Today, we’re going to give you an example of what your week of workouts might look like. We will talk about the so-called “workout split”, why and how you want to practice it, and whether or not it is efficient.
There are plenty of other ways in which you can arrange your workouts but we’ve decided to tackle this one first as it is one of the most famous ones and it is quite common. If you ever heard someone say “I’m doing chest today” then you’re already familiar with the topic.
Feel free to continue reading below or watch the video version below from Our YouTube Channel.
Workout by muscle groups
One of the easiest ways to reach muscle hypertrophy is to focus all of your attention on a single muscle group, or sometimes two groups max. That is why people love to split their workouts throughout the week according to muscle groups. For example – Monday is for working out on your chest, Tuesday is for back, and so forth.
The most important and probably the most difficult thing at the same time is finding the sweet spot where your muscles not only get substantial work done during the training session but also get plenty of time to recover. This will undoubtedly vary from person to person, depending mostly on your fitness level.
So, if you’ve just started addressing your workouts you want to make bigger breaks between the muscle group which you want to build. Depending on the stress, at least 3 days is recommended to wait after you’ve done one muscle group. After 3-5 days you want to activate that same group again in order to make the most out of your growth capacity.
Just to make things clear, if you’ve done a heavy legs workout on Monday, it is a smart idea to let your leg muscles rest until Thursday or Friday, especially if you can still feel some soreness or fatigue. Muscle trauma can be tricky and you could feel ready for your next workout, even though you really aren’t. Give your body plenty of time to recover.
Example of a workout week
Now, let’s see an example of how you can plan your week out. We will also include the exercises which you can do during your workout days so that you can even try our example and see if it works for you. We will try not to make it too hard for you.
Here it goes:
- Monday – Chest
- Tuesday – Back & Shoulders
- Wednesday – Rest day
- Thursday – Arms & Abs
- Friday – Legs
- Saturday – Rest day
- Sunday – Cardio
Now, this list can and will obviously differ based on preferences. Some people will have only one rest day and start working on their last muscle group earlier. Others might add another cardio session, etc. Consider this list as a guideline.
Monday – Chest day
Here’s our list of chest exercises. Feel free to add or remove some of the exercises if you wish. We leave that part up to you. However, the number of exercises should stay the same. Also, the intensity of your workouts should be relatively high because you’ll have a whole week or a little bit less to recover every individual muscle group.
Our choice of exercises:
Bench press 5×8
Incline dumbbell press 3×10
Cable crossover 4×12
Dumbbell fly 5×8
Pushups 3×12
Tuesday – Back & Shoulders
Time for back and shoulder exercises. Since there will be a lot of them you might wanna set aside more time than usual. Workouts shouldn’t last longer than one hour so keep that in mind. If you happen to cross that line you can always postpone a muscle group for tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.
Our choice of exercises:
Hex-bar deadlift 5×8
Lat pulldown 5×10
Seated rows 3×8
Military press 5×5
Lateral raise 3×12
Rope face pull 3×12
Wednesday – Rest day
Try not to do too much physical activity on your rest day. You should leave one or two days in the week for some chill time. If you want, you can always go for a walk, hike, or bicycle ride. Light exercise is always welcome.
Thursday – Arms & Abs
You can’t forget about these two groups. By arms, we meant biceps, triceps, and forearms. With that out of the way let’s go straight to the exercises. You don’t need to go too heavy with these since there are small muscle groups so we decided to focus on reps more than sets.
Our choice of exercises:
Triceps cable pulldown 4×10
Skull crushers 3×12
Tricep dip machine 3×12
Biceps curl 3×15
Hammer curl 3×12
Crunches 3×10
Friday – Legs
At last, good old leg day. In the words of Ronnie Coleman, we tell you “time to bleed”! Some people like to mix abs or shoulders exercises when they do their legs. We’ve gone with back exercises but just remember that option exists too. Let’s see what we’ve got in store for your leg workout.
Our choice of exercises:
Hack squat 5×10
Leg extension 3×15
Seated leg press 4×10
Seated leg curls 4×10
Calf raises 3×20
Saturday – Rest day
Sunday – Cardio
Every workout week has to have at least one or two cardio sessions. We need to work on our most important muscle too – the heart. Whatever you like that will make your heart pump is a good choice.
We recommend jogging and swimming, but you can also try dancing, cycling, basketball, tennis, or anything else that comes to your mind.
Lastly
We hope we’ve given you an idea of how you can arrange your workout week. We tried to give a general idea of what one week of workouts can look like on your calendar. Naturally, every person ends up having a very specific type of calendar to which they tend to religiously. We know you will too.
Thank you for reading! Stay ALPHA.
