Training with a split routine allows for adequate rest time for each of your muscle groups. Muscles are broken down in the gym and grow bigger and stronger in between workouts. If you don't rest enough between working out the same muscle groups overtraining can result, stalling your gains and increasing the likelihood of injury.
Strategy
A two-day workout split includes training the upper body on one day and the lower body on an alternate day. If you want to gain muscle mass and strength train for four days per week, this strategy allows for greater muscle recovery time, leading to an increase in hypertrophy, or muscle growth. Train your upper body on day one, lower body on day two and take day three off. Train your upper body on day four, lower body on day five and take days six and seven off. If you seek to increase muscle definition train for two days on and one day off, allowing for less muscle recovery time. For example, train your upper body on day one and lower body on day two and take day three off, repeating the cycle every three days.
Upper Body
Work out your chest with bench presses and incline bench presses to develop muscle size and definition in the chest area. Perform pullups and bent-arm pullovers to add strength to your back muscles and do military presses to add muscle to your shoulder muscles. Do skullcrushers to pack mass onto your triceps muscles and barbell biceps curls to work out the biceps muscles. Do four sets of 10 repetitions to increase muscle strength and size. Rest for one minute between sets to increase the intensity of your workouts.
Lower Body
Blast your quadriceps muscles with deep barbell squats and dumbbell lunges. Work your hamstrings with stiff-legged Romanian deadlifts and leg curls on a machine. The calves, or gastrocnemius muscles, can be worked with calf raises. Train your abdominal muscles with cable crunches and hanging leg raises. Perform four sets of 10 repetitions to increase muscle strength and size. Rest for one minute between each set to ramp up the intensity of your workouts.
Considerations
Stick to basic exercises which work out multiple muscle groups like the squat and bench press if you want to gain muscle mass. If you want more defined muscles add shaping movements like leg extensions on a machine for your legs or cable flyes for your chest. Each of these movements targets specific muscle groups, helping you isolate and tone these muscles with greater ease. Before starting a split workout weightlifting routine consult your physician.
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