Bodybuilding Ballet: The Best Bro Split Workout Routine

The bro split – or the body part split – is the most popular bodybuilding split in the world.

But what is a bro split, and why has it become the go-to routine for advanced and competitive bodybuilders?

Let’s discover the answers to those questions and many more together as we unravel the secrets of the bro split routine.

Bodybuilding Ballet: The Best Bro Split

In addition to being a guide to bro splits, this is also an overview of our premier training program for muscle hypertrophy, Bodybuilding Ballet.

It’s six weeks long and available in no fewer than four versions: 4, 5, and 6 days per week, plus a Lite variant (also 4 days/week).

Using both free-weight training and machine-based exercises, plus a wide variety of rep ranges, you’ll hit all your body’s muscle fibers and force them into growth.

Bodybuilding Ballet is an excellent choice for the intermediate to advanced bodybuilder who wants – needs – a training program dedicated to muscle growth.

Keep reading, and you’ll learn all about this bro split workout routine, or download our workout tracker for free right now and give it a go.

What Is a Bro Split?

During the golden era of bodybuilding, starting in the 1950s, full-body workouts were the norm.

At that time, most bodybuilders followed full-body splits, training their entire body every session. A few early adopters were experimenting with split routines, but full-body was generally the way to go.

As the years went on, bodybuilders started splitting those full-body workouts up, spreading them over the week, a practice that caught on during the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Some examples of training splits include the upper/lower split and the push/pull/legs split. All these workout splits have stood the test of time and are still popular at all experience levels, from beginners to advanced lifters.

Enter the Bro Split

One of the workout splits that evolved during the 1970s and 1980s was the bro split.

It involves dedicating an entire training day to one or two major muscle groups and blasting them with high-volume training.

An experienced bodybuilder might split their body parts into five or six workouts, training a single muscle group each session.

For example:

• Monday: Chest (Monday is universally known as International Chest Day)
• Tuesday: Back
• Wednesday: Legs
• Thursday: Shoulders
• Friday: Arms

For a bodybuilder who wants the weekend off to do other fun stuff.

Calves and abs are often tacked onto another workout, as they are small muscles that don’t really “count” when it comes to racking up a recovery debt.

Today, virtually all competitive bodybuilders use some variation of the bro split.¹

Are Bro Splits Effective?

The short answer is yes.

Numerous bodybuilders have built their physiques exclusively using a bro split.

Both on-the-gym-floor observations and research support the bro split style of training for bodybuilding (and for muscle growth in general).²

The longer answer is that it depends.

A bro split isn’t for everyone.

For example, if you’re new to strength training, you can’t make use of a high number of sets per muscle group each workout (20 sets of biceps doesn’t make your biceps grow more than, say, 8), nor will you be able to recover from them.

You’d be better off training each muscle with a higher frequency and fewer sets per workout to learn the movements.

The final answer is that bro splits have both advantages and disadvantages.

They’re not the only way or even the best way for everyone to structure their training, but if they fit your experience, schedule, and personal preferences, they can be the best choice for your bodybuilding goals.

Pros and Cons of the Bro Split

Proponents of the traditional bro split love it.

The pump. The recovery. The results.

However, it’s not all roses and gains. Bro split or bro science – here are the pros and cons of the body part split.

Bro Split Pros

• When you train one or two muscle groups per workout, you can hit them with maximal intensity and focus. You don’t have to worry about holding back and saving energy for later on in the workout.
• Training a muscle group once weekly allows for maximal recovery time.
• You can dedicate time to all major muscle groups. When you squeeze them all into one or two workouts, it’s easy to overlook some (tacking three sets of calves to the end of your lower-body workout and expecting them to grow).
• Even though a bro split involves plenty of sets for each muscle group, the workouts are time-efficient, as you usually only need to do a thorough warm-up before the first exercise.
• Many lifters enjoy hitting a muscle once weekly, but really demolishing it that day. Don’t underestimate the psychological factors of building muscle.
• You get a fantastic pump!

