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Body part splits or full body workouts?
Posted by: Shawn
Firstly we need to make sure that we are on the same page when describing a full body split routine. It means training your whole body three times a week and a body-part split routine means training each body-part twice a week like doing upper body on Monday, lower body on Tuesday and repeating Thursday and Friday.
We will not go into the detail of training one body-part a week which although will not gain muscle it can help to maintain muscle mass that we are going to assume is not your objective. We are training to increase muscle mass on a regular basis and that means attacking the same body-part at least twice a week.
The argument can get quite complicated so we will not be presenting all the different split routines that you can do. Whether you mix up your upper and lower body doing pushing and pulling movements or doing high intensity followed by low intensity will not make a measurable difference to muscle gain because we always need to change routines every 8 to 12 weeks.
The truth is that the best routine for you is going to be a training routine that suits your lifestyle and your ability to stick to a training schedule. Committing yourself to train 4 or 5 times a week and you only get to the gym once or twice a week is not going to do anything for you.
There are countless variations you can do, even training your whole body three times a week you can change the way you attack a muscle group by varying the sets and reps as well as the order in which body-parts are trained. The most important decision when selecting a 3 day split or a 5 day split is going to be your ability to stick to your training schedule.
Bodybuilders who have been training for less than a year generally are able to recuperate faster than someone who is able to train with higher intensity and is training to failure. This is why beginners start off training the whole body 3 times a week and if you have been training more than a year a 5 day split is recommended as you train each body-part twice a week and not three.
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