Many bodybuilders don't really understand the reason why training is divided into splits where you train bodyparts on different days. They care about which bodypart they should train with which bodypart, when that is a secondary consideration. The reason why you split your training is because the body can only handle a certain amount of training stress in one day, so depending on the number of exercises you do for your entire body, you must split them into different training days. Which bodypart should be trained with each bodypart is another and less important consideration. As a general rule, most Humans can only perform 4 to 6 different exercises during a training session before the sympathetic nervous system starts to release noradrenaline - a sign of stress - and your adrenals start to pump out large amounts of cortisol to mobilize sugar and glucocorticoids to control the inflammation incurred from all the muscle damage. This is bad for recovery and for the general health of the nervous system.
You need only between 12 to 16 different exercises to develop the muscles of your entire body. This means that you should split your training between 2 to 3 different training sessions. A 4 split is completely unnecessary except for the very advanced bodybuilder who competes and needs to do a lot of very specific exercises to bring up lagging bodyparts. Even for the advanced boybuilder, a 3 split is more than enough to train the whole body.
As for which bodypart to train with which, a beggining bodybuilder should train his whole body per session for a total of 6 basic exercises for the first month. This is to create neuromuscular connections and get accustomed to lifting. After that first month, he should switch to a two training split, training his upper body in one session and lower body in another. The intermediary should do a 3 training split. Unlike what some say, he shouldn't train triceps, back and shoulders in one of the upper body sessions and pecs and biceps in another. This is irrational. He should split his upper body into pushing movements and pulling movements, since mixing pulling and pushing exercises in the same training session means that you will always be weak for the next session a couple days latter since you will be using both pushing and pulling movements in the same session. So pulling one session and pushing in another. This means pecs, shoulders and triceps in one of the upper body sessions, and back and biceps in the other. The very advanced bodybuilder should further split to a session for the back alone and divide legs into two training session with quads and calves being trained in one training session and hamstrings can be trained with biceps since biceps cannot be trained with the pushing upper body exercise., since this is a huge bodypart and bringing all the detail in this muscle complex needs 6 exercises or so. Developing back thickness only requires about 3 exercises(deadlift, barbell row and pulldowns) so it can be done inside a 3 split with biceps.
Fresh Bodybuilder(first month of training):
- Train whole body for 6 basic exercises per session two times a week. No split.
Begginer(first year)
- Split training into one for the upper body and one for the lower body 6 exercises each.
If we assume that the guy/girl knows his shit, eat and take his vitamins, he can do it three times a week. In fact two times a week isn't enough even to make your muscles get used to training soreness
Intermediary(1-8 years of training)
- 3 split:
Session 1: Legs
Session 2: Pecs, triceps and shoulders
Session 3: Back and biceps
I recommend to use this split, and I can explain why:
1. Back and shoulders
rest
2. Chest and hands
rest
3. Legs
rest
rest
and all over again. 1. Back is the biggest muscle group and it demand lot of work and energy. So, it has to be done after rest over the weekend. If you do chest first, rest for a day and then try to do wide chins for example, your chest hurts like hell. If not, you haven't train it properly in the first place. You use your shoulders while you are working you back, so your muscles there are warmed up but not too tired to get their share to workout. 2. While you are doing your chest, it doesn't matter if your back is somewhat sore, you just lie on it and do your benches or what ever you do. Your biceps are good to go for your bicep exercises, and you triceps are warmed up by benching, so no problems there. 3. Legs hasn't have any part of previous exercises, so you have to warm them up carefully to avoid any problems. Then you can do what ever you do with them. It really doesn't matter what you do, squat, presses, hack, if you get all out from the muscle. Another key point is just that. You have to do your sets to the failure. If you do 8 reps with the weight you can do 15, you are either warming up or wasting your time. Another point is that you must feel it in the muscle what you are training, and no where else.
Advanced competitive bodybuilder:
- 4 split
Session 1: Quads and calves
Session 2: Hamstrings and biceps
Session 3: Back
Session 4: Pecs, shoulders and triceps
SUCKMYMUSCLE
Same here, the order of the muscle groups is again quite silly. Lets think about this: I have been training my hamstrings two days before, and then I want to do bent over rows or dead lifts for my back, I am sure that I feel my hamstrings while doing that, which means they have not been able to recover enough for doing it. You know, phrase "no pain no gain" mean that you have to work out so hard that you feel soreness in your muscles, but it doesn't mean that the soreness must come from stupidity.
And for those who has reach this "advanced", do you really belong there? One of the key points of the bodybuilding is feeling the muscle, feel how it works while you are doing your exercises. If you don't, start all over again, and this time, use your brains. There is lot of guys who go to gym and just lift without single thought, year after year, and they end up looking like shit, they have injuries and all that shit which is common most of you guys. This isn't just muscle sport, this is mind over muscles - sport. If you have watch training videos and clips on the net, you have seen how to work out when you are pro and you have been doing it 20 years or so. You haven't seen how to start and learn this sport, you have been watching guys who already knows their shit and who are accustomed in their ways in good and bad. Like Kamali, a good bad example. He look really good when he turn pro, but training like an idiot using 2 to 6 spotters spoiled his body, and now he look like shit. Then there is guys Kai, who have been pro few years but who is rising because he knows how to do his exercises. He doesn't use any 2" reps but full range of motion and that's why he has develop so much. Kai thinks what he is doing, he can justify everything because he is smarter than King and most of us in this sport. Furthermore, you can't get far just copying what others has done, you have find the exercises which you can benefit most of, no matter if it is popular or not. For example, if you chest grows best by using one arm dumbbell presses, just do it. If somebody think it is silly, so what? If you know it is best way to do it, just do it.
