Workout Splits Explained: How to Pick the Right 3, 4, 5 or 6 Day Split

A workout split is the way you divide your muscles across your training days. The quick pick: train 2 to 3 days a week with a full body routine, 4 days with an upper/lower split, 5 days with a push/pull/legs plus upper/lower hybrid (PPLUL), and 6 days with push/pull/legs run twice. The classic bro split, one body part per day, can work too, but it trains each muscle only once a week and is the least forgiving when you miss a session.

Below you get a side-by-side comparison, one compact sample week for each split, and a way to choose based on your schedule, goal and experience. Each split already has a full guide on this blog with warm-ups, progression rules and swaps, so this article focuses on helping you pick, then sends you to the right one.

Workout Splits Compared

Here is how the common workout splits stack up. "Frequency" means how many times each muscle gets trained in a normal week.

Notice that most of the good options train each muscle about twice a week. That is not a law. It is mostly the easiest way to fit enough weekly sets in without marathon sessions, which matters more than the split itself. More on that in the bro split section.

Full Body: The Best 2 to 3 Day Split

A full body routine trains every major muscle in every session. With three days a week, you alternate two workouts, A and B, so you do A, B, A one week and B, A, B the next. Each session has a squat or hinge, a press, a pull and a couple of smaller exercises.

It is the best place to start for beginners because you practice each lift often while the weights are still light, and it is the most forgiving split if your week is unpredictable. Miss a session and you simply do the next workout in the order. Nothing goes untrained for long. Two days a week also works: run A and B once each, ideally with two or three days between them.

The full plan, including a dumbbell-only version, warm-up and progression rules, is in our full body workout routine. Women starting out may prefer the beginner workout plan for women, which follows the same principles.

The catch: once you have trained for a while and need more sets per muscle, cramming them all into three full body sessions makes each workout long and tiring. That is usually the signal to move to a split.

The 4 Day Workout Split: Upper/Lower

If you can train four days a week, the upper/lower split is the best default. You alternate upper body days and lower body days, so every muscle gets trained twice a week with at least two days between sessions for the same half of the body. One upper and one lower day are heavy and strength-focused (low reps, long rest). The other pair uses higher reps and different exercises for size.

That gives each muscle roughly 8 to 12 hard sets a week, a sensible starting range for most intermediate lifters. Sessions take about 45 to 60 minutes. The days are flexible: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday is the classic layout, but any arrangement works as long as you don't stack all four in a row. If you miss one, do the next session in order rather than doubling up. Each muscle still got one good session that week.

The full plan, with warm-ups, top-set progression for the heavy days and a 3-day rotating version, is in our upper lower split guide.

Another 4-day option: a paired body-part split

The other common 4 day workout split pairs body parts: chest and triceps, back and biceps, legs, then shoulders and abs. Each muscle gets one big session a week instead of two moderate ones. It works if you put in enough hard sets, but it shares the bro split's downsides below, so for most people with four days, upper/lower is the better choice.

Push/Pull/Legs: 3 or 6 Days

Push/pull/legs (PPL) groups muscles that work together. Push day covers chest, shoulders and triceps, pull day covers back, rear delts and biceps, and leg day covers quads, hamstrings, glutes and calves. Because each day stresses different muscles, you can train on back-to-back days, which is what makes the 6-day version possible.

Here is the 6-day version, with heavier A days and higher-rep B days so the week doesn't repeat the same session twice:

The 3-day version: run Push A, Pull A and Legs A on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with one extra set on each exercise (plus an overhead cable triceps extension on push day), since each muscle only gets one session a week. Expect 60 to 70 minutes per session.

Each day has its own deep guide: the push day workout, the pull day workout and the leg day workout. Our PPL workout ties them together with schedules, progression and a rolling version for unpredictable weeks.

The catch: 3-day PPL trains each muscle once a week, so a missed pull day means your back goes two weeks between sessions. The 6-day version fixes the frequency but has no slack. One late night at work and the week falls apart.

PPLUL: The 5-Day Split

If six days is too many and four feels like too few, PPLUL is the sweet spot. You run one round of push, pull and legs, take a day off, then add an upper day and a lower day. Every muscle still gets trained twice a week, and you keep two full rest days. Another 5-day option is upper/lower plus one full body day, but PPLUL is the one our PPL guide lays out in full, so it is shown here.

The lower day leads with a hinge because leg day already led with a squat, so the two sessions don't hammer the same pattern. Thursday's rest day doubles as a buffer: miss a session early in the week and you can slide it into Thursday without wrecking the rest. The full PPLUL breakdown is in the PPL guide.

The catch: the week doesn't divide evenly. Chest gets a full push day plus a few sets on upper day, while some muscles get less. For most people that's fine. If one muscle lags, add a set or two for it on the upper or lower day.

