If you want a highly effective 5 day workout split that will help you build muscle, this page will show you what to do.
First, I would like to briefly explain what a 5-day training split is and what the benefits are.
Then I'll lay out the routine in full so you can see which exercises you'll be doing on which days, as well as how many sets and reps you need to do.
Finally, I'll show you a few other ways to set up a 5-day plansplit trainingRoutine.
What is an upper/lower/push/pull/legs routine?
With an upper/lower/push/pull/legs split, the body is divided into different areas and different muscle groups are trained on different days.
It combines aupper/lower divisionwith aPush/Pull/Beine-Routine.
There are five different workouts in total:
- upper body workout
- lower body workout
- Push-Training
- Pull-Training
- Beintraining
Here's a breakdown of the muscles worked in each workout:
upper body workout
- chest
- The back
- Shoulders
- biceps
- Trizeps
lower body workout
- Quadrizeps
- Knee tendons
- Gluteus muscle
- calves
Push-Training
- chest
- Shoulders
- Trizeps
Pull-Training
- The back
- biceps
- Posterior deltoids
Beintraining
- Quadrizeps
- Knee tendons
- Gluteus muscle
- calves
What are the benefits of the Upper/Lower/Push/Pull/Legs Training Plan?
Many 5-day split workout routines are based on the so-calledbrother separated, which usually has a chest tag, a shoulder tag, a back tag, and so on.
Bro split routines are often criticized for working each muscle group directlyweekly, which is far from ideal for muscle growth.
This routine differs from the typical bro split in that everyoneBody part is trained twice a week.
There is a connection between the trainingvolume and hypertrophy. That means the more hard sets you do for a given muscle group, the faster that muscle will grow.
The problem is that more sets usually mean longer workouts, especially if you're getting enoughpause between sets(what you need for best results).
If you're limited in time, there's always a cap on thatnumber of sentencesThey can fit into one workout.
And even if you have the luxury of spending as long as you want in the gym, you eventually get tired and lose your strength.
This is theMuscles that are trained at the end of the workoutwon't get as much attention as those trained initially.
Additionally, there is a limit to the amount of stimulation your muscles can respond to in any given workout, which is somewhere in the range of 6-10 hard sets per muscle group.
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Doing more than that will end up causing major muscle damage (which will increase recovery time) without necessarily stimulating additional muscle growth.
If you bombard your muscles with lots of sets, you'll get a lot more pumps and generate high levels of muscle strengthSore muscles after training, it is not a guarantee that muscle will be built faster.
The solution?
The solution is to train each body part more often. Instead of going to the gym 3-4 times a week, add 1-2 extra training days so you're training 5 days a week.
Compared to a typical3 days full body workoutor 4 daysPush/Pull-Split, those extra 1-2 days of training will allow you to get some extra volume while still keeping workouts to a manageable length.
Why Bodybuilders Love 5-Day Training Plans
researchshows that bodybuilders often lift weights 5-6 days a week, sometimes twice a day, simply because it's the only way to fit in all the exercises and sets they need to stimulate growth.
Bodybuilders typically require a lot of training to ensure that every region of every body part is performing to its fullest potential, a 5 or even a 1 at that6 RoofsTraining split is ideal for this.
It's not something you can do with a 2 or 3 day split.
Even if you don't plan on performing in a bodybuilding competition, but you've gotten past the beginner stages of training and your progress has stalled in the gym, sometimes the extra volume is all an intermediate or advanced lifter needs so that your muscles grow again.
Obere/Untere/Push/Pull/Legs-Routine
- Tag 1: Upper body
- Tag 2: Lower body
- Tag 3: Out of
- Tag 4: To press
- Tag 5: Draw
- Tag 6: Legs
- Tag 7: Out of
You also have the option to train from Monday to Friday and take the weekends off.
- Tag 1: Upper body
- Tag 2: Lower body
- Tag 3: To press
- Tag 4:Draw
- Tag 5: Legs
- Tag 6: Out of
- Tag 7: Out of
upper body
- pull-ups4 sets x 5-8 reps
- Bench Press 4 sets x 5-8 reps
- Barbell rows bent over3 sets x 8-12 reps
- Incline bench press with dumbbells 3 sets x 8-12 reps
lower body
- leg press4 sets x 8-12 reps
- Romanian deadlift4 sets x 8-12 reps
- Bulgarian split squat3 sets x 8-12 reps
- Standing Calf Raises 4 sets x 5-8 reps
To press
- Flat bench press with dumbbells 4 sets x 8-12 reps
- Cable crossover 3 sets x 12-15 reps
- Lateral raises 3 sets x 12-15 reps
- Tricep Pushdown 3 sets x 12-15 reps
Draw
- Reverse lat pulldown with handle4 sets x 12-15 reps
- Seated cable row3 sets x 8-12 reps
- Bent Over Lateral Raises 3 sets x 12-15 reps
- Barbell curls 3 sets x 8-12 reps
Legs
- The backsquatting4 sets x 5-8 reps
- leg extensions3 sets x 15-20 reps
- Hip Thrust 3 sets x 8-12 reps
- Seated hamstrings4 sets x 12-15 reps
- Standing Calf Raises 4 sets x 15-20 reps
Even if no ab work is listed, just add an ab exercise or two — rollouts, crunches, or reverse crunches — at the end of your workout 2-3 times a week.
