After the previous piece on picking the right training split for you, many of you reached out looking for a workout routine recommendation. In this piece, I’m going to give you some GENERIC programs for all the splits I discussed.
Since these are generic programs, you are free to modify them however you want. Just make sure you read my piece on picking the right training split so you have context on these programs.
Full Body Split
This is a split meant for the beginner who can recover from training their entire body once every 2 days. You train one day and then take a day off. Rinse and repeat.
The goal for this split is to:
- Keep things simple (since it’s meant for beginners)
- To have a variety of exercises so the trainee can learn the basics of everything (like keeping a neutral back, learning to hold his breath, developing mind-muscle connection, etc.)
- Familiarizing trainee with equipment – the barbell, the power rack, the dumbbells, basic barbell lifts, get used to training, etc.
- Build some strength without putting excessive pressure on the trainee (keeping training fun)
Here is a generic routine you can follow:
| Workout 1 | Workout 2 |
| Squat (3×5-10 / 5′) (3 sets of 5-10 reps with 5 minutes rest time between sets) | Deadlift (2×5 / 5′) (2 sets of 5 reps with 5 minutes of rest in between) (Alternatively, hip thrust machine 3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Leg Curl (3×8-12 / 2′) | 45-degree Leg Press (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Bench Press (3×8-12 / 3′) | Overhead Press (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Seated Cable Row (3×8-12 / 3′) | Chin Ups or Lat Pulldown (if you can’t do chin ups) (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Bicep Curl (2×8-12 / 2′) | Hammer Curl (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| Tricep Pushdown (2×8-12 / 2′) | Dumbbell Skullcrusher (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| Hanging leg raises (3xAMRAP / 2′) | Lying leg raises / Situps (3×8-12 / 2′) |
The workouts rotate every time you train. So if you train Workout 1 on Monday, you do Workout 2 on Wednesday, Workout 1 on Friday, and then Workout 2 next Monday. Should be fairly simple.
To understand how progression works with rep ranges, read this piece here.
The Upper Lower Split
Thankfully I don’t need to do much work here as the great Lyle McDonald (god bless him!) already has a nice upper lower routine he calls The Generic Bulking Routine (GBR).
You don’t have to copy the exercises themselves (strongly recommend reading up Lyle McDonalds’s GBR FAQ forum posts if you decide to go with the GBR) and can switch them up if you want (these are called “generic” routines for a reason).
Personally I find that the upper day gets way too long on the GBR, so I tend to have a more mixed routine that looks like this:
| Lower 1 + Push 1 | Upper 1 | Lower 2 + Push 2 | Upper 2 |
| Squat (3×5-10 / 5-8′) | One Arm / Seated Cable Row (Alternate every workout) (4×6-8 / 3′) | Bulgarian Split Squat (3×8-12 / 3′) | Chin ups / Assisted Chin Ups / Close Grip Pulldown (Exercise of choice) (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Bench Press (3×6-8 / 3′) | Cable lateral raise (4×8-12 / 2′) | 45-degree Leg Press (3×8-12 / 3′) | Lateral raise (Machine if available or Dumbbell) (4×8-12 / 2′) |
| Leg Curl (3×8-12 / 3′) | Lat Pulldown (3×8-12 / 2′) | Incline Bench Press (3×6-8 / 3′) | Isolateral row / Chest supported T-Bar Row (Exercise of choice) (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Incline Chest Press (Machine if available or Dumbbell) (3×8-12 / 2′) | Face Pull (3×8-12 / 2′) | Hip Thrust Machine (3×8-12 / 2′) | Rear delt fly (3×8-12 / 2′) |
| Leg Extension (3×8-12 / 2′) | Preacher Curl (2×8-12 / 2′) | Shoulder Press Machine (3×8-12 / 2′) | Upright row (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| 45-degree Back extension (2×10-15 / 2′) | Hammer Curl (2×8-12 / 2′) | Abs (Exercise of choice) (3xAMRAP) | Incline curl (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| Plank and Side Plank (2xAMRAP) | Skullcrusher (2×8-12 / 2′) | – | Tricep Pushdown (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| – | Forearm curl (palm down and palm up) (2 sets each of 8-12) | – | Forearm curl (palm down and palm up) (2 sets each of 8-12) |
Things to note:
- This program works better as a transition from the total body split since the trainee is already used to doing the bench press right after his squat.
- Basically it’s similar to Lyle’s GBR except I reduce the leg volume (and remove calf training altogether since calves are already well trained by playing sports) and move the compound push volume to leg days.
- The reasoning behind this is that having too much volume for the legs tends to interfere in other areas of life (eg. playing sports).
- This is my program and I like to keep things manageable and fun. I don’t train the deadlift. If you want to do it, add it before Bulgarian split squats on Lower 2.
- You don’t need a fuckton of volume to grow muscles. The name of the game is to stimulate, not annihilate. Remember that you build muscle not by lifting heavy weights, but by recovering from lifting heavy weights.
- Minimize injuries by training smart and getting enough recovery and stay in the game for the long run. You will all eventually end up hitting your genetic limit in a couple of years anyway.
- I would recommend you to also play sports or at least do 45 minutes of hard cardio (zone 3-4) on off days. Take the day before barbell squats as a total rest day where you do nothing.
- Having high stamina/endurance in the legs is more useful than just having big legs. You want size and strength for sure, just don’t obsess over leg hypertrophy to the point that you neglect stamina and are having a heart attack if I make you trek for a few hours.
