The 6 Best Workout Splits to Build Muscle & Strength

Every major workout split explained in full: who it’s for, how to structure it, and when to use it.

The Best Workout Splits: Introduction

If you’ve ever asked yourself, “What’s the best workout split?” you’re asking the right question. But also the wrong one.

That’s because the best workout split is not the one your favorite fitness influencer swears by, the one the biggest guy in your gym has used since 1998, or the one that sounds the most hardcore on paper.

The best split is the one that fits your schedule, recovery, experience level, and training goals. And the one you’ll stick with.

The problem isn’t always that you pick the wrong or a “bad” split. The problem is that you pick a split that doesn’t fit your life, then blame yourself when it doesn’t work as promised.

Over the last 40 years, I’ve tried them all, and in this guide, with the help of current research, we’re going to fix that.

You’ll learn what a workout split is, how to choose the right one for you, and how six of the most popular splits—full body, upper/lower, PPL, PPLUL, body part, and the Arnold split—compare.

By the end, you’ll know which one fits you best, and why.

What Is a Workout Split?

A workout split is the way you organize your training across the week.

For example:

• A full body split trains your whole body every workout.
• An upper/lower split separates upper body days from lower body days.
• A PPL split separates push muscles, pull muscles, and legs.
• A PPLUL split combines push/pull/legs with upper/lower for a 5-day hybrid.
• A body part split focuses on one or two muscle groups on separate days.
• An Arnold split pairs antagonist (opposing) muscle groups with a high-volume bodybuilding focus.

Your split isn’t what determines your gains. It’s a structure. Its job is to help you manage:

• Training frequency
• Recovery
• Exercise selection
• Weekly volume
• Workout length
• Adherence (can you stick with it?)

That’s it. A split doesn’t build muscle by itself. Your training does. But the difference between a great split and a mediocre one for you can make or break your training.

What Makes a Good Workout Split?

A good workout split does the following things well:

It Lets You Train Consistently

The greatest split ever written is useless if you can’t follow it.

A 6-day PPL might look optimal on paper, but if your work schedule, family obligations, sleep, or motivation only allow for 3–4 days of training a week, it’s not optimal for you.

It Gives You Enough Weekly Volume

To build muscle, you want a decent number of hard sets for each muscle group over the course of the week.

For most lifters, that’s somewhere in the ballpark of 10–20 challenging sets.^{1 2}

It Provides Enough Frequency

A good split allows you to hit enough volume without cramming everything into one 4-hour session.

Technically, you make similar gains training each muscle group once a week as you do training it twice or more.

Once per week works great for bodybuilding, but for many lifters, spreading the volume across the week is easier to recover from and can be better for performance.

It Manages Fatigue

Good training splits consider more than your muscles. They also juggle fatigue, joint stress, and soreness, and spread stress so that you can train hard without digging yourself deep into a recovery hole you can’t get out of.

It Fits Your Goal

Training for general health and fitness is different from training for maximum hypertrophy. Powerlifting is different from training for aesthetics. Training as a beginner is different from training as an advanced lifter with years of experience.

The better your split fits your goal, the better it works.

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With that in mind, let’s go one by one.

1. Full Body Split

Best for beginners and busy lifters

What It Is

A full body split works your entire body each workout. Each session usually includes some combination of:

• A squat or knee-dominant movement
• A hinge or posterior chain movement
• A horizontal or vertical press
• A horizontal or vertical pull

Plus, often some isolation work for your arms, calves, or abs.

You might do a full body split 2, 3, or 4 times per week, but 3 days is especially common.

What It Looks Like

Sample Week

MON	Full Body A
TUE	Rest or cardio
WED	Full Body B
THU	Rest or cardio
FRI	Full Body C
SAT–SUN	Rest

Pros & Cons

Best for: Beginners, intermediate lifters, lifters who can only train 3 days/week, anyone returning from a layoff, and those who want to maximize strength relative to time invested.

For many people, full body is one of the best splits in existence. It used to be the go-to split in the first half of the 20th century before it got relegated to “beginners only” status for a few decades.

These days, it’s been making a comeback, and for good reasons.

You’re in and out in 45–70 minutes, and every muscle gets stimulated 3× per week.

