Writing a Bodybuilding Training Programme / Split

By Adam Sinicki

So you've finally decided to bite the bullet and start a training programme. You've signed up to a gym and read up on all the different kinds of moves and all the nutritional advice... now what? What you need my man is a plan! Then you'll be a man with a plan! Or a woman with a plan... Either way... is good.

So how do you go about writing this plan? Well that depends very much on your level of experience, your current fitness and your training goals. I'll walk you through the process.

First of all, if you're just a newbie or are just looking to improve your basic level of health, then you can afford to train your whole body each session to start with. A lot of bodybuilding experts forget that they've got a significant advantage over their smaller counterparts and so often end up writing split-programmes over the course of months that force the beginner to train to exhaustion everyday... this is a bit misleading as they probably started with a very basic programme themselves before they read up on all the stuff. Split programmes only really work for guys who've been training a while and want to grow significantly. I personally started with a 4-day-a-week full-body calisthenics programme and that was sufficient to get me started and whett my appetite. Anything between 3-5 days will be good to start and try to spend around 40 minutes each session. Try to hit every major muscle group and if you miss any out then be sure to focus on that one the next day. The only other thing to consider is the off days - they can go anywhere you like but try to alternate as best as possible between work days and rest days. Right, that's you sorted.

Now for those of you who want to step it up a notch. If you're looking to grow significantly and are considering taking a protein shake or something then you'll probably want to train each muscle group to failure and may want to target each one with 3-4 separate exercises. To do this all in one go each day would take an awfully long time and your muscles would need more time to rest. Not to mention you'd probably die - bad times. So the solution? Split programmes. Here you focus on different body-parts each session so you can really blast them then give them a while to recover (recovery time is essential for growth so don't worry that they're slacking). To start with though you can still cluster certain muscle groups together and so that's what I advised for my buddy Janik when he came to me with high hopes and a brand new tub of weight gainer. The grouping I recommended was the tried-and-tested 'push/pull' system whereby on one day you train all the muscle groups you use to push and then all the groups you use to pull (hence the name). On the pull day you'll be doing biceps, lats etc and on the push day you'll be doing pecs, triceps etc. It's beautiful. For J-bird (that's Janik again) who had minimal time to spend at the gym each day I advised a separate day for abs and legs rather than integrating them into the push/pull. Janik actually also insisted upon a day of Pilates but you needn't bother with that... he's weird. So for you a good push/pull split might look something like this:

Monday: Pull (e.g. lat pull down, bicep curls, rows then pull ups)

Tuesday: Rest

Wednesday: Legs and Abs (e.g. squats, calf raises, sit ups and hanging raises)

Thursday: Push (e.g. bench press, tricep push down, dips and shoulder press)

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Legs and Abs again, or maybe some CV

sunday: Rest

Then again however you might want to take it even further. This is now going to require more commitment in terms of time but if you're willing to make that sacrifice this is the real way to gain some muscle. Writing such a split is fairly straightforward and simply requires pairing a muscle group or two with each day. There are a few considerations however - firstly try and think about which muscles will be used as 'secondary' muscles during a movement. For example, if you were to train biceps monday and lats tuesday you would probably find that your biceps burned on the tuesday during exercises such as the lat pull down/pull up etc. For this reason you'd do well to either combine the two on one day, or move them as far appart as possible (that's why the push-pull system works so well). Also consider that your split needn't necessarily just be over the course of one week; there's no harm in having a 'floating programme' of say 9 days, where the sessions fall on different days each week. Any more than 10 days is probably excessive however as you won't want a muscle group to be inactive any longer than that. Got all that? Let's put it into practice and make one up.

Day 1: Biceps

Day 2: Triceps

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Lats/Shoulders

Day 5: CV/Abs

Day 6: Rest

Day 7: Pecs/Shoulders

Day 8: Legs

Day 9: Rest

This one works nicely as it follows a nice 2-days on 1-day off pattern, and because the hard work/upper body days are nicely spaced across the week. Also as discussed each muscle group has been given a chance to recover before being brought into play as a 'backup'.

Of course you can go even further than that - Bodybuilders for example often do more than one workout a day. Also, just as Janik opted to cut each gym session down and added in some Pilates, so you can adjust your routine to fit around your lifestyle and preferences. You may even forego this type of split entirely and do something like 'The Big Three' (where you just train using Bench Press, Deadlift and Squat - mostly for powerlifters). Another important consideration is to remain flexible - if you miss a day just move it along one, and if you feel like mixing it up do. A programme should act as a guide and not be limiting in anyway. So draw one up then do what the hell you like!