1. Full Body — 3 days a week
Every session touches your whole body: a squat, a push, and a pull. Best for beginners and anyone training 3 days a week or fewer — see our full 3-day beginner routine for exact exercises.
2. Upper/Lower — 4 days a week
Split into upper-body and lower-body days, run twice each per week (Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower). More volume per muscle group than Full Body, with more recovery between sessions than PPL. Covered in full detail in our Upper/Lower 4-day routine.
3. Push/Pull/Legs (PPL) — 3 or 6 days a week
Chest/shoulders/triceps, back/biceps, and legs, each on their own day. Great for anyone training 5–6 days a week who wants to specialize. We compared this directly against Full Body in this post.
4. Bro Split — 5 days a week
One muscle group per day: Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms, Legs. Maximum focus and volume per muscle group, but each one is only trained once a week — research generally favors higher training frequency, so this suits experienced lifters who recover slowly and want a heavy, focused session per body part.
Example week: Monday Chest, Tuesday Back, Wednesday Shoulders, Thursday Arms, Friday Legs.
5. Arnold Split — 6 days a week
Chest & Back, Shoulders & Arms, Legs — repeated twice across a 6-day week. Popularized by classic bodybuilding programs, it trains each muscle group twice a week like PPL, but pairs opposing muscle groups (chest/back) rather than movement patterns (push/pull), which some lifters find allows more total volume per session through antagonist supersets.
How to pick
- 3 days a week → Full Body
- 4 days a week → Upper/Lower
- 5–6 days a week, want to specialize by movement → PPL
- 5 days a week, want maximum focus per muscle → Bro Split
- 6 days a week, experienced, want high volume → Arnold Split
The best split is the one that matches the days you'll actually train — not the one with the most impressive name.
Build any of these as a template
LockedIn — Gym Workout Tracker lets you save each day of your split as its own custom template, ready to reuse every week.
The bottom line
All five splits work — they're just different tools for different schedules and experience levels. Pick based on how many days you can realistically train each week, not on whichever program looks best online.