Full Body Program: 3x/week. The Full Body program is recommended for beginner fitness enthusiasts. As a beginner, your primary goal is to master the main movements. Your muscles need to get used to the lifts, and you need to build some initial strength. The exercises you do during Full Body routines are compound exercises that activate multiple muscle groups to perform the movement. Some examples include deadlifts, squats, chest presses, and pull-ups. Isolated exercises are the exact opposite of compound exercises, and you don't need to do them as a beginner yet.
What's popular among young people is the "Bro Split" where you train a different muscle group each day, for example:
- Monday: Chest
- Tuesday: Back
- Wednesday: Shoulders
- Thursday: Arms
- Friday: Legs (sometimes 😊)
- Saturday: /
- Sunday: /
But that's not the optimal training method for either advanced or beginners. There's too much time between the muscle groups you train if you don't effectively train every day. A program is useful precisely when you organize your workouts and exercises well to avoid losing valuable time.
Once you have developed good general strength, you can switch to the Upper/Lower split routine (3x/week). An example of this program:
- Monday: upper split (chest + triceps + shoulders)
- Tuesday: /
- Wednesday: lower split (legs)
- Thursday: /
- Friday: upper split (back and biceps)
This program is perfect if you want to maintain or increase your muscle mass. Add extra days for optimal results.
The advanced gym freaks (like those on the Largo Fit team) do the Push/Pull/Legs split (6x/week).
- Monday: Push (Chest, shoulders and triceps, International Chest Day)
- Tuesday: Pull (Back and biceps)
- Wednesday: Legs (Never skip leg day)
- Thursday: Rest day (Thinking about the gym)
- Friday: Push (Chest, shoulders and triceps)
- Saturday: Pull (Back and biceps)
- Sunday: Legs
For optimal muscle mass gain, the Push/Pull/Legs split is the ideal routine. If this seems like too much initially, try noting down the exercises you want to do in your program. A 30 to 45-minute workout per day is more than sufficient for this program!
Abdominal muscles can essentially be trained whenever you want. You don't necessarily have to assign them to a specific day. However, it is recommended that you train them 2-3 times a week. Always add 10 extra minutes to your workout to develop that six-pack! 😉