Alternate 5 Day Workout Routines
If the upper/lower/push/pull/leg splits don't appeal to you, but you still want to work out 5 days a week, here are some alternative workout routines you can use.
Push/pull/spread the legs
ThatSplit push-pull legsincludes three different training sessions:
- Push-Training
- Pull-Training
- Beintraining
The push workout focuses on upper body push movements that involve the chest, shoulders, and triceps.
Pull training focuses on upper body pull movements that primarily work the back and biceps.
Leg workouts train your quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings, and calves.
You train for three days, then you take a day off. Two days of training follow, followed by another day off.
They continue rotating the workouts in the same order –push, pull, legs– Make sure to include rest days where applicable. Each muscle group is trained twice every seven days.
Here's what the 5-day push/pull/legs split looks like over a three-week period.
week 1
- Montag: To press
- Tuesday: Draw
- Wednesday: Legs
- Thursday: Out of
- Freitag: To press
- Saturday: Draw
- Sunday: Out of
week 2
- Montag: Legs
- Tuesday: To press
- Wednesday: Draw
- Thursday: Out of
- Freitag: Legs
- Saturday: To press
- Sunday: Out of
week 3
- Montag: Draw
- Tuesday: Legs
- Wednesday: To press
- Thursday: Out of
- Freitag: Draw
- Saturday: Legs
- Sunday: Out of
In the fourth week, the push workout ends again on the first day and you start the entire cycle from the beginning.
Upper/lower division
With aupper lower splittrain the muscles of the lower body and upper body on separate days.
An upper body workout works the chest, back, shoulders, biceps, and triceps, while the lower body workout works the quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves
Mostup downWorkout splits involve training four days a week, training each muscle group twice a week.
However, there's no reason why you can't increase the training frequency and train five days a week.
The first week you do three upper body workouts and two lower body workouts, then two upper body workouts and three lower body workouts the following week. This way, you train each muscle group an average of 2.5 times per week.
Here's some5-day split from top to bottomlooks like.
week 1
- Montag: Upper body
- Tuesday: Lower body
- Wednesday: Out of
- Thursday: Upper body
- Freitag: Lower body
- Saturday: Upper body
- Sunday: Out of
week 2
- Montag: Lower body
- Tuesday: Upper body
- Wednesday: Out of
- Thursday: Lower body
- Freitag: Upper body
- Saturday: Lower body
- Sunday: Out of
In week three, the upper body workout ends back on day one and you do it all over again.
Push/Pull-Split
APush/Pull-Workout-Splitincludes two different workouts: a push workout and a pull workout.
The push workout focuses on upper body push movements that involve the chest, shoulders, and triceps. The pull workout is based on upper body pull movements that involve the back and biceps.
The push workouts also include some work for your quads, while the pull workouts include some work for your hamstrings.
The push/pull workout split is perfect for people who don't want a wholeDay dedicated to legs. Instead of training your lower body separately, add a bit of footwork to each workout.
As aupper lower split, a push/pull split is typically done four times a week. You can also increase the training frequency to make it a 5-day training routine. This means that each muscle group is trained an average of 2.5 times per week instead of twice.
week 1
- Montag: To press
- Tuesday: Draw
- Wednesday: Out of
- Thursday: To press
- Freitag: Draw
- Saturday: To press
- Sunday: Out of
week 2
- Montag: Draw
- Tuesday: To press
- Wednesday: Out of
- Thursday: Draw
- Freitag: To press
- Saturday: Draw
- Sunday: Out of
In week three, the push workout ends again on day one and you start the cycle over.
What about cardio?
Should you doHerzon a 5 day workout routine? And what kind of cardio is best?
If you're trying to build muscle, you don't need to do any cardio at all. While some people enjoy doing it for health reasons, remember that lifting weights itself offers many of the same health and longevity benefits.
If you're doing cardio because you want to burn extra calories and lose fat, I'd suggest reconsidering.
Fat loss is mostly a function of diet than what you do at the gym. If you lift weights 5 days a week andTrain hard, you will burn off a lot of energy without having to do any extra exercise.
For those who insist on doing cardio, low-to-moderate-intensity cardio two or three times a week for 20-30 minutes is sufficient. And by low-to-moderate intensity, I'm talking about something that gets your heart rate up to about 70% of its maximum.
Too much high-intensity exercise on top of a 5-day strength-training program has the potential to stunt muscle growth.
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See also
- Muscle Evo– an exercise program for people who want to build muscle and get strong while minimizing fat gain.
- MX4– a joint-gentle training program for building muscle as quickly as possible.
- Feige- a simple, no-fuss, science-backed nutritional system to shed fat.