Doing the Splits

           “Ryan, I keep hearing people talking about splits. What are these things?”

           Excellent question fictional follower of my blog! And allow me to answer this imaginary question. A “split” is the common term for how you split up your workout. When you first started your fitness journey, I was recommending solely an A & B workout, which by definition would be a two-day split because it takes you two days to work through your entire body. But then as you begin to develop and improve, you will find yourself wanting to improve more and more. Improvement becomes a wonderful drug that it is quite alright to get addicted to.

           Now, as you began to get more accustom to the weight room, you moved beyond the simple A and B Tyro workout that I provided for you in the opening of this blog and then we moved from Warrior Sets to Furyan Sets. This let you spend more and more time working on specific body parts. Unfortunately, we have two big barriers in our way: Lactic Acid and Time. 

           As you work out, your body produces lactic acid which causes your muscles to fatigue so as much as we would like to, we cannot work out endlessly. Plus, I’ve got dinner to cook and laundry to do. I’ve got pages to write. And isn’t tonight the night that ARCHER is on? I cannot spend 4 hours every evening in the gym and fatigue is still very much a real issue. So the trick to this is splitting up your workout to target specific body parts. 

           Ultimately the question becomes, how should I split up my workout? I wish I could tell you that there is an ultimate answer but everyone eventually has to cater their program to their tastes and their availability. How I have split up my workouts works for me and you will have to adapt your program accordingly.

           Through the Furyan Sets there is a day dedicated to chest and back because of the push and pull of antagonistic sets. The next split is shoulders and lats that utilize a push/pull routine. Again, antagonistic sets. The next routine revolves around legs. That day is typically torture so I reward myself the next day with a “fun” routine which is arms; biceps and triceps. By definition, this is a four day split because it takes me four days to cycle through my entire body.

           Now there are other theories that will stagger your days differently than I have arranged them but I feel that this routine is pretty solid. You may hear of people splitting their workout where they have a push day (chest routines and triceps) and a pull day (middle back). I prefer that back and forth routine that gets you that full range of motion so that is my plan. What can I say? It works for me.

           So when you hear me say “splits,” this is what I am talking about.