What is a Split Routine?
Split routines are something almost everyone gets to at some point of their training in fitness. Some people even start on one. Is that reasonable and what are they good for? Today we’ll find out.
What are split routines?
A split is called the separation of your workout sessions, where instead of doing the same full body workout 2-4 times a week, you spread the workload throughout it. This way you focus on different muscle groups and work them harder while the ones you aren’t training on the day are at rest. If you do a full body workout and do 3-4 exercises for each muscle group, it will take you hours to finish it and you will be too tired by the end of it. That’s why splits work so well with more advanced people. You can work on legs one day and then chest and shoulders on the next for example, so the legs are resting even on a training day.
Source
The answer to this depends. They are great for people that have been training for awhile but If you are just starting, I wouldn’t recommend starting with one. A lot of beginners hear from their friends that already go to the gym about splits and usually start with one along with them. That can have a negative effect since they won’t be able to do too much in the beginning and instead of having 3 balanced sessions per week working their whole body, they will be doing 3-4 that will work just one or two muscle groups to an extend they probably shouldn’t or aren't even able to yet. I’d say for a complete beginner it will take about 2-3 months of training until they are ready to do a two-day split. I say two day split since that is how they are differentiated. It doesn’t mean 2 sessions a week but that the whole body would be worked on in 2 days. There are all sorts of workout routines - 3 day, 5 day, 6 day splits etc. some splits will work big muscle groups(chest, back, legs) twice a week and smaller ones (arms, shoulders) only once. You can bring a lot of variety to your program just by splitting it differently.
So yes splits are something everyone implements into their training at some point when they get to a plateau, but what kind of split or when should anyone start one depends on the level of the person involved in the training. Beginners will often take a workout routine and do only a part they like about it. That way they completely skip some muscle group/s (yes you guessed it.. them legs usually get left behind). That makes a very unbalanced program which can lead to some nasty injuries since some muscles would be too weak to support others that have been worked on.
How to balance a workout routine?
There are so many different types of split routines out there. People come up with new ideas all the time but at the same time there isn't that much to it. If you want your routine to be balanced you need to have all the muscle groups involved in it. The major groups should be focused on the most since they need more work in general. They use compound (multi-joint) exercises which usually involve secondary muscles as well (like the use of triceps and shoulders in the bench press, which is a chest exercise). This is the thing most people do their split routines around. They either want to finish their secondary muscles in the same training session or isolate them on another day. For example you could do a common Push-Pull routine and work Chest, Shoulders and Triceps on the same day and Chest and Biceps on the next one. Some will prefer splitting it into more sessions, working the Chest and Back in one session for example, then Legs on the next one (often combined with shoulders), and Arms (Triceps, Biceps) on a third day. Some splits will have a muscle group a day getting to 5-6 different sessions a week. It all depends on the level and goals of the individual training. In order to have balance though you need to work the big muscle groups the same amount of time. You can make a compromise of doing 2 sessions for each major muscle group a week and only 1 for the smaller groups (like arms and shoulders), since you are still working them as a secondary muscle involved in most Chest or Back exercises (Press-ups, Chin-ups, Bench press etc.).
As you can see in these pictures, the muscles shaded in red are the ones used to make the movement. That is why sometimes people can't do exercises like pull-ups or push-ups, because they lack strength in some of the smaller muscle groups involved.
Conclusion
Split routines are great but there is a time and type for everyone. Most people follow some routines online blindly without thinking if they will benefit from them or not. If you are a fitness enthusiast that's been hitting the gym a few times a week for the past few months, then try a simple two-day split routine. It will be a lot more beneficial than the simple full body workout since you can't fit that many exercises in one session. If you are just starting and you are watching the youtube fitness celebrities giving their 5-6-day split routines, working each muscle with 4-5 exercises.. don't follow them yet. That will be too advanced and might just discourage you or you can even injure yourself if you are pushing too hard. Bodies need time to adapt and a full body workout will be just fine, giving great results in the beginning. Only when you feel like you need more out of it, then you should progress it. I will write a post with examples for split routines, pointing out the advantages and disadvantages of each one. Wanted to fit it in one post but it got so long I couldn't make myself read it to redact it.. couldn't imagine anyone else would've so check in the next few days for that. It will have something for everyone!
(https://steemit.com/@george-topalov)
I do splits too, but I didn’t know that they were called splits.
I divide my routines as back and biceps, chest and triceps, and I breakdown the lower in front and sides, back and gluteus.
I do this way because every time I’m doing chest exercises it involves some triceps, same thing with back and biceps.
Almost forgot, I add some shoulders there too.
This is a common routine called Push and pull. It is the one I've used the most. I'll write down a post with quite a few examples and write what are all the routines good for and what disadvantages they've got. The one you do I like since you can use bigger movements to save time while working on more than 1 muscle with each exercise.