Episode 12: 5 Types of Resistance Training Programs
Check out these 5 ways to organize your resistance training to get strong and build muscle consistently each week.
A great way to stay consistent and make gains is to get onto a program that focuses your training on specific muscles or movements in each session.
In this week’s episode of the Coaching Corner Podcast, we’re talking about 5 different options for scheduling your workouts according to your experience level and goals.
1: Total Body Training
If you’re in the first 6 months of your resistance training, I suggest sticking to a 2-3 day program doing Total Body training in all of your workouts. Total Body workouts train all major muscle groups in each session (upper body, lower body, and core).
This style program is recommended for beginners because you don’t really need to hit each muscle group for more than 1 or 2 exercises per day to get stronger and build muscle. Once you have been training consistently for at least 6 months, then you can split out your workouts to focus on one or a handful of muscle groups (like in the options below).
Note that this style program is also great if you have limited time available to train during the week, even if you are more intermediate or advanced.
2: Upper-Lower Split
Once my clients have been doing resistance training consistently for 2-3 days per week for 6 months, I move them into an Upper-Lower 4-day split program.
This style program focuses each training session on either upper body muscles (arms, chest, back, etc) or lower body (legs & glutes).
Training like this allows you to increase the amount of load each muscle group gets in your training sessions (doing 2-3 exercises for the chest, then the lats, etc). In a beginner-level Total Body program, for example, you might do 1 or 2 exercises for the legs in one training session. However, with an Upper-Lower split, you’ll hit the legs with 3 to 5 different exercises. This increase in load will give the muscles the increased challenge they need to keep making gains.
3: Push, Pull, Legs (PPL)
Another way to split up your exercises throughout the week is to do a Push, Pull, Legs routine. This type of workout split is based on movement patterns and is especially helpful for athletes.
For a Push, Pull, Legs split, each workout focuses on a specific type of movement pattern involving a certain group of muscles.
Push Day exercises usually include movements primarily targeting the muscles of the chest, shoulders, and triceps (like chest press, shoulder presses, and triceps dips).
Pull Day workouts are focused on exercises that emphasize pulling movements, primarily targeting the muscles of the back and biceps. This often includes pullups or pulldowns, rows, biceps curls, and different deadlift variations.
Legs Day workouts include exercises that heavily involve the legs muscles, like squats, lunges, leg press, and certain deadlift variations.
4: Movement Pattern Emphasis
Similar to a Push, Pull, Legs split, a Movement Pattern Emphasis split program focuses on movement patterns such as squatting, hinging, pushing, pulling, and rotating. This can help improve functional strength and athletic performance.
5: Body Part Split (“bro split”):
Body Part Split programs are popular among people who are interested in building muscle and achieving an aesthetic physique. In this style of programming, each gym session targets a specific muscle or muscle group with at least 2 exercises, usually with high volume (many reps). Bodybuilders and “gym bros” often train with a body part split to maximize hypertrophy (muscle size).
Plan your program and track your gains with one of my monthly fitness journals, now available on Amazon.
ABOUT JAYD HARRISON
Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains) is a personal trainer and content creator. She helps people to build muscle, burn fat, and clean up their diets with her online coaching programs and social media content. Check out some of Jayd’s coaching videos on Youtube, or join Jayd live on Twitch and follow on social media:
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