When planning a workout schedule you must consider what your goals are and how many days a week you would like to train. For some individuals, two or three total-body workouts a week is sufficient. However, individuals looking for more muscular growth and development may need a more demanding and specific training split to follow.
Total Body
A total-body workout is usually the best option for individuals beginning a strength training program. A total-body workout includes exercises targeting every body part in one workout. This type of training split meets the minimum recommendations of eight to 10 strength training exercises, eight to 12 repetitions of each exercise twice a week, according to the American College of Sports Medicine. However, a total-body workout can be performed up to three times a week on non-consecutive days such as Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Upper/Lower Training Split
An upper/lower body training split involves training upper body on one day then lower body on another day. Upper body would include muscle groups for chest, shoulders, back, abs and arms. Lower body muscles would target quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings and calves. Upper/lower body training split can be performed once or twice a week. A twice a week schedule might look like this -- Monday and Thursday train upper body, and Tuesday and Friday train lower body.
Antagonist Training Split
Antagonist training split involves training opposing muscle groups on the same day such as chest/back, quadriceps/hamstrings and biceps/triceps. Calves can be included with legs, abs included with arms, and shoulders included with chest/back. This training split can be performed three times a week such as chest/back on Monday, quadriceps/hamstrings on Wednesday and biceps/triceps on Friday. This split can also be on a rotating schedule such as chest/back on Monday, quadriceps/hamstrings on Tuesday, biceps/triceps on Wednesday, rest on Thursday and repeat on Friday.
Push/Leg/Pull Training Split
The push/leg/pull training split involves training all the pushing muscles -- chest, triceps, shoulders -- on day one, lower body on day two, and pulling muscles -- back, biceps, abs -- on day three. A three day a week training schedule might look like this: Pushing muscles on Monday, legs on Wednesday, and pulling muscles on Friday. This training split can be performed on a rotating schedule such as the antagonist training split, or six days a week with one rest day such as pushing muscles on Monday, legs on Tuesday, pulling muscles on Wednesday, pushing muscles on Thursday, legs on Friday, pulling muscles on Saturday and rest on Sunday.
Considerations
A six day a week training program is advanced, and should be performed with caution to prevent over-training. Allow at least 48 hours rest before retraining a muscle group. Do not train unless you are fully recovered from the previous session. If the body part you last trained is still sore on your next scheduled training day for that body part, you have not recovered, according to Jim Brewster of Bodybuilding.
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