That means if you miss one workout, you don’t have to play catch-up to train every muscle. It also means you don’t have to annihilate one muscle group in a single session to get your weekly volume.

Full body is also great for teaching beginners how to perform the exercises. You practice the basic movement patterns more often, so your technique improves quickly.

Full Body Workout Splits In StrengthLog

These are five of the many free full body routines in the StrengthLog workout tracker.

Click on the one you’re interested in to open it in StrengthLog.

• Beginner Barbell Workout Plan. 2–3×/week. Simple and effective, this training program gives you a perfect start in your training career. You will build muscle and strength swiftly by doing two to three barbell-based, whole-body workouts per week.
• StrengthLog’s Full Body Workout. 2×/week. If you only have time for two short workouts per week, this is your program. Beginners can make good gains on this program, but it’s also for the intermediate and advanced lifter to maintain during a busy schedule.
• Bodybuilding for Beginners. 3×/week. Do you want to get started in bodybuilding? Begin your muscle-building journey with three full body workouts per week!
• StrengthLog’s Full Body Hypertrophy. 3×/week. Maximize your hypertrophic potential with this free full body training program. Three days per week to sweet gains!
• Full Body Fundamentals. 3×/week. A 3-day training program built around big full body exercises that train almost every major muscle group, with minimal volume and maximally time-effective sessions.

2. Upper/Lower Split

The sweet spot for many intermediate lifters.

What It Is

An upper/lower split separates your training into upper body days and lower body days.

That means one day you focus on chest, back, shoulders, and arms, then on quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves (and often abs) the next.

The classic and by far the most common format is 4 days per week, but you can run it 2 days, 3 days in rotating fashion, or 6 days per week, too.

What It Looks Like

Sample Week

MON	Upper A: Strength focus
TUE	Lower A: Strength focus
WED	Rest or cardio
THU	Upper B: Hypertrophy focus
FRI	Lower B: Hypertrophy focus
SAT–SUN	Rest

Pros and Cons

Best for: Beginners ready to move beyond basic full body, intermediates, lifters training 4 days per week, and those who train for both strength and hypertrophy.

Upper/lower is arguably the best all-around split for intermediate lifters. It solves a lot of problems at once.

You get a good twice-per-week frequency for most muscle groups and distribute volume more evenly than a bro split. You can focus more on individual muscles than full body. And it’s easier to recover from than a 6-day PPL when you have a life that doesn’t allow you to spend almost every day in the gym.

Upper/lower lives in a middle ground, but it’s a very nice middle ground.
It’s organized enough to feel structured, but flexible enough to work for almost any lifting goal.

Upper/Lower Splits in StrengthLog

You’ll find these four upper/lower routines in the StrengthLog workout tracker.

Open it directly in the app by clicking on it.

• StrengthLog’s Upper/Lower Body Split Program. 4×/week. One of our most popular programs. Four workouts per week, with focus on getting stronger in the compound lifts. For both muscle growth and strength gain.
• PHUL Workout Routine. 4×/week. PHUL stands for Power Hypertrophy Upper/Lower and is a popular 4-day workout routine that combines strength and hypertrophy training.
• StrengthLog’s 6-Day Upper/Lower Workout Split. 6×/week. A nine-week training program for intermediate to advanced lifters and bodybuilders who want to build muscle and strength, training six days per week—a high-frequency hypertrophy program based on current exercise science. Requires a premium subscription to follow in-app.
• Thicc. 5×/week. An intermediate-level premium training program for building great legs and glutes. Six weeks of training with three lower body workouts per week for maximum gains plus two upper body maintenance sessions.

3. Push/Pull/Legs

The most popular movement pattern split.

What It Is

Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) splits training by movement pattern and muscle function:

• Push: chest, shoulders, triceps
• Pull: back, rear delts, biceps
• Legs: quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves

You can also switch the P days around, starting with Pull and doing Push in the middle—still a PPL split.

You can run it 3 days per week (great for beginners to intermediates) or as a 6-day split (one of the most popular splits among intermediate-to-advanced lifters).