Bro Split Cons

• If you’re inexperienced, you recover faster. That might sound unintuitive, but as you get more advanced, you can exert yourself more, requiring more time to recover and improve. Hence, someone new to bodybuilding can get better results with a higher-frequency program.
• The second half of your workouts might get filled with junk volume – sets that take time and effort but don’t build any muscle. If you get maximal growth from 10 sets, but do 20, the second half of your workout would be a waste of time and energy at best and wreck your recovery and slow your gains at worst. Now, 10 is not the optimal number of sets for everyone. Research shows that trained bodybuilders may need twice that many.³
• Training with the intensity required for growth throughout the workout can be hard. After blasting your quads with a dozen sets, doing hams and glutes afterward can be daunting, and the quality of those sets can suffer.
• Bro splits take a lot of time. You need to be prepared to spend four to six days a week in the gym. Not everyone has that kind of time to dedicate to lifting, but that’s the unavoidable tradeoff of giving each muscle its own day.

Does Training Frequency Matter for Building Muscle?

Once you’re past the beginner stage – you’ve learned the movements and primed your body for regular strength training – you get similar results whether you train a muscle group one, three, or five times per week. As long as you manage to get enough high-quality volume.

In the mid-2010s, bro splits fell out of favor, and high-frequency workout routines were the rage. Indeed, research at the time suggested that training each major muscle group twice weekly is superior to once a week.⁴

These findings didn’t really change how competitive bodybuilders trained, though. Most stuck with the bro split.

However, we now have a lot more research on training frequency. Today, there is “strong evidence that weekly resistance training frequency does not significantly or meaningfully impact muscle hypertrophy when volume is equated.“²

Basically, it doesn’t seem to matter much how many times you train a muscle group each week as long as you perform the same number of total sets.

The potential problem with having a dedicated weekly chest day is not the frequency itself, but the quality of your training over that many sets in a single workout. If that quality suffers, then it makes sense to split your training up more, hitting those pecs with two shorter sessions instead.

Presenting the Best Bro Split Routine: Bodybuilding Ballet

Bodybuilding Ballet is our premium training program for building muscle and is the epitome of a bro split.

It allocates an entire training day to one or two body parts and allows for maximal stimulation and recovery of those muscle groups. The result is the ideal bodybuilding split, according to many who follow it week in and week out.

Bodybuilding Ballet is six weeks long and available in four versions:

• Bodybuilding Ballet – 4 Day Bro Split
• Bodybuilding Ballet – 5 Day Bro Split
• Bodybuilding Ballet – 6 Day Bro Split
• Bodybuilding Ballet Lite – 4 Day Bro Split

The five-day version of Bodybuilding Ballet is the original and default program, but you can also train four or six days per week according to your preferences.

The Lite version has the same structure as the full 4-day program, but with fewer sets.

The program is designed to build muscle, not necessarily maximize your strength gains. Don’t worry; you will increase your muscle strength with Bodybuilding Ballet, but muscle hypertrophy is the main goal.

Who Is the Bodybuilding Ballet Bro Split for?

Bodybuilding Ballet is not a beginner workout plan.

It’s designed for moderately advanced bodybuilders and above, and you’ll need that training experience to take advantage of the program. You want to have built up the tolerance for a high training volume.

We have several training programs suitable for beginners in the StrengthLog app, including our Barbell Training Program for the Beginner and the bodybuilding-oriented Bodybuilding for Beginners, both of which are completely free. Our Upper / Lower Split is also fantastic for beginner- to intermediate-level lifters.

Training Volume and Frequency

Bodybuilding Ballet is a high-volume, low-frequency split.

Volume

You can expect plenty of sets for all different muscle groups, and the workouts, especially for the back and legs, are challenging.

Most workouts in Bodybuilding Ballet meet or exceed standard set recommendations (12–20 weekly sets/muscle) for muscle growth.⁵ Especially if you count indirect sets, meaning a set of chest presses, for example, counts as 0.5 sets for your triceps.

