What is a Training Split?

When you lift weights you have to split up the muscle groups you work during the week in order to give at least 48 hours rest for each muscle group before working it again. So, you split up what you work on different days to give rest for your other muscle groups.

First, you need to determine how many days a week you are going to lift. Then, you need to divide up the muscle groups. There are MANY different schools of thought on which muscle groups need to be worked together. Most of the time, you'll work a few muscle groups from the upper body together, either that are worked in similar exercises or that are opposing muscle groups. So, since Chest press works your Triceps too, you can do Chest/Tri day. And, similarly since Pull-ups work Back but also Biceps, you can do a Back/Bi day. Also, since your Hams tie into your Glutes which tie into your Back, you can do a Glutes/Back/Hams day. There are a lot of resources out there to customize a program to you.

If you're just starting out with two days a week, you can do an upper body and a lower body day. If your goal is to lose fat, the best idea is usually to do exercises that incorporate a lot of different muscle groups, versus just a bicep curl. So, if you're trying to lose fat by lifting weights and keeping your heart rate up, you'll want to stick to large exercises like - Chest Press, Pull ups, Squats, Lunges, etc.

If you have 3 days a week to lift, you can do a split like this: 1. Chest/Back 2. Quads/Glutes/Hams 3. Arms/Shoulders 4. Cardio/Abs on another day.

I am doing the following split that I got from a few different resources. Kim Mitchell had this split on her blog, I think, and I added in the Abs with the Glutes per a Superset workout I found in Oxygen Magazine. Since I train 5-6 days a week, this is my new split that I will be trying out:


1. Back/Hams
2. Chest/Bi
3. Glutes/Abs
4. Shoulder/Tri
5. Quad/Calves
6. Cardio/Abs

This is Kim Mitchell on the right there. This is her Freestyle Pose in her 2nd Figure Competition. Like me, her husband is Active Duty Air Force. She competed in her first show while her husband was deployed, which may be the same for me this year. Thank you, Kim for being an inspiration to me and to MANY others!