What It Looks Like

Sample Week

MON	Push: Chest, shoulders, triceps
TUE	Pull: Back, biceps, rear delts
WED	Legs: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves
THU	Push: Exercise/accessory variation
FRI	Pull: Exercise/accessory variation
SAT	Legs: Exercise/accessory variation
SUN	Rest

Pros and Cons

Best for: Intermediate-to-advanced lifters who can train 5–6 days a week, hypertrophy-focused lifters, and those who enjoy themed training days.

Ask anyone in a gym Reddit thread what split to follow, and you’ll get “PPL” 8 times out of 10.

And yes, PPL is a great hypertrophy split if you enjoy frequent training and can recover from it. It’s fun, focused, and scalable. And when programmed correctly, it works extremely well.

But if it’s not ideally programmed, a 3-day full body split will give you more frequency and more opportunities to practice your big lifts.

PPL is usually best when you can do at least 5 days per week, and most classically 6.

Push/Pull/Legs Splits in StrengthLog

These PPL workout splits are available in the StrengthLog app. They are premium programs (you need a subscription to follow them in-app) with advanced programming.

Click on the one you want to go to in the app:

• Push/Pull/Legs Intermediate. 3×/Week. A PPL program where the workouts are split into pull, push, and leg exercises, in that order. Train three times per week, or increase the frequency and cycle through the workouts faster if you want.
• Push/Pull/Legs Intermediate. 6×/Week. The same basic program structure as the 3-day PPL split, but with 6 weekly sessions.
• Push/Pull/Legs Advanced. 6×/Week. An advanced push/pull/leg-split for building muscle with optimal training volume and training frequency for advanced lifters.

4. PPLUL (Push/Pull/Legs/Upper/Lower)

The advanced lifter’s hybrid split.

What It Is

PPLUL is a hybrid 5-day split that combines the structure of PPL with the compound focus of upper/lower.

You can run it 5 days straight and get the weekends off, or you can take a rest day between the PPL and U/L blocks.

What It Looks Like

Sample Week

MON	Push: Chest, shoulders, triceps
TUE	Pull: Back, biceps, rear delts
WED	Legs: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves
THU	Upper
FRI	Lower
SAT–SUN	Rest

Pros and Cons

Best for: Intermediates and advanced, hypertrophy-focused lifters, those who want 5 training days, and trainees who’ve outgrown upper/lower but feel a 6-day PPL is too much.

PPLUL is excellent for the lifter who has advanced past the beginner stage and gives you a lot of the best parts of both strength and hypertrophy.

You get the focus and bodybuilding-style training of push, pull, and legs early in the week. Then you come back with upper and lower sessions that let you add frequency, work on weak points, or add more strength-focused work.

You’re not in the gym six days a week, but you still hit each muscle group more than once and get plenty of room for volume.

PPLUL Splits in StrengthLog

Access our PPLUL split directly in the StrengthLog app:

• Push/Pull/Legs/Upper/Lower (PPLUL). 5×/week. One of our most popular premium programs for intermediate-level lifters and above for gaining muscle and strength. It allows you to hit every muscle group twice a week with distinct stimuli: high-volume hypertrophy work early in the week and heavier, compound-focused strength work later in the week.

5. Body Part Split (Bro Split)

The bodybuilder’s go-to split.

What Is It?

The body part split—often called the bro split—is a bodybuilding-style workout routine where you train one or two muscle groups per session, often five to six days a week.

There are no strict rules on which days you train a specific muscle group. Some bodybuilders have a dedicated chest day, while others combine a bigger muscle group with a smaller one, like chest + triceps.

You can also have a dedicated day for calves, abs, or weak points.

What It Looks Like

Sample Week

MON	Chest, abs
TUE	Back
WED	Shoulders
THU	Legs
FRI	Arms
SAT–SUN	Rest

Pros and Cons

Best for: Intermediate to advanced lifters, bodybuilders, people who enjoy high-volume bodybuilding-style sessions, and those who can train 5+ days per week.

Virtually every competitive bodybuilder who has built an exceptional physique uses some version of the body part split.^{3 4}

In the 2010s, it fell out of favor, with sports science suggesting that a higher training frequency is superior. However, more recent research finds that it is just as effective as training each muscle group multiple times per week.^{5 6 7}

Besides, most bro splits don’t hit a muscle group only once during a week. Chest day also works shoulders and triceps, back day hits rear delts and biceps, and if you do deadlifts outside of leg day, you work your lower body several times, too.

