Is a 5 day split (chest-triceps-biceps/forearms-shoulders-back) better or worse than 3/4 whole upper body workouts?

(legs get a good workout through riding/kickboxing)

Cheers

What are your goals?

I found a 4 day split good for bulking – 3 stone gained in 2 years.

Not handy for toning though.

A bit of toned bulk….if that’s possible!

I gain muscle (and fat) pretty easy – just need to look at what I am doing to give myself a kick start.

With the split above I can only manage about 45 minutes each session before I run out of exercises/strength

Full bodys 3x a week.Have a look on stronglifts.com for the 5×5 workout.

bench press
squat
deadlift
day on day off.

all you need for cycling strength.

Body pump at your local gym twice a week.
The music’s shocking, but it gets the job done for strength & toning and you often get to check out some fine ass while you’re at it 🙂

The thing with leg exercises is that they build up supporting muscles very well and IMO, can help prevent injury. Leg exercises also help warm up the rest of the body properly (always go from largest to smallest muscles but do abs at the end of every session).

5 days isn’t allowing much rest time – that’s almost as important as the actual workout as it’s when the muscle “repairs.”

I used to cycle through (each workout day) chest/biceps then (next session) back/triceps then legs/shoulders with abs every session. 4 x a week. Worked pretty well.

Watch the food – to stay lean you’ll need to watch your fat intake.

Agree with surf mat as in rest time.You grow out of the gym,not in it.

Cheers all,

So Mat – something like:

Mon – Chest/Biceps/abs
Wed – Back/Triceps/abs
Fri – Legs/Shoulders/abs
Sun Chest/Biceps/abs

etc?

For exercises – I have bb, db and bench…so

Chest – Bench/flys/incline press/decline press
Biceps – bb curls/preacher/db curls
Back – good morning/1 arm row/deadlift/db pullover/pull up
Shoulder – shrugs/combo raises/military press/seated press
Triceps – dips (seated – haven’t got a dip station)/skullcrusher/close grip bench
Legs? Squats? Lunges?

Anything else obvious I am misssing?

cheers

I’ve just got back from the gym. For me i found doing a full upper body workout 3 times a week works far better than splitting it down into various body parts like chest/shoulders etc.

If you want to bulk up though, that’s as much to do with your diet as it is doing free weights.

Just get an orange, lugging that weight around will give you a full body workout 🙂

sc – you pretty much have it. I had a few slightly different exercises but you have all the fundamental exercises there with some good toning ones too.

I did four different exercises for chest and legs, three for the rest

For legs I did weighted calf raises, squats and hamstring curls.

Sets wise I stuck to 3 sets of about 15 (to near failure), then 10ish (near failure) then 6-8 to total failure with weights getting heavier each time. Some go the other way (get lighter) but I found going heavier gave a deeper burn.

cheers Mat. I am starting with renewed vigour tomorrow morning!

MrTall – I am a veggie, so have to drink a couple of soya protein shakes per day when I am training. It’s a shame, but all the diet plans in Mens Health etc are based around tuna/steak and chicken!

Plenty of veggie bodybuilders about – often helps with the toning element.

Good luck!

Hi sc xc, I tend to do similar but chest and triceps one day, back and biceps another as you tend to work your triceps more on chest and biceps more on back exercises so I find I get the extra time for my muscles to recover!
I’m going to try for 4 workouts a week and the 4th workout will be the same as the first one so I work 2 muscles groups twice a week and if I do miss the 4th it ain’t gonna be that I miss out too much!

Mon – Chest/Biceps/abs
Wed – Back/Triceps/abs
Fri – Legs/Shoulders/abs
Sun Chest/Biceps/abs

etc?

For exercises – I have bb, db and bench…so

Chest – Bench/flys/incline press/decline press
Biceps – bb curls/preacher/db curls
Back – good morning/1 arm row/deadlift/db pullover/pull up
Shoulder – shrugs/combo raises/military press/seated press
Triceps – dips (seated – haven’t got a dip station)/skullcrusher/close grip bench
Legs? Squats? Lunges?

Anything else obvious I am misssing?

Add in some hammer curls for biceps, over arm extensions for triceps and you have a decent routine there.

I prefer a back and bicep, chest and tricep, shoulders and legs for my 3 days though.