A full-body workout targets all the major muscles in one session. For a split routine, you divide the body into different areas and train one area per session. You can divide your body in several different ways, but you should train certain muscles together. On the day you work your biceps, also exercise your back or triceps.
Muscle Workout Frequency
Rest is an important factor in designing an effective strength-training routine. "More is better" doesn't pertain to resistance workouts. Your muscles become stronger and bigger when you rest them after an intense workout. If you work a muscle too often and don't give it proper recovery time, you risk over training the muscle, causing it to become weaker and smaller. When you design your workout split, you shouldn't train your biceps, or any other muscle, two days in a row.
Back and Biceps
Your back and biceps muscles are pulling muscles. Working your back and biceps together is a natural pairing because your biceps are involved in most back exercises. The biceps assist during multi-joint, compound back exercises, such as rows, pullups and pulldowns. If you work your back separately from your biceps, you cannot train your back the day before or after your biceps because you will essentially work your biceps two days in a row.
Triceps and Biceps
You can create a training split that has one session dedicated to arm exercises. The triceps and biceps are opposing muscle groups. The biceps flex, or bend, your elbow; the triceps extend, or straighten, your elbow. When the biceps are working, the triceps are in a stretch position and vice versa. This means you can work these two muscles one directly after another, which reduces your rest time, making your workout shorter. If you use this style of split, do not train your chest or back within 48 hours of training your arms.
Other Splits
An upper/lower split separates your body into two halves. Exercise your biceps with all the other upper body muscles, including your back, chest, shoulders and triceps. You can work your lower body the next day, but wait 48 hours before hitting your upper body again. A full-body workout hits all the major muscles, including your biceps, in one session. Wait 48 hours before doing another full-body workout.
However you structure your workout split, make sure you schedule at least one day of rest between workouts that exercise the biceps.
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