When developing a training routine it is important to consider various factors – what else you do with your schedule, what size you want to get to, what size you are now, how much time you have… etc. This article will help you devise one that suits you.

Your training routine is also called a ‘split’ in bodybuilding parlance. The key here is that you focus on one or two body parts each day – giving the others time to rest and allowing you to focus more heavily on each section. Thing is, press ups will involve your shoulders, pecs, arms anyway; so in reality focussing on just one muscle group isn’t always possible so the rest of your body won’t be resting on its laurels. Likewise, you may as well do your abs training on the same day as another group as it doesn’t effect the rest of your body (apart from your lower back) so you could do this on the same day as your arms for example giving you the next day completely free.

One reason to use splits, is that you’re aiming to lift so much for each bodypart that you could never do it all in an hour thus necessitating splits for progression. Therefore you should start just doing everything at once. What I do, is semi-splits: I do mostly pecs, mostly legs, etc. Here is what my routine *roughly* looks like.

Monday: biceps, lats

Tuesday: chest, triceps, traps

Wednesday: off

Thursday: abs and legs

Friday: chest, a bit of arms

Saturday: shoulders, lats and traps, abs

Sunday: running

As you can see I’ve been focussing more on upper body and abs lately, and so do more on them. I’m quite lucky in that I don’t need that much time to recover – you’ll probably want to start with more days off. You can give one muscle a break while training the others too as long as it’s the right muscle; for example you can train legs on the same day as abs or chest. Likewise though, training your chest, shoulders, back, or anything like that will have a knock on effect on your arms which you need to consider.

I train for size and definition as well as strength and so I divide my exercises by doing first a lot with a light weight, then when I’m tired I do a few really slow repetitions on a heavier setting.

All this can be done at home or in the gym so there’s no excuses for missing days. I strongly recommend purchasing a pull-up bar if you have a door frame to keep it in, they’re only £5 from Argos and are brilliant for the entire body. It’s an exercise I enjoy too.

My last piece of advice is to keep your schedule flexible, I have 1-2 days off a week, but if I need another day off I’ll take it and maybe make it up somewhere else. If you stick to it too rigidly you’ll end up resenting it and keeping it varied will prevent it from getting boring or leading to a plateaux.

Mack LeMouse

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