ways that may fit your goals better, but that is all. Everything here is a standard suggestion, feel free to move days around, just remember to leave adequate rest in between. For example, I do yoga every Tuesday and Thursday so the day before I train legs in order to make sure my upper body is not sore and tired on the day of yoga. That is an example of adjusting a schedule to fit your lifestyle. So much of fitness is figuring out what works for you, but you have to start somewhere.

I really hope this has been helpful for someone who is just getting in the gym and doesn’t necessarily know how to move past the treadmill. I promise lifting weights will do wonders for your body! If you have questions please feel free to leave them in the comment section below, or contact me HERE.