Derek... What about 6-Day Split Routine?

[Big Boi 1906]

Sorry, I meant 5 day split


Do you think a 5 day split routine is great for growth or overtraining.
I'm thinking about switching to this and I am following a Chuck cutting style diet.

Mon: Chest/Calves (pwo cardio)
Tues: Back (pwo cardio)
Wed: Legs (pwo cardio)
Thur: Delts/Traps (pwo cardio)
Fri: Bi's/Tri's (pwo cardio)
Sat: Rest (morning walk 30 mins)
Sun: Rest (morning walk 30 mins)


Does this routine allow for too much rest and does the muscle begin to atrophy and a detrain with this kind of split?

[RipStone]

Here is my 2c...

Overtraining or not really depends on how an individual can recover; some have great recovery and some do not. It also depends on workout volume and again some people can handle more volume than others.

Having said that, there are a few things I don't like about your split. First of all, training 5 days in a row is not a great idea IMO. I mean you can defintley make gains doing a 5 day split, but have at least 1 rest day during the week in there. Also, training back and legs in consecutive days is not the best idea because when you train legs your lower back is gonna be involved and of course when you train back your lower back is gonna be involved. So, training lower back 2 days in a row can lead to some issues. Finally, IMO training a muscle group once a week is not the optimal way to train. I believe in more frequency. So try training a muscle group 2x a week. If you do this you will need to cut the volume each time you train a muscle group.

Hope this helps some.

[Big Boi 1906]

So does this one look better?


Day 1: Chest/Calves (pwo cardio)
Day 2: Back (pwo cardio)
Day 3: <rest>
Day 4: Delts/Traps/Calves (pwo cardio)
Day 5: Bi's/Tri's (pwo cardio)
Day6 : Legs
Day 7: <rest> (complete)

[young_squatter]

So does this one look better?


Day 1: Chest/Calves (pwo cardio)
Day 2: Back (pwo cardio)
Day 3: <rest>
Day 4: Delts/Traps/Calves (pwo cardio)
Day 5: Bi's/Tri's (pwo cardio)
Day6 : Legs
Day 7: <rest> (complete)

For calves with legs

As for overtraining, I think that if one has a good diet and supplement program that overtraining wont be a problem.

[Big Boi 1906]

So what do u guys think about the Growth Surge Project, anyone tried it?

http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/berardi35.htm

[RipStone]

So does this one look better?


Day 1: Chest/Calves (pwo cardio)
Day 2: Back (pwo cardio)
Day 3: <rest>
Day 4: Delts/Traps/Calves (pwo cardio)
Day 5: Bi's/Tri's (pwo cardio)
Day6 : Legs
Day 7: <rest> (complete)

Looks better, but again, I am not a fan of training a body part just 1x a week.

Also, what young_squatter said about overtraining is right on in addition to what I said before. So make sure you are paying attention to diet, supps, and recovery as well.

[Big Boi 1906]

Looks better, but again, I am not a fan of training a body part just 1x a week.

Also, what young_squatter said about overtraining is right on in addition to what I said before. So make sure you are paying attention to diet, supps, and recovery as well.

Ripstone, so what do u think about the body surge program?

[Big Boi 1906]

So what is the purpose of the 1 bodypart a workout 5-6 day splits and who are they designed for?

[young_squatter]

So what is the purpose of the 1 bodypart a workout 5-6 day splits and who are they designed for?

To build muscle and recover better, designed for anyone who responds best to them. Some people do have slow recovery rates and find it hard to get bigger on 2 day a week training, so the key is to try both and see what works best for you.

[Big Boi 1906]

To build muscle and recover better, designed for anyone who responds best to them. Some people do have slow recovery rates and find it hard to get bigger on 2 day a week training, so the key is to try both and see what works best for you.

I was wondering because most people talk about the 1 time a week routines like they the plague or something

[RipStone]

So what is the purpose of the 1 bodypart a workout 5-6 day splits and who are they designed for?

