One of the biggest if not most important decision to make when you starting out in the gym is to choose which workout split you are going to use.

A workout split acts as a plan for you to stick to a set of exercises and schedule in order to progress effectively. As the saying goes "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail".

It is common to see many beginners starting out learning from experienced individuals on fitness magazines - The Bro Split, which essentially means training each muscle group once a day with high volume throughout each workout E.g. Monday - Chest Day, Tuesday - Back Day, Wednesday - Arms Day, etc

Just to be clear that performing this workout split will undoubtedly allow you to see good progress with time to come, especially if you're a complete beginner at the gym. But one thing to ask yourself is that would you want to make faster progress if you were to perform an alternative workout split? Continue reading to find out.

Firstly, one viable option is to group different muscle groups together in the same workout and one example would be the Upper-Lower Split which is a 4 Day Workout Split

Monday: Upper 1 (All upper body muscles worked)
Tuesday: Lower 1 (All lower body muscles worked)
Wednesday: Rest
Thursday: Upper 2 (All upper body muscles worked)
Friday: Lower 2 (All lower body muscles worked)
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

Another alternative is the Push-Pull-Legs Split which is a 6 Day Workout Split

Monday: Push 1 (Chest, Shoulders & Triceps worked)
Tuesday: Pull 1 (Back & Biceps worked)
Wednesday: Legs 1 (Lower body muscles worked)
Thursday: Push 2 (Chest, Shoulders & Triceps worked)
Friday: Pull 1 (Back & Biceps worked)
Saturday: Legs 2 (Lower body muscles worked)
Sunday: Rest

Last but not least we have the Full Body Workout Split which is a 3 Day Workout Split which works all your muscle groups mainly through compound exercises

Monday: Full Body
Tuesday: Rest
Wednesday: Full Body
Thursday: Rest
Friday: Full Body
Saturday: Rest
Sunday: Rest

And we will explain why the above 3 splits are superior to the Bro Split for a variety of reasons

Frequency refers to how often you are targeting your muscle groups over a period of time e.g. in a week
Volume refers to the number of sets done over a period of time.

Based on this study, it clearly shows that when volume is the same, training each muscle group at least 2 - 3x a week results in greater muscle growth as compared to just targeting each muscle group just 1x a week in a Bro Split.

Higher training frequencies would also allow better protein synthesis response throughout the week but also allow you to perform higher quality sets.

For example if you were perform a Chest Day like on a Bro Split with 4 sets of 4 different exercises, you would find yourself starting to fatigue after your first exercise and your performance will undoubtedly decrease by the time you reach the last exercise.

On the other hand if you were to split your chest exercises into 2 different days with 2 sets of 2 different exercises each, you can better optimised your training with higher quality reps and sets since you are not doing as much volume all at once.


Hence as you can see training with Bro Split with low frequency might not be as optimised for muscle growth as compared to any of the 3 higher frequency workout splits mentioned earlier

There is variety of reasons for which workout split is best for you but it mainly is 1 single factor: Training Experience

If you are a complete beginner that's just getting started out in the gym, we would highly recommend the Full Body Split, 3x a week.

Within each full body workout day, you should be mainly doing compound exercises which targets multiple muscle groups. This is because as a beginner, your primary goal (other than building muscle) is to perfect the movement and form of the compound exercises such as coordination and building up a solid form of foundation for your strength and endurance.

As a beginner, you will find yourself being able to recover quicker and this would allow your strength and muscle growth to efficiently build up as you train 3x a week with rest days in between.

Once you find your progress stalling with full body workouts, you should progress with a 4 Day workout split in order to add more volume training each muscle group while maintain the frequency rule as mentioned earlier and not having each workout being excessively long.

The process continues when you find your progress stalling on a 4 Day workout split, you should move on to a 5 or 6 Day workout split in order to add volume without excessively long workouts.

All in all, keeping the frequency rule in mind while having a certain amount of volume per muscle group is key to maximise your strength and muscle gains. You want to stick consistently to your workout split and continue progressive overload throughout and you will definitely see progress in the gym.


If you're looking for a more detailed strategy to optimise your muscle growth with a step-by-step blueprint for your diet as well as a complete workout routine with exact exercises, reps and rest time for each of the workout splits mentioned earlier, be sure to check out our eBook The Gainz Manual + 30 Day Meal Plan which is essentially a fitness guide to educate everything you need to know about training and nutrition as well as a diet & training plan prepared for you to execute easily.
You can take a look at the table of contents of the eBook as well as the reviews by users of our eBook by clicking the link here