Training Splits

Everyone who trains at one point or another will dissect their training split and wonder if what they’re doing is right or if they could be more efficient. There are tons and tons of different splits out there from TBT(Total body training) to hitting a body part once a week to as much as training 2 times a day etc. Every person’s body is different and the key is to find what split works for your body. This also highly depends on your schedule and recovery ability. Some people can get away with training a body part 2-3 times a week while others don’t get any growth hitting it 2 times a week. Training volume needs to be taken into account also. If you’re going in and blasting out something ridiculous like 40 sets while being a natty, you can’t expect to hit it again after a few days and get growth.  Manual labour intensive jobs also have to be taken into account, if you’re a construction worker hauling heavy loads of materials every day, you need to take that into account and probably only hit each body part once a week unless you have fantastic genetics for recovery. In order for any training split to be successful you need 4 things:

1. Consistency
2. Solid diet
3. Adequate rest
4. Intensity

Another thing to factor in is that training splits will change over time as your body changes and develops. You more than likely will not be sticking to one training split for your whole lifting career. For example. When I started training I was using TBT but slowly shifted towards training each body part twice a week. I wasn’t growing using TBT so I started using a split. After that I went to training each body part once a week which gave me even better growth.  Now I’m going to start hitting certain body parts twice again but it’s going to be split over probably 10 days instead of 7 to give myself more time for recovery. When choosing a training split you need to cater to what your body needs. If you’re not growing and your diet and rest are on point then you need to take a good look at your training! Progression is the name of the game. There really is no one best training split, all of them work but it depends on the person and their lifestyle. Find something that works around your schedule and lifestyle and stick to it. Have fun with it, if you pick something that makes you miserable you won’t keep at it. You get what you put into it. "You only ever grow as a human being if you're outside your comfort zone." - Percy Cerutty   Ryan is a business graduate who found his passion in fitness. He’s always on the Internet trying to learn more about bodybuilding, training, and dieting. When he’s not learning, you can find him either in the kitchen preparing a meal, eating, watching the UFC or at the gym trying to break a new PR. Ryan is also a big advocate of social networking websites such as twitter because they allow for people of all social and economical statuses to communicate.