The biggest potential drawback is that if you do too many exercises for the same muscle in one workout, the later sets often become less productive—so-called “junk volume”.

And if you miss a workout, you either don’t train that muscle directly that week, or your entire schedule gets thrown out of whack.

But gym results don’t lie: body part splits work for building muscle.

Body Part Splits in StrengthLog

Here are our body splits, available as premium programs in the StrengthLog app.

Click on each to open it directly in the app.

• Bodybuilding Ballet. 4–6×/week. This is the program if you want tree-trunk quads, bulging biceps, and a massive back. This is an advanced bodybuilding program, and one of the most popular programs in our app.
  • Bodybuilding Ballet. 4×/week
  • Bodybuilding Ballet. 5×/week
  • Bodybuilding Ballet. 6×/week
• Bodybuilding Ballet Lite. 4×/week. The Lite version of Bodybuilding Ballet, with fewer exercises and sets than the regular routine. Still relatively high volume, focusing on pump and mind-muscle connection.
• StrengthLog’s 4-Day Bodybuilding Split. 4×/week. A six-week training program for intermediate to semi-advanced bodybuilders looking to gain lean muscle mass and build a balanced physique.

6. Arnold Split

Old-school bodybuilding.

What It Is

Named after the man who made bodybuilding a household word, the Arnold split is a 6-day program that Arnold Schwarzenegger used to build his physique.

A classic Arnold split combines:

• Chest + back
• Shoulders + arms
• Legs + calves

You do this twice in a row and rest on Sunday. Abs are trained every workout.

There is also a more modern version called the PPL x Arnold split, which keeps one of the Arnold split cycles but replaces the other with a 3-day PPL.

What It Looks Like

Sample Week: Classic Arnold Split

MON	Chest, back, abs
TUE	Shoulders, arms, abs
WED	Legs, calves, abs
THU	Chest, back, abs
FRI	Shoulders, arms, abs
SAT	Legs, calves, abs
SUN	Rest

Sample Week: PPL x Arnold

MON	Push: Chest, shoulders, triceps
TUE	Pull: Back, biceps, rear delts
WED	Legs: Quads, hamstrings, glutes, calves
THU	Chest, back, abs
FRI	Shoulders, arms, abs
SAT	Legs, calves, abs
SUN	Rest

Pros and Cons

Best for (Arnold split): Advanced lifters with good recovery capacity, those looking for a classic bodybuilding routine, and people who thrive on high-volume 6-day training.

Best for (PPL x Arnold): Intermediate to advanced lifters who want both structure and specialization, those who enjoy training 6 days but want a little more flexibility, and people who’ve run a standard PPL and want to evolve it.

• The Arnold split is a pure old-school bodybuilding split.
• The PPL x Arnold hybrid is a bodybuilding-focused split that borrows from both systems.

If you love classic bodybuilding and don’t mind long and hard sessions, the Arnold split is a fun and effective choice, but you need to know you have the recovery capacity for it.

PPL x Arnold is often easier to recover from than a full Arnold split, and you get the PPL structure for the first half of the week, and the arm- and shoulder focus of the Arnold split for the second half.

Both are good advanced splits for building muscle, but the PPL x Arnold hybrid is a bit easier to customize and manage.

The Arnold Split in StrengthLog

You’ll find both the classic Arnold split (free) and the modern PPL x Arnold hybrid (premium) in the StrengthLog app.

Click on your choice to open it in the app:

• Arnold Split. 6×/week. Train like the Terminator, the old-school way, with this high-frequency, high-volume routine. Whether you’ll get as huge as Arnold if you follow it remains to be seen, but it’s a meaty program, perfect when you want full bodybuilding focus and a high training volume.
• PPL x Arnold Split. 6×/week. A hybrid training program that combines the Push/Pull/Legs routine with the high-volume, high-frequency principles inspired by Arnold’s legendary bodybuilding training. For intermediate to advanced lifters who can train almost every day and want to maximize muscle growth.

Which Split Should You Use?

The best workout split is the one where you can apply progressive overload, recover well, and hit enough quality volume. And stick with.

