Because triceps, chest, and calfs are relatively small muscle groups, they should also be trained twice a week. Hitting legs once a week on this program kinda feels like hitting legs on a ‘bro-split’ program. The idea behind a 5 day split is that you dedicate each of the 5 days to a major muscle group. But don’t slack on this. Now, this workout plan is different from most bro splits you’re used to seeing. The rest of the leg workout is simple in nature, but it’s going to be brutal. To benefit from this split, we must focus on optimizing recovery. PS: Would it be possible to add some illustration of the exercices someday for more clarity? Is would you be doing harm to muscle growth by incorporating an hour of cycling, using an elliptical, or 30 minutes of stadiums. Day 1 : Chest (Heavy) + Shoulders (Heavy) +, Day 4 : Arms (Heavy biceps, Light Triceps) +, Day 5 : Chest (Light) + Shoulders (Light) + Abs, (Note: Alternate each back workout with your choice of a 10 min ab workout), Arms (Heavy biceps, Light Triceps) + Calfs, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big proponent of the 6 day split workout. So long as you can recover well enough, there is nothing wrong with training large muscle groups twice a week. It has been my go to for over 10 years. The Muscle Program is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies. Chest + Shoulder day should not be too close to back day. You can go below zero degrees to isolate the chest even more (i.e a decline bench press). Aim for around 7-8 hours of sleep each night. If this seams excessive it you, realize that this much analysis is only necessary for advanced splits. I was curious though, would there be any benefit to putting exercises of the same muscle back to back versus what you have included in the sample plan? In a one major muscle group per day workout split, bodybuilding workouts are designed in such a way that only one muscle group is targeted in each bodybuilding workout. Day 1 : Chest (Light) + Shoulders (Light), Day 5 : Chest (Heavy) + Shoulders (Heavy). Thanks, How much lighter should we go for the (light days) could you give example? But we still need to trains twice a week. Fantastic work! It’s back day. Created Date: Best Squat Rack with Pull Up Bars | Full Guide + Reviews! And that’s an awesome day. But then on 6 day split you have shoulder and chest on same day. I like how everything is spaced between lift days Try to rearrange the split yourself so that it avoids these problems. At night, it helps me sleep well, and in the morning, it helps me focus on my work by blocking out background noise. If gaining strength is a primary goal for you then read about my thoughts on Mike Westerdal’s Critical Bench 2.0 program. Below you will find the final, polished version of our 6 day workout split. Not getting a pump, working out for long sessions, switching up your routine, etc. So, if for example, you feel that your chest is lagging in comparison to the rest of your body, you would train your chest on day 6 perhaps, repeating the same chest workout from day 1. You should always try to lift to failure, but what is more important is that you do so with a high intensity. In the best way, of course. I have one question as I have read both 5 day split and 6 day split. Try doing a side lateral raise while placing your hand over your traps and notice how much the upper back muscle flex as you raise your arm. Increasing MPS:MPB will improve your recovery and performance, and accelerate muscular development. As a matter of fact, if you have optimized your diet, sleep, and supplementation, doing so would will accelerate your gains to whole new level. You can train the two heads of the biceps once a week, or you can train it twice a week. Where would u puf a second leg day in? Use this plan for 6 – 8 Weeks, than change in order to stop the muscles getting too used to a certain workload. Can you give a hypothetical of the what the difference in weights should be for light and heavy days? Keep rests to under 2 minutes. *If you’re a seasoned lifter, you can skip to the next section. Not only that, but you definitely won’t be able to pull as much weight as you normally can. On a bro split, you have a day for every muscle group, and you can give them a lot more attention without having to deal with trade-offs. One of the main differences is you’re going to be training each muscle twice a week. Let’s go through the motion of building the best 6 day workout split. Steroids, such as testosterone, increase the rate of muscle protein synthesis (MPS) which is the biological mechanism in which protein is built in order to repair damage caused by intense workouts. Now lets consider “arm” workouts. I hope you got a lot out of this post and I’m excited for you to start this 6-day bro split bodybuilding workout! Best Supplements to Get Ripped in 4 Weeks | Scientifically Proven, Gym Workout Plan for Weight Loss (Beginners). I love this 6 day split but I’ve been thinking about the leg thingy too. Also, on the final set, you’ll do a rest-pause set (you’ll also do this