- Cardio is just as important as strength (if not more important) for the lower body. That’s just my personal opinion and experience (since I love racket sports and high altitude trekking), and it reflects so in my programs. Feel free to modify them as you like.
- If you find the training too fatiguing to recover from (for any reason – could be an older aged trainee, or a caloric deficit, or whatever), you can reduce volume by 1 set on everything. Or add more complete rest days to the programming. Or move to the PPL split. See my guide on how to pick the right split for more information on this.
The Push Pull Legs (PPL) Split
The programming for this is very similar to the upper lower split above, just that push gets a separate day.
Workouts are shorter and more spread out, allowing for enhanced recovery.
This is what the programming looks like (you alternate between workout 1 and 2 each time):
| Legs 1 | Push 1 | Pull 1 |
| Squat (3×5-10 / 5-8′) | Bench Press (3×6-8 / 3′) | One Arm / Seated Cable Row (Alternate every workout) (4×6-8 / 3′) |
| Leg Curl (3×8-12 / 3′) | Incline Chest Press (Machine if available or Dumbbell) (3×8-12 / 2′) | Lat Pulldown (3×8-12 / 2′) |
| Leg Extension (3×8-12 / 2′) | Cable lateral raise (4×8-12 / 2′) | Face Pull (3×8-12 / 2′) |
| 45-degree Back extension (2×10-15 / 2′) | Tricep Pushdown (2×8-12 / 2′) | Preacher Curl (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| Plank and Side Plank (2xAMRAP) | Abs (Exercise of choice) (3xAMRAP) | Hammer Curl (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| – | – | Forearm curl (palm down and palm up) (2 sets each of 8-12) |
| Legs 2 | Push 2 | Pull 2 |
| Bulgarian Split Squat (3×8-12 / 3′) | Incline Bench Press (3×6-8 / 3′) | Chin ups / Assisted Chin Ups / Close Grip Pulldown (Exercise of choice) (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| 45-degree Leg Press (3×8-12 / 3′) | Shoulder Press Machine (3×8-12 / 2′) | Isolateral row / Chest supported T-Bar Row (Exercise of choice) (3×8-12 / 3′) |
| Hip Thrust Machine (3×8-12 / 2′) | Lateral raise (Machine if available or Dumbbell) (4×8-12 / 2′) | Rear delt fly (3×8-12 / 2′) |
| Adductor-Abductor machine (3×10-15 / 1-2′) | Skullcrusher (2×8-12 / 2′) | Upright row (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| Plank and Side Plank (2xAMRAP) | Abs (Exercise of choice) (3xAMRAP) | Incline curl (2×8-12 / 2′) |
| – | – | Forearm curl (palm down and palm up) (2 sets each of 8-12) |
Important notes for this split:
- The entire point of moving from an upper lower split to a push pull legs split is to have more days for recovery.
- In other words, you can add a little bit more volume (more exercises/sets, for example adding a chest fly or pec dec to the push days) to the program if you want but if you’re adding a lot of extra volume, then you’ve reversed the reason for the switch in the first place. You tried to improve recovery by going for a longer split where you train your body over more days, but then impaired recovery by adding a bunch more volume. So be careful if you decide to increase volume significantly.
- You don’t need a fuckton of volume to grow muscles. The name of the game is to stimulate, not annihilate. Remember that you build muscle not by lifting heavy weights, but by recovering from lifting heavy weights.
- Minimize injuries by training smart and getting enough recovery and stay in the game for the long run. You will all eventually end up hitting your genetic limit in a couple of years anyway.
- There is no need to try to hyper-optimize muscle growth by trying to find the maximum recoverable volume and toeing the line (assuming you are a normal working person and not a professional athlete for whom an extra 5% of growth can mean the difference between success and failure).
- In other words, less but still very sufficient volume and plenty of recovery is the path most of you reading this should take.
- Again, I don’t program deadlifts. If you want to do them, do them before the Bulgarian split squats.
- Again, I very strongly recommend playing sports or doing 45 minutes of hard cardio (zone 3-4) on non-training days. Take the day before barbell squats as a total rest day where you do nothing.
- Having high stamina/endurance in the legs is more useful than just having big legs. You want size and strength for sure, just don’t obsess over leg hypertrophy to the point that you neglect stamina and are having a heart attack if I make you trek for a few hours.
- Cardio is just as important as strength (if not more important) for the lower body. That’s just my personal opinion and experience (since I love racket sports and high altitude trekking), and it reflects so in my programs. Feel free to modify them as you like.
- If you find the training too fatiguing to recover from (for any reason – could be an older aged trainee, or a caloric deficit, or whatever), you can reduce volume by 1 set on everything. Or add more complete rest days to the programming.
The Bro Split
The bro split where you break down your training over 5-6 days and train each muscle separately is not a good split.
I am personally not at the point where I’ve ever needed to wait 7 days for my body to recover from training and I don’t think most people can ever get here (assuming intelligent training) without using steroids.
Most people doing the bro split are just doing dumb things like 12-20 sets of chest, which gives no real extra growth as compared to just 6 hard sets, but it does beat up the joints and adds fatigue.
Because of this I never recommend the bro split to anybody, and I will not be giving you a generic routine for it either.
If you really like the bro split, you can find numerous routines on the internet, but the quick one line version is 2 compound exercises and 2-3 isolation exercises for each muscle.
Again, I don’t like this split. I don’t do it. I don’t recommend it.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comments.
– Harsh Strongman
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