Even though there is no universal “best workout split” for everyone, different splits usually fit different lifters better.

Choose Full Body If:

You train 2–3 days per week, and you want efficient workouts for general strength and hypertrophy. Full body splits are especially good if you’re a beginner or your schedule is unpredictable.

Choose Upper/Lower If:

You can train 4 days per week and want the most balanced 4-day setup possible. It’s excellent for building strength and muscle and a good choice for almost any goal, with perhaps the exception of advanced bodybuilding.

Choose PPL If:

You enjoy training frequently, can commit to 5–6 days in the gym for best results, and want to distribute your training volume over more days than you can with U/L or full body. It’s a great choice for almost every goal.

Choose PPLUL If:

You want a 5-day hypertrophy-focused split that balances frequency, recovery, and manageable workout length. It’s a fantastic middle ground for intermediates to advanced.

Choose a Body Part Split If:

You love classic bodybuilding training, enjoy focusing on one or max two muscles each session, and are experienced enough to make one big workout per muscle productive.

Choose an Arnold Split If:

You want high-frequency, high-volume, Golden age bodybuilding-style training and have the time and recovery capacity to handle it.

If You Can’t Choose

If you’re stuck, don’t start with theorycrafting. Start with your real life.

Ask yourself this:

How many days can I train every week without it interfering with the rest of my life?

Not your “I wish I could live the fitness lifestyle” self. Your actual self.

Then ask:

What’s my goal right now?

If your goal is general fitness and muscle gain, you don’t need an advanced, super-specialized body part split. If your goal is advanced hypertrophy and you love being in the gym, then a high-frequency or more specialized split makes sense.

Finally ask:

Would I enjoy this split enough to keep doing it?

Pick a program that aligns the closest to your answers, follow it for at least a couple of months, and track your lifts. Don’t split-hop every few weeks.

The wrong way to think about splits is “Which split builds the most muscle?” The better question is “Which split helps me complete enough hard sets, recover, and progress long-term?”

For most lifters, the answer to the second question matters more than the label on the program.

Follow Your Workout Splits In StrengthLog

All these workout splits, and many more, are available in our workout log app, StrengthLog. You can also make your own routines to fit your goals perfectly.

The app makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and make sure you’re on the right path to tremendous gains, regardless of your workout split.

Download it and start tracking your gains today!

Note that StrengthLog is free, but you’ll need a subscription to follow our premium programs, like the PPLUL workout split in the screenshot above, in-app. We offer a 14-day free trial (no strings attached and no funny business) that you can activate in the app, so you can check it out before making a decision.

Final Rep

You’ve reached the end of this guide to the best workout splits. Thanks for reading, and I hope it helped you decide between the many options.

Remember: there is no universally best workout split. But there is the best split for you right now.

That’s the one that fits your life and your schedule, allows you to recover, lets you train hard, and makes it easy to stay consistent long enough to see results.

A full body split can build a great physique. So can upper/lower. So can PPL and PPLUL. And so can a body part split or an Arnold split.

Your results won’t come from choosing the split with the coolest name or the one that looks the most hardcore on paper.

They’ll come from choosing a good split and sticking with it long enough for the work to compound.

And that’s good news.

Because it means you don’t need the perfect plan.

You need the one for your goals that you’ll actually follow.

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Last reviewed: 2026-04-14

References

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2. International Journal of Strength and Conditioning, Vol 1 No 1 (2021). Resistance Training Recommendations to Maximize Muscle Hypertrophy in an Athletic Population: Position Stand of the IUSCA.
3. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 27(6):p 1609-1617, June 2013. Training Practices and Ergogenic Aids Used by Male Bodybuilders.
4. Sports (Basel). 2020 Nov 18;8(11):149. Training Programs Designed for Muscle Hypertrophy in Bodybuilders: A Narrative Review.
5. Sports Med. 2016 Nov;46(11):1689-1697. Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
6. J Sports Sci. 2019 Jun;37(11):1286-1295. How many times per week should a muscle be trained to maximize muscle hypertrophy? A systematic review and meta-analysis of studies examining the effects of resistance training frequency.
7. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, Volume 22, Issue 3, March 2019, Pages 361-370.Resistance training frequency and skeletal muscle hypertrophy: A review of available evidence.