for the last set of your final chest exercise). You say on 5 day split you should keep shoulder work away form chest day. Great work you did on creating that, I just had one question regarding the plan as it says it trains every body part twice, what about biceps and upper arms? As mentioned, the higher volume of a five-day split demands greater recovery, and that's built into this two days on, one off cycle. This one is a killer. Thanks, Olympic Muscle is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. They’ve earned that right because this is a brutal exercise that will pack on lower body mass like no other. What Are The Pros And Cons Of The Bro Split? Thanks for a detailed plan. So for Day 4, we would do 4 biceps workouts and 3 triceps workouts. Are you looking for a workout schedule that will allow you to hit the gym 6 days a week? If MPS is greater than MPB, muscle is built (hypertrophy), and if MPS is less than MPB, muscle is lost (atrophy). But remember, this is not your typical bro split workout. Rather than doing half-assed reps with heavyweight on leg press, you’ll drop the weight down and go for 15-20 reps. You’ll probably hit 20 reps on your first 2-3 sets but then it will be tougher (make sure you get at least 15). Thanks for the article. On page 175 of his book The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, he presents this workout as one his advanced training routines (2). U only hit legs once a week Most of them are junk. Our 6 day split is starting to shape up, but we still have to consider a few more things. For exemple: when you say Really, the only way to determine this is through trial and error. This will pump more blood into the muscle. After heavy squats, you’ll pump out more reps for exercises that focus on quads. This works well if you’re busy and don’t have the time for a 4-day workout split. Make sure you’re going all-out and training with intensity. For starters, the answer has nothing to do with soreness levels— a lack of soreness is not an indicator of recovery, and you can workout if you still feel sore (so long as the soreness does not hinder your range of motion). I actually have a post dedicated to why this is so important here: Training Legs Twice a Week: How to Build Bigger Legs. workouts/6-day-powerbuilding-split-meal-plan Main Goal: Build Muscle Training Level: Intermediate Program Duration: 12 Weeks Days Per Week: 6 Days Time Per Workout: 45-60 Mins Equipment: Barbell, Bodyweight, Dumbbells, Machines Author: Nick Ludlow. And with a 6 day workout routine, you are allowed one rest day per week. As already mentioned, reaping the full benefits of a 6 day workout routine requires optimal recovery. As a result, they use bad form. So it makes sense to pay more attention and effort to your back. When constructing a workout routine, the first thing to consider is which muscle groups should be paired together. A complete guide to the Push/Pull/Legs split. Do dynamic stretches before you begin and static stretches at the end. Don’t be that person! The same should be applied to back. 1- what’s the best break period between each rep? Another distinction is that each body part is trained 3 times a week as opposed to twice a week. As you increase the angle, you active more of the deltoid muscles and less of the pectoral muscles. For this reason, we should try to separate these two workout days as much as possible. To finish off the split, we need to consider calf and ab workouts. __CONFIG_colors_palette__{"active_palette":0,"config":{"colors":{"f3080":{"name":"Main Accent","parent":-1},"f2bba":{"name":"Main Light 10","parent":"f3080"},"trewq":{"name":"Main Light 30","parent":"f3080"},"poiuy":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"f3080"},"f83d7":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"f3080"},"frty6":{"name":"Main Light 45","parent":"f3080"},"flktr":{"name":"Main Light 80","parent":"f3080"}},"gradients":[]},"palettes":[{"name":"Default","value":{"colors":{"f3080":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.7)"},"f2bba":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.5)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"trewq":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.7)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"poiuy":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.35)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"f83d7":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.4)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"frty6":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.2)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}},"flktr":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.8)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"l":0.09,"s":0.02}}},"gradients":[]},"original":{"colors":{"f3080":{"val":"rgb(23, 23, 