Upper Lower Workout Split How To
Hey everyone, thanks for stopping by!
This is an upper lower workout split how to and I will be giving you the guidelines to properly set up this method of training!
The two primary things to go over are frequency and tailoring the sessions to whatever goals you may have! Let’s get into the article!
How Often To Train?
This workout split allows us to vary our training frequency quite easily. With there being two categories of workouts (upper and lower), it is about the number of times we repeat these two sessions that will determine how often we are training throughout the week!
With that being said, this split will either be 2 days, 4 days or 6 days of training. This comes from performing the 2 types of workouts once, twice, or three times during the week.
How would this look throughout the week? Here are some EXAMPLES!
2 Day Split:
Rest, Upper, Rest, Rest, Lower, Rest, Rest – OR – Rest, Lower, Rest, Rest, Upper, Rest, Rest
4 Day Split:
Rest, Upper, Lower, Rest, Upper, Lower, Rest – OR – Rest, Lower, Upper, Rest, Lower, Upper, Rest
6 Day Split:
Rest, Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower – OR – Rest, Lower, Upper, Lower, Upper, Lower, Upper
As the frequency increases, it allows you to do more work than the lower frequency. Thus, the 2-day split would work for maintaining progress, or a beginner trainee would likely be able to make some progress.
Whereas the 4-day split could allow a more experienced lifter to make progress and more efficiently structure their training.
The 6-day split would work well for those who have the time to devote to this frequency of training, it would also supply an advanced trainee with plenty of work and frequency to continue making progress.
As the frequency doubles or increases, the total work doesn’t double or go up by a ton. This wouldn’t work for recovery reasons. Allow me to explain.
Since 2 days a week is quite low, there would likely be more volume per session. Therefore, you don’t need to double it when going 4 days per week. A slight increase would likely make sense, but then the volume is getting spread over the extra days, which is better for recovery purposes.
Again, you especially don’t significantly increase it when going from 4 days to 6 days as you already have a fair amount of volume, and increasing it by a ton would be too much in almost all cases. A slight increase while spreading it across the 2 extra days is a great way to effectively utilize these 2 extra training days.
For the goal of muscle growth, frequency (how often you train/train a muscle group in a week) is great for optimizing this goal. For the goal of strength training, these frequencies allow you to increase workload to an extent, but more importantly, you can split this workload up over more days as you go up in frequency which allows you to best manage recovery.
I am not saying that everyone should use 6 days a week. I am stating the benefits of the different frequencies. You need to be able to stick to the training and balance achieving the work needed with your recovery demands.
Tailoring The Sessions Towards Your Goals:
2 Day Split:
With this split, it is about touching on every muscle group at least once. This would be very reasonable to achieve when setting your volume at maintenance level, which is why I say this split is perfect for maintaining progress.
I say beginners could make progress from this plan since they have such a strong response to training stimulus when they’re starting, it would allow them to grow muscle from this plan.
For strength, this plan would have a primary upper-body compound movement and 1-2 primary lower body compound movements. These exercises would lay the foundation for your training, and the subsequent exercises would be assistance work.
4 Day Split:
This split is more ideal for gaining muscle as you can add more volume in for each muscle group with the additional days designated to do so. This would also allow you to train weak points that you may have more than once in the week which is most optimal for muscle growth.
For strength, this split is perfect! It allows you to train hard and heavy for upper body compound exercises and lower body compounds once in the week, followed by speed training for upper body and lower body compounds later in the week.
Plus, the 3 rest days per week allow you to properly recover from this difficult training.
6 Day Split:
For muscle growth, this split is all about being able to easily achieve sufficient volume, while maximizing the training frequency component.
Having this extra day allows you to program whatever volume makes sense, then divvying this volume up over the 6 days in a way that makes sense for recovery.
I actually would not suggest a 6 day split for strength training. With all the heavy and taxing compound exercises, more than one rest day is likely needed to properly recover from this so you can perform well the following week.
Even if you split up the workload, it still doesn’t give you much time to fully recover with the type of training stimulus you’re executing and how taxing it is on your body. I tried to run a 6 day per week strength split last program and it didn’t work well. The most I would recommend for the majority of people is 5 days for this goal.
That’s a Wrap!
Well everyone, theres the info! Now you know how you can change the frequencies of an upper lower split, how these programs can benefit the way you train for different goals and how these frequencies actually change the layout of your program for the primary goals of muscle growth and strength gain.
Any questions on the subject? Leave them in the comments, I love responding and interacting with all of you!
Here are some other articles that may be beneficial for your knowledge!
How to Create a Workout Program
Until Next Time,
Kohl Johnson
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