How to choose a workout split

How do you choose a workout split?

Start with the number of days you will train in a bad week, not a good one. That number picks the split. A split is how you divide the muscles across your training days. Everything else, from exercise choice to sets and reps, is detail on top.

Why does training frequency decide it?

Hard sets per muscle per week drive muscle growth. Research on frequency generally favors splitting those sets across 2 sessions rather than one, for the same weekly total. 12 sets for the chest work better as 2 sessions of 6 than one session of 12, because you do the sixth set of a session fresher than the twelfth.

That is the case for full body, upper/lower and PPL, and the case against a 5-day plan with one muscle a day. But the effect is not big enough to outweigh the plan you will actually follow. That is why the table above starts with your days, not with the theory.

What are the common splits?

Full body, 2 to 3 days

Every session trains everything. It suits beginners, anyone coming back after a break, and anyone whose week often loses a day. You practice the main lifts often, which a new lifter needs more than extra sets.

5x5 strength, 3 days

2 barbell sessions in turn, 5 sets of 5, adding weight every session. It is the fastest way for an untrained lifter to build a base of strength, and it has an end. When you can no longer add weight every session, you move on.

Upper/lower, 4 days

2 upper-body days and 2 lower-body days, so each muscle gets trained twice a week. It is the best default for most intermediate lifters: it fits a normal week, trains each muscle often, and no session runs much over an hour.

Push/pull/legs, 6 days

3 sessions, each run twice: pushing muscles, pulling muscles, then legs. Lots of sets, each muscle trained often, and a real demand on recovery. It suits lifters with a year or 2 of steady training and a stable schedule. It also works as a 3-day plan with a rest day between sessions.

Bro split, 5 days

One muscle group per day. Each muscle is trained less often than on the other splits, but many people enjoy it more, and that counts. If it is the plan that gets you to the gym 5 times a week, the frequency argument loses.

Which 3 questions settle it?

How many days will you train in a bad week?

Build for that number. A 6-day plan run 4 times a week is a worse 4-day plan.

How long can a session be?

Fewer days means longer sessions. 3 full-body days of 40 minutes cannot fit enough sets. Either the days or the minutes have to give.

What does your gym look like when you train?

A plan built on the squat rack at 6pm in January is a plan built on waiting. The equipment you can actually get to is part of the choice.

What matters less than you think?

The name of the split. 2 plans with the same weekly hard sets per muscle, the same effort and the same progression give similar results, whatever they are called. Pick the one you can repeat for 12 weeks and stop reading comparisons.

How Trackist picks the split

Trackist asks 14 questions about your goal, experience, equipment, joints, schedule, session length and age. From the answers, it writes a plan of 4 to 12 weeks in the split the table above would point you to, with every exercise, set, rep target and rest already chosen.

If the split turns out wrong, you can change it. Change your training days on your profile, and the coach can rebuild the rest of the plan around them. Report a week as too hard twice, in different weeks, and the remaining weeks are rebuilt around where you are. You can also reorder, swap or remove exercises in the plan editor. When the plan ends, the coach writes the next one from what this one produced.

Browse the plans to see each split in full.