What split is better?

motivatekait
motivatekait Posts: 90 Member
edited November 24 in Fitness and Exercise
Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

Replies

  • AllanMisner
    AllanMisner Posts: 4,140 Member
    There are a few factors to consider:
    1) What are your goals?
    2) How quickly are you recovering from the work?
    3) How much time do you have available to lift?

    I've found full body workouts are good for people who want to build strength and not as good for bodybuilding. Full body workouts can be done two to three times per week depending on your recovery. A solid full body lifting session will take around an hour, so adding warmup and stretching after would mean 90 minutes in the gym. If you can't dedicate that much time, a split (lower body/upper body) would shorten the time in the gym, but you would still want to do each split twice per month.

    Also, if you're doing squats, deadlifts, standing overhead presses, pullups, and other compound movements, you might not need an abs day.
  • rybo
    rybo Posts: 5,424 Member
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    It would be better to follow an established 3x per week full body program
  • sardelsa
    sardelsa Posts: 9,812 Member
    If you are a beginner, body part splits are pretty suboptimal (legs only once a week?). Especially since you are lifting 3 days per week, I would focus on a full body routine for best results which will give you adequate frequency and volume.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    rybo wrote: »
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    It would be better to follow an established 3x per week full body program

    Agreed.

    Only working each muscle group 1x week is pretty inefficient.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    Lots of good answers already, but without knowing what sort of "cardio" you're doing, it's hard to judge.

    Additionally, following a quality program will get you further faster.

    It looks like you're going for GPP(General Physical preparedness)/fitness rather than any particular goal. In that case, a 5 day program that works the whole body and includes an aerobic/cardio program may be more appropriate.

    IOW, identify the goal, and program towards that goal, either with a canned program, or a custom one designed for you.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    edited February 2018
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    I can't think of one scenario where a split as you suggested would be more beneficial than a 3x per week full body workout. body part splits do have their place, but would be more than 3 days/week (typically splits are better in a surplus after you have a great base of strength, and have almost maxed out on you potential doing the full body workouts, or are on steroids), but even in those cases, the split you are doing, would not be the split breakdown of choice.
  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
    erickirb wrote: »
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    I can't think of one scenario where a split as you suggested would be more beneficial than a 3x per week full body workout. body part splits do have their place (in a surplus, after you have a great base of strength, and have almost maxed out on you potential doing the full body workouts, or are on steroids), but even in those cases, the split you are doing, would not be the split breakdown of choice.

    I agree with all the above. An upper/ lower split can be great if you do each 2x a week, not once.
  • jjpptt2
    jjpptt2 Posts: 5,650 Member
    Davidsdottir wrote: »
    erickirb wrote: »
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    I can't think of one scenario where a split as you suggested would be more beneficial than a 3x per week full body workout. body part splits do have their place (in a surplus, after you have a great base of strength, and have almost maxed out on you potential doing the full body workouts, or are on steroids), but even in those cases, the split you are doing, would not be the split breakdown of choice.

    I agree with all the above. An upper/ lower split can be great if you do each 2x a week, not once.

    Also agreed.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Davidsdottir wrote: »
    erickirb wrote: »
    motivatekait wrote: »
    Currently I do upperbody on Monday, abs on Wednesday, and lower body on Friday with cardio on Tuesday/Thursday. Would it be more beneficial to just do a fullbody workout three days a week rather than split up upper/abs/lower body to reduce the rest time between muscles or is it more beneficial to really isolate specific locations with high volume?

    I can't think of one scenario where a split as you suggested would be more beneficial than a 3x per week full body workout. body part splits do have their place (in a surplus, after you have a great base of strength, and have almost maxed out on you potential doing the full body workouts, or are on steroids), but even in those cases, the split you are doing, would not be the split breakdown of choice.

    I agree with all the above. An upper/ lower split can be great if you do each 2x a week, not once.

    Agreed, a push/pull 2x each a week (4 days total) is good too
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    Agree with all of the above with the additional observation that abs don't require one full session. They are an auxiliary a couple of times per week.
  • Linsyb101
    Linsyb101 Posts: 6 Member
    edited February 2018
    .
  • jessef593
    jessef593 Posts: 2,272 Member
    For the best muscle stimuli to protein synthesis, the most recent research shows that 3x a week is far far more beneficial than 1x a week. So yes, 3x full body workouts for sure. But you’d only want like 3-5 sets per muscle group per workout for a total of 9-15 working sets a week. Which is a prime number in most cases.
  • Davidsdottir
    Davidsdottir Posts: 1,285 Member
    Shredder583 wrote: »
    Def split to gives muscles time to recover. 3 x full body workout a week and in a few weeks u will be over it. Keep the split

    Bro, DYEL?
  • motivatekait
    motivatekait Posts: 90 Member
    edited February 2018
    To clarify, I don't have any solidified goals other than to just get stronger/increase health and fitness levels. I just really enjoy it and I love trying new workouts so I've just been playing around with different splits to see which ones I enjoy.
    I've done the fulbody split 3x a week with cardio in between before and I had success with it, so I'll definitely go back to it. I was just trying to isolate different parts because I like completely burning out a particular area and I was curious if that had any benefits, but I can obviously see now that working out a body part only one day a week is not ideal haha. As far as cardio goes, I do 20 min LISS and 10 min HIIT on the spine bike T/TH, and about 10-15 min LISS after training on M/W/F.

    Thanks for the help, everyone!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    Shredder583 wrote: »
    Def split to gives muscles time to recover. 3 x full body workout a week and in a few weeks u will be over it. Keep the split

    Bad advice here. full body 3xweek is the best for beginners to build a good foundation of strength before moving into an intermediate type program.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    motivatekait wrote: »
    To clarify, I don't have any solidified goals other than to just get stronger/increase health and fitness levels. I just really enjoy it and I love trying new workouts so I've just been playing around with different splits to see which ones I enjoy.
    I've done the fulbody split 3x a week with cardio in between before and I had success with it, so I'll definitely go back to it. I was just trying to isolate different parts because I like completely burning out a particular area and I was curious if that had any benefits, but I can obviously see now that working out a body part only one day a week is not ideal haha. As far as cardio goes, I do 20 min LISS and 10 min HIIT on the spine bike T/TH, and about 10-15 min LISS after training on M/W/F.

    Thanks for the help, everyone!

    "burning out a particular area" is only a good idea for advanced lifters in a surplus or on steroids
  • jessef593
    jessef593 Posts: 2,272 Member
    Shredder583 wrote: »
    Def split to gives muscles time to recover. 3 x full body workout a week and in a few weeks u will be over it. Keep the split



    And that is why you are more than likely in a rut.

    I train upper body 4x a week and lower body 3x a week in a carry over split, as per my program. I have at no time had issues recovering aside from deadlifts followed by deadlift variations which just resulted in doms.
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