Split Opinion

[-DedicateD-]

I was reading Arnold's big encyclopedia of bodybuilding ...one of his recomended splits was:

Mon/Thurs: Chest, Back
Tuesday/Fri: Shoulder, Biceps, Triceps, Forearms
Wed/Sat: Legs, Calves, Lowerback
Abs everyday

Im currently doing the split:

Mon: CHest
Tue: Back
Wed: SHoulders
Thurs: Legs
Friday: Arms

Sat/Sunday: off


Any opinions or preferences, what do you think of both of these splits? Any success with similar or different ones?

[Flexor]

Arnold's suggestions isn't that good at all. Too much overlap and that would lead to overtraining. That type of thing may have worked for him with his excellent genetics, but for us mere mortals its no good. These days views are different on this type of thing, and such high amounts of volume are considered detrimental to muscle growth. Also corresponding bodyparts haven't been put together, training chest and back for example is not that helpful.

Yours is better IMO. It is a typical split where the arms are worked on their separate day, maybe consider these others though. They put the arms together with another bodypart which is always a good thing.

day 1 - chest/calves/abs
day 2 - back/biceps/traps
day 3 - Rest
day 4 - shoulders/tris
day 5 - quads/hams/calves/abs

or this

day 1 - chest/tris/shoulders
day 2 - calves/abs (sort of a rest day)
day 3 - back/biceps/traps
day 4 - abs (rest day!)
day 5 - quads/hams/calves

On both of these there is little overlap and you can train arms together with back and chest to avoid overtraining and so you can hit them with more mass. I follow the second split there, but the first one is an alternative if you feel shoulders need their separate day. Its important to get rest days in there or at least days where you aren't taxing yourself e.g. abs only, to allow the CNS to recover and to avoid overlap

[Ejuicer]

I was reading Arnold's big encyclopedia of bodybuilding ...one of his recomended splits was:

Mon/Thurs: Chest, Back
Tuesday/Fri: Shoulder, Biceps, Triceps, Forearms
Wed/Sat: Legs, Calves, Lowerback
Abs everyday

Im currently doing the split:

Mon: CHest
Tue: Back
Wed: SHoulders
Thurs: Legs
Friday: Arms

Sat/Sunday: off


Any opinions or preferences, what do you think of both of these splits? Any success with similar or different ones?

That's not a bad split. Personally I would switch it around a little bit though. I would go with: Mon: Back
Tues: Chest
Wed: Legs
Thurs: Shoulders
Fri: Arms
I just like that split personally because it puts lets in the middle of the week and gives your upper body a bit of a break. Plus in your routine there could be a little bit of overlapping with back and rear delts, nothing major.

My current routine I'm doing right now is
Mon:Back, Hamstrings, Calves
Tues:Chest,Triceps
Wed: Cardio, Calves
Thurs: Quads
Fri: Shoulders, Biceps, Traps

[-DedicateD-]

i appreciate the comments ... common sense told me that arnolds split trained chest and back right before bi's and tri's and it seemed off i was thinking of altering his a little bit and doing

mon/thurs: chest,back
tues/fri : legs, lowerback
wed/sat : shoulders, arms

either way i personally dont like his split, i guess im just influenced by the fact that he found success with it.

I will probably stick with my split but switch it slightly to give my tri's a rest

Mon: Chest,abs
Tues: Back, calves
Wed: Shoulders,abs
Thur: Legs
Fri: : Bi's Tri's Forearms, abs

Thanks again for your comments and advice

[guest589745]

arnold split seemed to be intended for someone whos on, it just didnt work for me.