Here is a quote from strength-coach Alwyn Cosgrove. This might provide some insight into your query...

"KBTrainer wrote:
Coach,

Why do you hate body part split routines so much when every athlete uses them and they clearly work?

EVERY athlete? Last time I checked most boxers, sprinters, ultimate fighters, track athletes did not split up their body "parts"? Only bodybuilders did.

Powerlifters tend to use an upper/lower split (Westside) or a split based on their lifts. They don't use a body "part" split either.

Olympic lifters? Nope. Full body workout every time.

So I think it's fair to say that bodybuilders are the exception. The problem is most guys trainign in the gym today have taken this exception and made it the rule. Has it worked for most guys? Take a look around the gym and get back to me.

Why would the muscles of the chest need their own ?day? for training? If you split up the body into parts ? how do we decide what parts to include? Typically we see splits of chest, shoulders and triceps, back and biceps, and legs. Why don?t we see splits like: rhomboids and hip flexors, quadriceps and rotator cuff, sternocleidomastoid and pec minor? Because that wouldn?t make bodybuilding ?sense?. Well in my opinion any split routine based on a random allocation of muscle groups to certain days of the week defies all logic.

The following is from my Program Design manual:
==================
Bodybuilding programs are largely based upon the false concept that muscles somehow work in isolation. A question I am often asked is ?How should I split up my body parts when I train?? The notion that your body is comprised of several independent muscle systems that have no crossover effect is a massive misunderstanding of human physiology. Functionally the body is a single unit, designed to work as a linked system?you cannot isolate a muscle.

Consider the following example ? hold a dumbbell in your right hand and raise your arm out to the side until it is parallel with the floor (a position known as a lateral raise in the fitness world!). Which muscles are working? The classic answer is the medial deltoid and the trapezius. True. But maintain this position and just touch your obliques on the left side. They are contracting maximally in order to stabilize your torso, spine and prevent you from tipping over. So the oblique has to contract so hard in order to stabilize your entire upper body, plus your arm and the Dumbbell, it becomes clear that this exercise forces more work from the oblique muscles, the TFL and the quadratus lumborum than it can from the medial deltoid! So is it still a shoulder exercise? Or is it a total core and shoulder exercise? What body part day should this movement be trained on? Hopefully this helps you realize that the body will always work as a unit.

And I don?t mean to ?bag? on bodybuilding. One cannot help but be impressed by top athletes in any sport. But the fact that it?s a sport is also an important thing to remember. Bodybuilding is a unique sport unto itself. For trainers to develop and implement a fitness program for the general client using bodybuilding theory and bodybuilding type exercises makes as much sense as using Ultimate Fighting, World?s Strongest Man type exercises or Olympic weightlifting to design that same program. And while most people recognize that this is idiotic at best, we still continue to talk about splitting up ?body parts? and following a bodybuilding based program.

If my client is not a powerlifter, a powerlifting specific program is not warranted. If my client is not competing in a Strongman competition then a Strongman specific program is not warranted. Now that?s not to say that we don?t use exercises or ideas from all sports and systems (remember ? Absorb what is useful?) as to do so would be closed-minded. But to adopt any one single philosophy is just as closed-minded.

Now we have to consider the anabolic steroid issue. Although I do not have the room to really go into detail on this subject, nor do I quite honestly have the experience or qualifications to do so, it would be short-sighted of me to ignore the influence of these drugs on the sport of bodybuilding. If you understand the influence of bodybuilding on general fitness, and you understand the influence of drugs on competitive bodybuilding, hopefully you can see what I am getting at.

In fact, if you look at the biggest and most muscular pre-steroid era bodybuilders, they all trained each body part (in effect their entire body) two to three times per week. The entire body part training split was never based on science. In fact the method ?arrived? about the same time as steroids became popular. Now the drug user could do a ton of volume for one part of the body and still recover. Shortly after that came the notion of 3-4 exercises per body part for 3-4 sets of 8-12 reps. The volume increases came after the drugs.

[Big Boi 1906]

OK I get it.