The Bro Split: An Honest Take

The bro split, or body-part split, gives each muscle group its own day: chest Monday, back Tuesday, legs Wednesday, shoulders Thursday, arms Friday. It is the classic bodybuilding magazine layout, and plenty of people love it because each session is focused and you leave with a serious pump.

The chest and back days are the full sessions from our chest workout and back workout guides, and the leg day is the barbell session from the leg day guide. The shoulder and arm days are simple examples. For more curl options, see the bicep workout, and if glutes are a priority, add a session from the dumbbell glute workout on a free day.

Does once a week work?

It can. A 2016 meta-analysis by Schoenfeld, Ogborn and Krieger found that training a muscle twice a week produced more growth than once a week. But a larger 2019 follow-up by Schoenfeld, Grgic and Krieger, covering 25 studies, found no meaningful difference between frequencies when the total number of weekly sets was the same. The authors concluded that, for a given volume, you can choose how often to train each muscle based on personal preference.

So the bro split is not broken. The question is whether you actually get enough work in. A 2017 meta-analysis on training volume found that more weekly sets were linked to more growth, and a common rule of thumb is roughly 10 to 20 hard sets per muscle a week. The chest day above is 13 sets, which lands at the low end. Getting to the middle of that range in a single session means 16 or more sets for one muscle, and by the last few your effort and form usually slip.

The bigger problem is missed days. On a bro split, skip Wednesday and your legs go two full weeks between sessions. Do that a few times a month and you are under-training a muscle without noticing. Some lifters also find the overlap awkward: triceps work on chest day, shoulder day and arm day, three days out of five.

Verdict: if you enjoy it, never miss sessions and keep weekly sets per muscle high enough, a bro split works. If your schedule is unpredictable or you are still learning the lifts, almost any twice-a-week split is a safer bet.

How to Choose a Split Workout Routine

Picking a split workout routine comes down to five questions. Answer them in this order.

1. How many days can you reliably train?

Use the number of days you can keep up in a bad week, not your best one. If you are hoping for five but usually manage three or four, plan for three or four. A plan you complete almost every week beats a better plan you complete half the time. This one question picks your split for most people: 2 to 3 days points to full body, 4 to upper/lower, 5 to PPLUL, 6 to PPL.

2. What is your experience level?

The American College of Sports Medicine's position stand on resistance training progression recommends 2 to 3 training days a week for novices, 3 to 4 for intermediates (about six months of consistent training) and 4 to 5 for advanced lifters. That maps neatly onto the splits: beginners do best on full body, intermediates on upper/lower or PPLUL, and the 6-day plans make most sense once you have a few years of training and good recovery.

3. What is your main goal?

• Strength. You want to practice the main lifts often and heavy. Full body and upper/lower are great here because the squat, bench and other big lifts show up twice or more a week. Our guide to hypertrophy vs strength training explains how the two goals differ.
• Muscle size. Any split works if weekly sets are high enough. Upper/lower, PPLUL and 6-day PPL make it easiest to fit 10 or more hard sets per muscle without overlong sessions.
• General fitness or fat loss. Pick the fewest days that you will do consistently, usually full body 2 to 3 times a week, and spend the rest of your energy on daily activity and diet.

4. How well do you recover?

Sleep, stress, age, a physical job and other sports all eat into recovery. If you are often sore or tired, choose fewer days and fewer sets, and plan a deload week every couple of months. More days only help if you can recover from them.

5. What happens when you miss a day?

Everyone misses sessions. How much it costs depends on the split:

If you still can't decide, start with the split that matches your days from step 1 and run it for 8 to 12 weeks. You will learn more from one split followed properly than from three you abandon after a fortnight. Our gym exercise planner walks through building a full plan from scratch if you want to customize one of these weeks.

What Matters More Than the Split

Whatever split gym workout you choose, three things decide whether it works far more than the layout does:

• Progression. Add reps, then weight, over time. Double progression is the simplest method, explained in our guide to progressive overload.
• Hard sets. Finish most sets with about 1 to 3 reps left in the tank. A split full of easy sets does little, whatever days it uses.
• Sensible rest. Rest long enough to perform on the big lifts, but don't let a 45-minute plan turn into 90. Our post on rest times covers how long each set really needs.

When should you change splits? When your schedule changes, when your progress has stalled for several weeks despite good sleep, food and effort, or when you have outgrown full body and need more sets per muscle. Not because a new split looks exciting on social media.

Where GymGod Fits

Every split in this article can be set up in GymGod. You can build your own routine with drag and drop, set your own sets and rest, and plan your whole week, so any of the sample weeks above can go straight into the app. If you would rather not design anything, you can run one of 9 proven programs with progression and rest times built in, or let the AI coach make a routine for you that stays consistent, so you can progressively overload instead of starting over.

Whichever split you run, your last weights, reps and goals appear the moment you start an exercise, and auto-progression calculates your next weight from what you actually lifted. That matters most on splits like 3-day PPL and the bro split, where you only see an exercise once a week. Your first 3 workouts are free, with no account needed.

Workout Splits FAQ