That doesn’t mean there is a sharp ceiling where no muscle growth happens after 20 weekly sets. Diminishing returns are still returns.

Also, while there are studies on “trained” people, very few controlled trials look at advanced bodybuilders randomized to, say, 12 vs 20 vs 30 sets.

Frequency

Even though you only have one dedicated training day for each muscle group, you don’t have to worry about working them too infrequently. There’s plenty of overlap between muscle groups in many compound movements.

For example, your quads are involved when you deadlift on back day, your triceps do their fair share of the work on chest and shoulder day, and your biceps pull their weight on back day, to name a few.

And that means you still stimulate muscle growth in all your muscle groups several times per week, even though it’s technically a low-frequency program.

Weight Selection and Progression

Bodybuilding Ballet uses double progression and triple progression in addition to traditional percentage-based progression.

Double Progression

With double progression, you increase two things when you can: reps and weight. Here’s an example:

Let’s say you’re doing barbell rows, 3 sets × 8–10 reps, and you use 150 lb.

• When you start the program, you might get 10, 9, 8 reps.
• Next time, try to turn that into something like 10, 10, 9 reps.
• Eventually, you’ll reach 10, 10, 10 reps.

And that’s when you add a little more weight (go for 155 lb!) and start toward the bottom of the range again. You don’t arbitrarily add weight every week.

When you follow the program in our app, it takes care of the numbers game for you.

Triple Progression

Triple progression is similar, but you add a third variable to increase: sets.

Let’s say you do dumbbell lateral raises for 3–5 sets of 10–15 reps with 20 lb.

• First, you do more reps each workout until you hit the top of your rep range (3 sets × 15 reps × 20 lb). Just like double progression.
• With triple progression, once you’re maxing out reps, add another set at that same weight and rep range. You’re now at 4 sets × 10–15 reps × 20 lb.
• Once you’re at 5 sets with of all of them maxed out on reps, then you add weight (perhaps 2.5 lb) and drop back down to the bottom of your rep range and set count (3 sets × 8 reps × 22.5 lb).

Then repeat the whole cycle.

Percentage-Based Progression

In big lifts like squats, bench presses, and deadlifts, each week gives you set percentages of your one-rep max (1RM) for each set.

When you start the program, you’ll enter your current estimated 1RM in the exercises, and the app will calculate your training weights.

For example, in week 1, you do 4 sets of squats at 75–85% of your 1RM. Later weeks ramp up both the number of sets and the % of 1RM.

Be sure to use your current estimated 1RM, not your all-time best (unless they are the same), or you’ll find the sets very challenging to complete.

Training to Failure

When you’re doing big lifts with heavy weights, I suggest terminating your sets a couple of reps before muscular failure.

Heavy loads recruit all motor units and fibers in your muscles without you having to go to failure. You can do more sets without getting overly fatigued and compromising recovery.

You’ll use lighter weights and perform more reps when doing isolation work. If you want to train to muscle failure, here’s your chance.

Terminate the majority of your sets a rep or two from failure, but feel free to go all the way occasionally, maybe in the last set or two of each isolation movement.

Deloads and Recovery

Bodybuilding Ballet might be six weeks long, but you don’t reach your bodybuilding goals in less than two months.

After completing one 6-week round, you can either take a deload week to let your body recover or jump right back into week one again if you feel up for it.

Because the training volume and intensity increase weekly, returning to week one is something of a built-in deload. Your body will have adapted to the gradually increased training volume, and starting over will feel like a welcome respite from the hard work.

During a deload week, you can simply reduce training volume by ~40–50% and stay away from failure. It doesn’t have to be harder than that.

Bodybuilding Ballet Program Structure

To look like a bodybuilder, you have to train like a bodybuilder.

Let’s take a closer look at the different variants of Bodybuilding Ballet. You can see the exact set, rep, and % of 1RM configuration in your StrengthLog app.

Bodybuilding Ballet – 4 Day Bro Split

This version of Bodybuilding Ballet is perfect if you can’t be in the gym more than four times per week but still want to train like a bodybuilder.