22)","hsl":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09}},"f2bba":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.5)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.5}},"trewq":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.7)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.7}},"poiuy":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.35)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.35}},"f83d7":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.4)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.4}},"frty6":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.2)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.2}},"flktr":{"val":"rgba(23, 23, 22, 0.8)","hsl_parent_dependency":{"h":60,"s":0.02,"l":0.09,"a":0.8}}},"gradients":[]}}]}__CONFIG_colors_palette__, 6-Day Bro Split Bodybuilding Workout Plan, Training Legs Twice A Week: How to Build Bigger Legs, Leg Press Foot Positions for More Mass and Definition, Supersets For Shoulders: Workout For Building Huge Delts, Supersets for Bis and Tris: 3 Workouts to Build Massive Arms, Mike Westerdal’s Critical Bench 2.0 program, Training Legs Twice a Week: How to Build Bigger Legs, Workouts that focus on just one major muscle, and sometimes a secondary muscle with it (ex: back and biceps, chest and triceps) and…, Typically training each muscle once a week, Eating enough protein and overall calories for your muscles to recover and grow. This 6 day push/pull/legs workout routine split is a high volume, rest-pause system designed for intermediate lifters looking to gain muscle and strength. Chest and biceps are favorite muscles for many bodybuilders due to their visibility. After some basic chest exercises, you’ll go to arms. I’ll explain in more detail why this particular routine is so effective. I learned alot. The opposite of this, muscle protein breakdown (MPB), occurs during a workout. Adam is the founder and main contributor for Olympic Muscle. Each workout should take around 60-90 mins to complete. Unless you want to argue the chest and shoulder exercises only work 1 head of the triceps and the tricep exercises only work the other 2 heads. Take a second and try to think of a reason why. This is the most important part of this article and is discussed in the next section. This is the part of the workout that helps you get stronger and builds dense muscle mass. You’ll see 3 columns: **The ‘Notes’ column is where you’ll see special techniques that you’ll use. Therefore, a flat bench press activates less deltoid muscles then an incline bench press which activates less deltoids muscles than a military press. Instead of doing two full-on chest+shoulder workouts twice per week, consider doing one “heavy” and one “light” workout. As mentioned in previous section, the rate of MPS must be greater than the rate of MPB in order to build muscle. If you really think about it, this is fundamentally what bodybuilding is about— optimizing recover so that you can build the most amount of muscle in the least amount of time. The pain is intolerable! I think a second leg day would have been great. Click here to download those full workouts for free. Before looking at the 6 day split, lets discuss how we can improve our bodies ability to recover. Try to rearrange the split yourself so that it avoids these problems. Try doing so yourself (these is an ideal way to do this). Five-Day Split Program 2: Two On, One Off. You might be able to get away with a 5 day split, but the 3 day workout routine, is the best option for beginners. How would you modify your program for that? This workout plan is intended to have you training 6 days in a row with 1 day of rest. Also note that back is divided into “width” and “thickness” days. Intense training depletes your body of essential micronutrients, some of which support our testosterone and growth hormone levels. The farther your hands are, the more you target the chest. Some supporting muscle groups (especially the back and … This machine has been running non-stop in my room for the past 2. years and shows no sign of wearing down. Here is the best 6 day gym workout schedule: Arnold Schwarzenegger was a big proponent of the 6 day split workout. A good plan is to start with a full-body routine, gain strength and size, push the limits of the routine by slapping on a belt like this , and then trying out a split routine. In this section, you will learn the art of constructing a workout routine, and in doing so, develop allot of effective bodybuilding knowledge! Hi Mike It’s not supposed to be. With 6 training days, you’re going to train each muscle twice a week (most bro splits have you working each muscle once a week). Thank you for your amazing work, i’m sure i’ll get the body I want in no time thanks to your article! I learned a great technique from a local pro bodybuilder that involved separating back workouts into two types— those that target back “thickness” and those that target back “width”. I’m a newbie in that amazing muscle universe (almost 2 month going to the gym 6days/week) and as I was searching for a better work out program than the one I poorly made, I think this one looks fantastic and will try it. But here you’ll superset triceps with biceps. There’s some controversy about whether this is the most effective way to build muscle.