Structuring your workouts
Having a structured workout plan is one of the keys to being successful in the gym. It will help ensure that you are performing good workouts and keeping everything consistent. The first step in creating a structured plan is choosing a workout split. A workout split is a way to assign certain days of the week to certain body parts. There are plenty of workout splits out there and I have gone through and used many of them. These three that I have chosen to write about have been used by me and I have decided that these are not only my personal favorites but the ones that I think are the most effective and building muscle and keeping healthy. The information below will help you create the best workout split for you.
My top workout splits
- Push Pull Legs (PPL)
- The "Bro" split
- Upper Lower
PPL
The push pull legs split is a very popular split that hits each muscle twice a week. It is a 3 day workout split that you run through twice a week. It is a split that groups the push muscles (chest, shoulders and triceps), the pull muscles (back and biceps), and the leg muscles (quads, hamstrings, and calves). My recommendations for PPL workouts are below.
Push day
It is considered normal for a push day to consist of around 3 exercises for each body part. I recommend starting with chest, then moving to shoulders, then finally triceps. I think this is the smartest order because when working chest your shoulders and triceps are secondary movers in the exercises. Since this is the case hitting chest first ensures you will get the most effective chest workout. The next body part is shoulders, this is second because in a lot of shoulder exercises triceps are a secondary mover which means you should be hitting triceps last to maximize chest and shoulder workouts.
Recommended chest exercises
- Barbell bench press
- Dumbell bench press
- Barbell incline bench press
- Dumbell incline bench press
- Chest press machine
- Chest flies
Recommended shoulder exercises
- Barbell shoulder press
- Dumbell shoulder press
- Arnold press
- Dumbell lateral Raises
- Dumbell front raises
- Machine rear delt flies
Recommended tricep exercises
- Close grip bench press
- Tricep rope pushdowns
- Dips
- Straight bar pushdowns
- Cable tricep kickbacks
- Single arm overhead tricep extension
Pull day
I think pull days should consist of 2 exercises for back thickness, 2 for back width, and 3 bicep exercises. I recommend alternating between thickness exercises and width exercises to make sure you're putting the same amount of effort into each. Then like push days, I recommend hitting biceps after you finish your back exercises.
Recommended back thickness exercises
- Bent over barbell rows
- Seated cable rows
- Machine rows
- Supported dumbell rows
Recommended back width exercises
- Cable lat pulldowns
- Cable pullovers
- Machine lat pulldowns
- Machine pullovers
Recommended bicep exercises
- Barbell curls
- Easy bar cable curls
- Hammer curls
- Machine curls
Leg day
In my eyes leg days should consist of 2 to 3 exercises for each group (hamstrings, quads, and calves). I recommend having a blend of big compound movements like a squat, and muscle isolation movements like a hamstring curl. I also recommend alternating between hamstring movements and quad movements then finishing with your calves for the same reason we do this for pull days.
Recommended compound movements
- Squats
- Leg press
- Lunges
- Bulgarian split squats
Recommended isolation movements
- Laying hamstring curl
- Seated hamstring curl
- Quad extensions
- Single leg quad extensions
Recommended calf movements
- Standing machine calf raises
- Seated calf raises
- Leg press machine calf raises
The "Bro" split
The bro split is another very popular workout split that only hits each muscle once a week but adds more volume to each workout. This is a 5 day split that give two rest days a week. My bro split recommendation is below. The recommend movements are the same for this split so refer to the lists in the PPL section.
Chest
For a chest workout in the bro split you want to be hitting 5 - 7 exercises focusing only on your chest.
Back
Just like the chest workout you want to be hitting 5 - 7 movements but still split evenly between width and thickness movements.
Legs
Bro split leg days should be about the same as a PPL leg day.
Shoulders
Shoulder day should consist of 5 - 7 movements. Make sure to be targeting front, lateral, and rear delts evenly for the best shoulder development.
Arms
Arm day should consist of 3 - 4 movements for both triceps and biceps. It is common practice to complete all exercises for one part of the arm before moving to the next.
Upper lower split
The upper lower split is quite different from the other two splits we've talked about. It is a 4 day split that mixes all upper body movements into a workout then you perform a leg day like the other splits.
Upper body workout #1
For the first upper body workout I recommend a back/chest day with a little bit of arms. Below is an example workout.
- Barbell bench press
- Pull ups
- Incline dumbell bench
- Bent over barbell row
- Tricep rope pushdowns
- Easy bar cable curls
Lower body workouts
Each of the two lower body workouts can be structured like the ones talked about in the splits above.
Upper body workout #2
I recommend making the second upper body day a lot like the first but with some shoulder movements replacing some of the other movements in the first day. Example workout below.
- Barbell shoulder press
- Lat pulldowns
- Incline dumbell bench
- Dumbell row
- Arnold press
- Barbell curls