The total training volume is comparable to the program’s five- and six-day versions but slightly slimmed down to keep the workouts from becoming overly long.

Workout 1 – Chest & Biceps

1. Bench Press
2. Incline Dumbbell Press
3. Dumbbell Chest Fly
4. Push-Up
5. Barbell Curl
6. Dumbbell Curl
7. Preacher Curl

Workout 2 – Legs

1. Squat
2. Leg Press
3. Leg Extension
4. Lunges
5. Romanian Deadlift
6. Leg Curl

Workout 3 – Shoulders & Abs

1. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
2. Overhead Press
3. Dumbbell Front Raise
4. Dumbbell Lateral Raise
5. Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
6. Face Pull
7. Hanging Leg Raise
8. Cable Crunch
9. Ab Wheel Roll-Out

Workout 4 – Back & Triceps

1. Deadlift
2. Pull-Up
3. Barbell Row
4. Seated Row
5. Dumbbell Row
6. Dumbbell Shrug
7. Back Extension
8. Close-Grip Bench Press
9. Barbell Standing Triceps Extension
10. Tricep Pushdown

As you can see, the workouts are pretty meaty. If you can’t spend that long in the gym but still want to train four days per week, check out Bodybuilding Ballet Lite for a more manageable volume.

You can plan your three rest days to fit your schedule. Train four days in a row and rest three, do a “two days on, one day off, two days on” deal with the weekend off, or any other combination of training and rest days you can think of.

Bodybuilding Ballet – 5 Day Bro Split

This is the original version of Bodybuilding Ballet – a balanced mix of training volume and frequency.

Workout 1 – Chest & Abs

1. Bench Press
2. Incline Dumbbell Press
3. Dumbbell Chest Fly
4. Push-Up
5. Hanging Leg Raise
6. Cable Crunch
7. Ab Wheel Roll-Out

Workout 2 – Back

1. Deadlift
2. Pull-Up
3. Barbell Row
4. Seated Row
5. Dumbbell Row
6. Dumbbell Shrug
7. Back Extension

Workout 3 – Shoulders

1. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
2. Overhead Press
3. Dumbbell Front Raise
4. Dumbbell Lateral Raise
5. Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
6. Face Pull

Workout 4 – Legs

1. Squat
2. Leg Press
3. Leg Extension
4. Lunges
5. Romanian Deadlift
6. Leg Curl

Workout 5 – Biceps & Triceps

1. Barbell Curl
2. Dumbbell Curl
3. Preacher Curl
4. Close-Grip Bench Press
5. Barbell Standing Triceps Extension
6. Tricep Pushdown

With one more weekly training day, you spread your muscle groups out more, and the workouts are less time-consuming.

Instead of combining major muscle groups, you’re really focusing on one per workout, and your arms get a dedicated day.

The only training day without modifications is leg day. You likely don’t want to do any more work after leg day anyway.

Spread your rest days out over the week, or train five days in a row and then take two off, for example, during the weekend. It’s up to you.

Bodybuilding Ballet – 6 Day Bro Split

If you prefer shorter workouts but want to train almost every day, the six-day version of Bodybuilding Ballet is for you.

Workout 1 – Chest

1. Bench Press
2. Incline Dumbbell Press
3. Dumbbell Chest Fly
4. Push-Up

Workout 2 – Back

1. Deadlift
2. Pull-Up
3. Barbell Row
4. Seated Row
5. Dumbbell Row
6. Dumbbell Shrug
7. Back Extension

Workout 3 – Shoulders

1. Dumbbell Shoulder Press
2. Overhead Press
3. Dumbbell Front Raise
4. Dumbbell Lateral Raise
5. Reverse Dumbbell Flyes
6. Face Pull

Workout 4 – Quads & Glutes

1. Squat
2. Leg Press
3. Leg Extension
4. Lunges

Workout 5 – Biceps & Triceps

1. Barbell Curl
2. Dumbbell Curl
3. Preacher Curl
4. Close-Grip Bench Press
5. Barbell Standing Triceps Extension
6. Tricep Pushdown

Workout 6 – Hamstrings & Abs

1. Romanian Deadlift
2. Leg Curl
3. Hanging Leg Raise
4. Cable Crunch
5. Ab Wheel Roll-Out

Some significant changes in the six-day version of Bodybuilding Ballet include splitting leg day into a quads & glutes day and a hamstring day with abs on top.

