There are hundreds of different styles of training regimens, it doesn't surprise me that most newbies give up before even doing their first workout, withmagazines, websites, books, and trainers all preaching and recommending completely different styles of training for the same end goal.
To build muscle mass and increase yourfortaleza.
The 5-day split is the style of training regimen I return to most often.
From experimenting with push ups, pull ups, leg kicks, 3 day splits, 4 day splits and many variations between the simple 5 day split, it always ends up being my regimen of choice.
There are as many haters of the 5-day split as there are supporters, with claims after an ineffective 5-day split workout, overtraining, or just plain bad idea.
Here's the thing.
Any training regimen can be ineffective.
Any training regimen can make you prone to overtraining.
The 5-day split is a training style, the specific exercises and the schedule of those workouts and training days determine whether you have a regimen built for results or an ineffective mess.
5 Reasons Why the 5-Day Split Works Well
you are probably thinking“SJ, isn't the 3 or 4 day split better? Or how about push/pull/legs?”
As we've established, there are many, many options: The biggest problem with the 3 and 4 day splits, as well as the push/pull/leg regimen, is that you're training multiple muscle groups in each workout. When you're hitting multiple muscle groups per workout, you're likely limiting yourself.
If you run aTraining divided into 3 daysyou may be bundling your arm and leg workouts into the same day; there's no way he's going to be able to do all the biceps and triceps exercises after he's put all his energy into the barbell squat. and leg press!
The 5-day split does not suffer from this problem.
Here's a look at the top 5 reasons I love the 5-day split style of training.
1 – It is manageable
The 5 day split workout is extremely manageable, you go to the gym 5 days a week and target an individual muscle group each workout. There's no need to schedule push-pull exercises or anything else that often confuses and overwhelms newcomers.
The occasional missed workout can be easily addressed, as bundling two muscle groups (into a slightly smaller volume) will allow you to keep track of your training and rest days.
2 – Allows sufficient recovery
Training muscle groups 2-3 times a week is not necessarily beneficial for the beginner...
It's the exact opposite, actually.
Newcomers take longer torecover between workouts, their bodies haven't fully adapted yet: the seasoned gym goer can train a muscle group and work the same muscle group 48 hours after the initial workout, the newcomer can't.
The newcomer will therefore benefit from crushing each muscle group HARD once a week, making up the 5 day split.
A typical 5-day split looks like this:
- Monday – Chest
- Tuesday – Return
- Wednesday – Shoulders
- Thursday – Weapons
- Friday – Legs
The 5 day split will work for both the beginner and the advanced gym goer, however the advanced gym goer can get away with increasing the number of times each muscle group is trained per week.
3 – Provides fantastic progression
Eat right, train hard (apply progressive overloadeach workout) and the 5-day split will serve you well for years to come.
As I mentioned, one of the biggest misconceptions in the gym is training volume and frequency: You can absolutely build a physique that resembles a Greek god by exercising each muscle group once a week.
The 5 day split training regimen you follow should be based on the main compound movement for the specific body part you are training, keep adding weight and repetitions each workout and size and strength will never be a concern for you again.
4 – It is highly customizable
Training specificityIt's the key
If your goal is to build freakishly huge legs, you won't achieve success in your eyes if you only squat once a week.
The 5-day split gives us more than enough leeway to adjust the extra volume for certain body parts or exercises based on your goals.
Do you want to do some work in the gym to build your bodyweight strength? No problem.
Do you want to do squats twice a week? No problem.
Once you've defined your end-state goal, the 5-day split can easily be shaped around it.
5 – Allows you to focus
One workout, one muscle group.
There's no need to overthink your workout or save energy.
When you follow the 5 day split, you know you have one goal to annihilate every day you step foot in the gym, and that is your assigned muscle group.
When we are able to detail and focus like this,enter the flow state. When we enter the flow state, we are able to do adequate hard work.
5 Mistakes Most Guys Make When Breaking Training Over 5 Days
Are you making these mistakes with your training regimen?
Poor scaling of muscle groups
The typical training schedule for my 5 day split training regimen looks something like this:
- Chest
- to come back
- Shoulder
- Arms
- legs
This is not because the chest is my favorite muscle group and the legs my least favorite (in fact, far from it!), this program is optimized to ensure that the muscle group we are training on any given day has the most activity time. possible recovery. Many guys overthink their training regimen and rearrange their days for no particular reason, resulting in poor recovery between workouts.
An excellent example of this istraining arms the day before chest training - when your tricepsIf you're still extremely tired from the arm workout you did the day before, your chest workout won't be particularly good since the triceps are the secondary muscle group when we perform our heavy chest pressing movements.
Do a shoulder workout the next dayThe training chest is the second most common programming errorI see it being done, with excessive stress and tension on the shoulders two days in a row (you'll find dips and incline dumbbell/barbell bench presses to stress the shoulders), this can result in rotator cuff compression and injury minors over time following this schedule.
Leaving weaknesses for the end of the week.
Regardless of whether you are following a 5-day split training regimen, a push/pull/legs regimen, or a 3-day split training regimen, your weaknesses need to be prioritized.
An amazing physique isn't necessarily huge, it's proportional and symmetrical, without zeroing out lagging muscle groups and weak points withpriority trainingyou won't get it.
Train your weak points at the beginning of the week, while your willpower and energy are at their peak.
If your chest is your strongest muscle group and your legs are far behind, your first workout of the week should definitely be legs.
Here's an example of the 5-day split training program I mentioned earlier, optimized for weak point leg training:
- legs
- Chest
- to come back
- Shoulder
- Arms
As you can see, there is still enough room between the chest, shoulders and arms to ensure that we can be as fit as possible for these workouts.
Neglecting rest at the end of your cycle.
After 5 days of training, have at least 1 day of complete rest.
I used to rule out rest days, go Monday through Friday with my training divided into 5 days, and immediately restart the cycle again on Saturday.
Make sure you have at least 1 rest day at the end of your cycle.
Can't train on weekends?
Take 2 days off at the end of the week.
Do you want to train on Sunday?
Have 1 day off in the middle of the week and 1 day off on the weekend.
The 5-day split regimen is highly customizable to fit your schedule.
Example:
- Monday – Chest
- Tuesday – Return
- Wednesday – Rest
- Thursday – Shoulders
- Friday – Weapons
- Saturday – Legs
- Sunday – Rest
Keep the volume very high and the intensity very low.
If you can do 25 sets per body part per workout, you're not lifting enough weight and you're not trying hard enough.
Each workout should consist of approximately 12 sets, with the majority of your lifts performed in the single-digit repetition range.
4 – 6 repetitions.
3 – 4 series.
3 – 4 exercises per body part.
The 5-Day Split is not intended to be a 'pump' style high volume training regimen.
If you want size and strength, focus on your compound movements and focus on applying a progressive overload with a lot of weight.
Each workout should start with the mass movement exercise corresponding to that part of the body:
- Chest -Supine Bar
- to come back -Weighted Pull-Ups
- Shoulders -military press
- Arms -Barbell Thread/Triceps Dips
- Legs -barbell squat
Inconsistency
As discussed above, I recommend customizing your rest days and training days around your schedule to ensure it's consistent.
If you train hard but are inconsistent, you won't see the progress you want.
If you train inconsistently, you won't see anything.
Set your training split to 5 days and stick to it for at least 12 weeks before making any adjustments.
Stick to the regimen, measure your results and make the necessary pivots. If you cut back and change exercises, schedules, and workouts all the time, you won't be able to gauge what really works and what doesn't.
Don't be a victim ofshiny object syndrome.
Examples of exercises divided into 5 days
Here are three 5-day workouts that will have you packing on size and strength, whether you're a beginner or a seasoned gym goer.
Example of training divided into 5 days 1
Chest
- Barbell bench press: 4 x 6 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Chest Dips – Fail 4 times
- Dumbbell Incline Fly – 4 x 6 reps
to come back
- Deadlift: 4 x 6 repetitions
- Lifts – 4 x 6 reps
- Pendlay Row – 4 x 6 reps
- One-arm dumbbell row - 4 x 6 reps
back
- Barbell Military Press - 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 4 x 6 reps
- Plate Front Raises: 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Back Fly – 3 x 6 reps
Arms
- Barbell Biceps Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Hammer Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Weighted Pull Ups – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Concentration Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Weighted Triceps Dips – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Triceps Extension – 4 x 6 reps
- Close Grip Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Rope Push – 2 x 10 reps
legs
- Barbell Squats – 3 x 6 reps
- Leg press: 3 x 6 repetitions
- Walking lunges – 3 x 12 reps
- Leg curl – 3 x 12 reps
- Leg extensions: 3 x 12 repetitions
Example of training divided into 5 days 2
back
- Barbell Military Press - 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 4 x 6 reps
- Plate Front Raises: 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Back Fly – 3 x 6 reps
legs
- Barbell Squats – 3 x 6 reps
- Leg press: 3 x 6 repetitions
- Walking lunges – 3 x 12 reps
- Leg curl – 3 x 12 reps
- Leg extensions: 3 x 12 repetitions
to come back
- Deadlift: 4 x 6 repetitions
- Lifts – 4 x 6 reps
- Pendlay Row – 4 x 6 reps
- One-arm dumbbell row - 4 x 6 reps
Chest
- Barbell bench press: 4 x 6 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Chest Dips – Fail 4 times
- Dumbbell Incline Fly – 4 x 6 reps
Arms
- Barbell Biceps Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Hammer Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Weighted Pull Ups – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Concentration Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Weighted Triceps Dips – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Triceps Extension – 4 x 6 reps
- Close Grip Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Rope Push – 2 x 10 reps
Example 3 of training divided into 5 days
chest and triceps
- Barbell bench press: 4 x 6 reps
- Incline Dumbbell Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Chest Dips – Fail 4 times
- Dumbbell Incline Fly – 4 x 6 reps
- Weighted Triceps Dips – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Triceps Extension – 4 x 6 reps
- Close Grip Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Rope Push – 2 x 10 reps
back and biceps
- Deadlift: 4 x 6 repetitions
- Lifts – 4 x 6 reps
- Pendlay Row – 4 x 6 reps
- One-arm dumbbell row - 4 x 6 reps
- Barbell Biceps Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Hammer Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Weighted Pull Ups – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Concentration Curl – 3 x 6 reps
legs
- Barbell Squats – 3 x 6 reps
- Leg press: 3 x 6 repetitions
- Walking lunges – 3 x 12 reps
- Leg curl – 3 x 12 reps
- Leg extensions: 3 x 12 repetitions
back
- Barbell Military Press - 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Shoulder Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Lateral Raises – 4 x 6 reps
- Plate Front Raises: 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Back Fly – 3 x 6 reps
Arms
- Weighted Triceps Dips – 4 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Triceps Extension – 4 x 6 reps
- Close Grip Bench Press – 4 x 6 reps
- Rope Push – 2 x 10 reps
- Barbell Biceps Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Hammer Curl – 3 x 6 reps
- Weighted Pull Ups – 3 x 6 reps
- Dumbbell Concentration Curl – 3 x 6 reps
What is your take on the 5 day split workout? Let me know below!
FAQs
Is a 5 day split good for building muscle? ›
A 5 day split is arguably the best workout split for building muscle because it allows you to maximize training volume and emphasis on each muscle group while still giving you just enough rest days each week.
What is the best workout split for building muscle? ›The push/pull/legs split is probably the most efficient workout split there is because all related muscle groups are trained together in the same workout. This means that you get the maximum overlap of movements within the same workout, and the muscle groups being trained get an overall benefit from this overlap.
Is training a muscle every 5 days enough? ›Generally speaking, the more frequently you can train a muscle while still getting stronger and without exceeding your recovery capacity, the more progress you'll make. For the average, drug-free lifter I've found the sweet spot in training frequency to be between 2 to 3 times a week, or every 3 to 4 days.
What is the Arnold split? ›The Arnold split is a six-day workout split in which you train the chest and back, shoulders and arms, and legs twice per week. It's a muscle-building program that's designed to help you increase muscle mass and improve your physique. Because of its high amount of volume, it's only for advanced lifters.
Is the Bro split effective? ›Additionally, if you program properly, you can also allow adequate time to recover between sessions so you can continue to train effectively. So, the answer is yes, Bro Splits can be effective. However, there is not anything specifically magical about splitting workouts this way that makes them vastly superior.