The workouts are shorter, and most feel that this is the most laid-back version of the program, even though you’re in the gym six days per week.

You can rest whichever day of the week fits your schedule.

Bodybuilding Ballet Lite – 4 Day Bro Split

No changes in training days or exercise selection from the regular 4-day Ballet, but the volume (number of sets) is significantly lower.

If you don’t want to or need the full versions, don’t hesitate to check out Bodybuilding Ballet Lite.

What About Calves?

Some people have big calves without a single set of calf raises, while others find it extremely hard and a waste of time to train calves because they simply don’t respond. You see this phenomenon even among professional bodybuilders.

If you want to train calves, feel free to add them to the workout of your choice. Calves recover fast, so you might even want to train them twice weekly if you have the time, energy, and dedication.

Our suggested bodybuilding calf workout looks like this:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Notes
Standing Calf Raise	4	8–12	Go heavy on this one. Pause 2–3 sec at the bottom. No bouncing.
Seated Calf Raise	3	15–20	Focus on the burn. Shorter rest (~60 seconds).
Leg Press Calf Raise	3	20–25	Pick a weight you can do ~15 full reps with. When you reach failure, do 5–10 partial reps in the bottom half.

This workout is free in the StrengthLog app.

Follow Bodybuilding Ballet in StrengthLog

Want to give Bodybuilding Ballet a go? You won’t regret it.

Combined with recovery and nutrition, it’s the ultimate workout routine for muscle growth for the experienced bodybuilder.

It’s available exclusively in our workout app StrengthLog.

The app makes it super easy to keep track of your weights and reps and ensures you’re on the right path.

It remembers what weights you used in your last session, and automatically loads them into your next one. And trying to improve on your last workout is the key to improving and getting stronger over time.

StrengthLog is free, but for our more advanced premium programs, like the Ballet suite, you’ll need a subscription to follow it 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

The bro split gets plenty of flak from the high-frequency crowd, but there’s a reason it built some of the best bodybuilding physiques ever.

It works.

And it’s fun. If a dedicated arm day makes you want to hit the iron, half the battle is already won.

Fire up your StrengthLog app, find Bodybuilding Ballet, and go get that pump.

Thanks for reading, and good luck with your training.

More Bodybuilding

Want more bodybuilding? Check out these resources:

• Bodybuilding: The Ultimate Guide: Everything you need to know about bodybuilding, from workout routines to supplements to contest prep.
• Bodybuilding for Beginners: Learn the basics, the training, the nutrition, the supplements, and everything else to help you get started on your bodybuilding journey.
• Bodybuilding Statistics: Unleash your inner data nerd and find all the bodybuilding stats you can shake a stick at, whether out of personal interest or for a work or school project.
• Best Bodybuilding Programs, Beginner to Advanced: Find the right bodybuilding routine for you. Fifteen of the best, all available in StrengthLog.
• The 8 Mandatory Bodybuilding Poses: A Complete Guide: Master the mandatory bodybuilding poses to showcase the physique you’ve worked so hard to build.

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Last reviewed: 2026-10-01

References

1. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: June 2013 – Volume 27 – Issue 6 – p 1609-1617. Training Practices and Ergogenic Aids Used by Male Bodybuilders.
2. 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.
3. J Hum Kinet. 2022 Feb 10;81:199-210. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy.
4. Sports Medicine Volume 46, Pages 1689–1697 (2016). Effects of Resistance Training Frequency on Measures of Muscle Hypertrophy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
5. J Hum Kinet. 2022 Feb 10;81:199–210. A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy.