Five-day split in bodybuilding. How to lift five days a week? We are building a split scheme for a 5-day mass training program

With the light hand of fitness blogger Lena Miro, training five times a week has become good form. True, the “popularizer” herself trains 7 days a week, 2 times a day, which smacks of either professional sports or unhealthy fanaticism. However, sometimes frequent exercise really makes sense. The classic “split”, that is, dosed load on different muscle groups on different days of the week, still remains a good way to correct your figure. But there are some subtleties here too. How to organize your regime if you want to study all week long?

Training 5 times a week in the first to third months of training

Beginners can only envy - they can get results from fitness without even spending the notorious 5 days in the gym. If you do not have fitness experience and your form leaves much to be desired, most professionals will recommend completely different regimes:

• or standard “Monday-Wednesday-Friday”, warm-up, 45 minutes of strength exercises for the whole body, 15-20 minutes of cardio exercises, stretching;
• or a scheme for those who get bored doing cardio on machines on their own and want to attend group fitness classes. Conventionally, this is the scheme “Monday - strength, Tuesday - cardio, Wednesday - rest, Thursday - strength, Friday - cardio”

Weekends should be used to practice healthy eating habits and an active lifestyle. How? Walk more, visit exhibitions, concerts, ride a bike in the park, finally. Don't avoid meeting with friends, just learn to choose herbal tea and seafood salad instead of beer and pizza.

A “five-day workout” in the gym is not recommended for absolute beginners, and is even harmful. The body, in response to such “sports aggression,” will produce too much of the stress hormone cortisol. Combined with poor healthy eating habits, this can lead to overeating.

Workout five times a week – 3 strength, 2 cardio

This regime is recognized by professionals as the most successful for losing weight when physical fitness has already been gained, healthy eating habits have been developed, and you have been doing fitness for 3-4 months without a break.

American specialist in fat-burning training K. Powell writes that three strength training sessions for the whole body with free weights plus 2 short cardio workouts allow you to lose weight and create relief without spending much time. Yes, if your goal is not to participate in body fitness competitions, but simply to have a toned, slender body, this will be the ideal regime.

Depending on your fitness experience and tolerance, use:

• circuit training on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, aimed at working all the muscles of the body, and including at least 5 basic exercises - squats, push-ups, compensated pull-ups, plank pose, military press. “Bonus” - short but “killer” HIIT cardio training (watch Zuzana Light’s channel or Tatianamania), sprints, 10 sets of 100 m running and walking until full recovery, sprints on an exercise bike, kettlebell training, mainly consisting of swings, lifts , jerks, jumping rope with alternating high and moderate tempos, etc.;
• three-day split, for example, on Monday you work the pectoral muscles, triceps and abs, on Wednesday - the back, biceps and buttocks (1-2 isolation exercises such as leg abduction on a lower block or leg abduction with a dumbbell), on Friday - legs and deltoids, and pump up your abs again, and on Tuesday and Thursday, go to group cardio classes or do any workouts available to you on a treadmill, exercise bike, stepper, or on the street.

The first option is recommended for girls who have previously attended group strength training classes and are just taking their first steps in the gym. It works well on ex-athletes of “cyclic” sports and dancers. In general, the result depends on genetics and diligence, but in this way, as a rule, it is not possible to pump up massive muscles, but simply “dries out” what is already there. The same option is recommended at the second (after general physical training) stage of losing weight from a lot of weight

The second option is for those who do not have too much body fat and want to build a body like the girls competing in the fitness bikini category. In case of significant excess weight, splits are not advisable. Still, for girls, the largest and most “energy-consuming” muscle group is the legs, so 1-2 complex exercises on them will only increase the fat-burning effect of the workout.

Workout five times a week in split mode

First of all, split (from the English word “divide”) is advisable when you have stopped getting results from “mixed training” according to the 3 strength, 2 cardio scheme. A five-day split is quite difficult for both the endocrine and nervous systems. Before you start, make sure that:

• you are not overtrained. The resting pulse in the morning does not exceed 70 beats per minute, the muscles do not ache for weeks on end, there is no significant swelling, there is a healthy appetite, but you do not slide into “zhor”;
• you can live without group cardio training. Combining strength training according to five-day split programs with lessons such as step, cycling or tai-bo is usually fraught with a lack of results and severe fatigue. Cardio with this regimen should be dosed, and it would be better for your muscles to be done in a separate session;
• you will not have problems with stress or overwork in the near future, since for recovery you will need deep and restful sleep 8-9 hours a day and regular nutrition;
• you do not use strict irrational diets, and eat according to a “fitness plan” - split meals, healthy low-glycemic foods, sufficient calorie content for significant exercise. Moreover, diets are not used for at least 3-4 months, and the diet, in general, satisfies and suits you.

There are several popular five-day split schemes:

"With an emphasis on relief." Cardio is performed strictly in the morning, before breakfast, and strength training is performed 6-12 hours after cardio, that is, in the afternoon or evening. Strength exercises are combined into supersets and performed in a pumping, high-repetition mode. Usually they “divide the body” like this - 1 day - chest, triceps, deltoids, 2 day - legs and buttocks, 3 day - back, biceps, 4 day - light leg training, plyometrics, or circuit training with light weights on the legs, 5 day – buttocks, deltoids and personally your “lagging muscle group”. Variations are also possible - the fourth day is replaced by training the chest and deltas, or the “lagging behind” days are divided into 2 days.

"For a beginner." Cardio is performed every training day, at the end of the session, in interval style. The machines, interval lengths and speeds vary each day. The power ones are divided according to a slightly different principle. The first day – “arms-abs”, the second – legs, the third – back/chest, the fourth – buttocks-deltoids, the fifth – lagging group, easy training.

In general, five training days, provided the training is done with full dedication, is a good way to get yourself into competition-worthy shape. But when using it, monitor your recovery, eat right and don’t forget about rest.

Elena Selivanova

There comes a time for everyone when they want to try a new workout regimen. We are talking about training days. Most often you can find athletes training 3 times a week; these are mostly beginners. More experienced ones switch to, increasing training days is an opportunity to more thoroughly work out certain muscle groups. A five-day split provides even more opportunities, which we will now thoroughly analyze.

A five-day training program is a way of organizing the entire workout, making it possible to qualitatively load individual muscle groups, mainly used to divide the training of large masses, such as the back and legs. Of course, a 5-day split can be used for various purposes: to gain muscle mass, increase strength, or for relief, i.e. drying muscles. Let's consider all these programs separately, taking into account the 5-day training plan.

Five-day training program: who and what is it for?

Since such a plan is considered non-standard and more labor-intensive, it is intended for experienced athletes who know what and how they need. It is logical to assume that they would have created the training complex themselves without any problems, but they did not have this experience initially. Therefore, this information will enlighten the future of novice athletes.

The effectiveness is that each muscle group has a separate day, so the muscles do not get tired when doing exercises for another group. This scheme allows you to load a specific muscle with maximum efficiency and provides sufficient time for complete recovery. A five-day split is suitable for straight people and athletes using steroids.

By training to gain muscle mass, you get the opportunity to intensively pump large muscle groups and work separately on small ones. If you want to increase your strength, you can separate basic and auxiliary exercises. And while working on relief, you can divide aerobic and anaerobic loads, but you can use this split for relief only with the use of sports nutrition, because maintaining muscle mass in such training is quite difficult.

Distribution of trainings for 5 days

Everything is quite simple here, first we select the main muscle groups and distribute them over training days, so that the working muscles of the next day do not depend on the previous one. Look at the example:

1. Breast;
2. Back;
3. Shoulders;
4. Legs;
5. Hands;
6. Rest;
7. Rest.

So it turns out that during training on one day, the muscles of another are not used, this is the basic scheme that can be combined in every possible way: combine some groups, divide them into several days, change the day of rest. Let's look at examples:

Here are several options for muscle grouping in a five-day training program. The first is an example of how you can allocate a separate day to a lagging muscle; only you know which one to allocate to you. The second example of the distribution of rest days, the main principle is to recover after training a large muscle group. The third example shows the possibility of combining different groups. The fourth also demonstrates combining and dedicating a day to one small group. You can train your abs 2 times a week on any days convenient for you.

Start training with any muscle that is convenient for you, the main thing is to follow the basic principles. Now let's move on directly to the training programs themselves.

A five-day training program for gaining muscle mass involves performing an average number of repetitions of each exercise. The training must be followed in the sequence indicated in the table, first you pump a certain muscle with basic movements, then with isolated movements - this is the basic principle. We looked at several options for splits and to create a 5-day split for mass with a detailed exercise plan, we will choose No. 4:

It is not necessary to comply with all the strictness of this list, because you may not be able to perform some exercises and the reasons may be different. Therefore, we list possible deviations:

• Split options. You can adjust the five-day weight split to suit your personal schedule, because only you know in what sequence and on what days to train certain muscle groups. Training should not be a burden, work on your split version;
• Changes in reps and rest. Everyone has a different ability to recover, so rest time can be reduced or increased by 15-20%. The number of repetitions is indicated optimally, but if necessary, remember - basic movements should be performed 8-12 times, and isolating and formative movements 12-15;
• Alternating and changing exercises. This five-day training program for gaining muscle mass conveys the principle of building a split; the exercises can be adjusted to suit you, as well as the type of equipment. It would be ideal to replace and alternate the main exercises; you can change the barbell to dumbbells and get a different load; this technique will have a positive effect on the development of your muscles. If you don’t know how and what to replace a certain movement with, ask in the comments;
• Periodization. A five-day mass workout can be done using heavy days and light days. The first training of a specific muscle group is carried out using the maximum working weight, and the second time this weight must be reduced by 30%.

Try to perform each set of the exercise almost to failure, i.e. you could do it 1-2 more times, but you shouldn’t do it. Work to failure only on the last approach. Use a 5-day mass split for no more than six months, after which it is recommended to switch to relief work. You can use sports nutrition: protein, creatine and complex amino acids.

To give definition to your muscles, you need to change your training regimen to a more intense one. In addition, you need to include cardio training in your program; they should be performed after strength training. In order not to describe the same exercises, take the complex of a five-day weight split as a basis. Increase the number of repetitions in each exercise by 5 times, you should get between 15-20 repetitions depending on the basic or forming movements. This makes for a good five-day drying split.

After strength training (preferably every second workout), you need to do twenty minutes of interval cardio. You can do this by jogging home from the gym, on a treadmill or on an elliptical rowing machine. It is not recommended to use an exercise bike - it is the least effective of all cardio.

As in the mass program, you can also use periodization here, lift the first week with maximum working weight, and reduce the second by 25%. The break between approaches should be reduced to 45-60 seconds. The duration of the five-day relief split should be 6-8 weeks, during which you should be on a protein diet. Take BCAA amino acids and proteins.

Five-day strength split

This five-day strength split is implemented using periodization, but with slight modifications. The load does not change in every exercise, but only where there are percentages. Monday, Thursday, Friday are hard days, Tuesday is easy, next week it’s the other way around. Follow the program for 4 months. Recommended sports nutrition is complex amino acids and creatine. As you noticed, not all muscle groups are involved in a five-day strength split, the fact is that not all muscles respond well to strength training.

Sports mode

To achieve maximum results, you need to follow a sports regime consisting of: a well-planned five-day split, proper nutrition and necessary rest. Only in the complex will there be a result; focusing on one thing alone will not produce an excellent result. The training should be productive, give it your all and push your muscles to failure in the last reps. Supply your body with the necessary building materials that you get from food.

To grow muscle mass, it is necessary that the number of calories expended during training be less than those obtained from food. The main products should be cereals, dairy products and meat. Muscle growth occurs during rest, so go to bed at 10-11 pm. That's all.

Masses and relief to you!

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A training program for five days a week can be structured in such a way that it will help you gain weight or create relief, but it requires significant physical effort and a certain level of training, so you need either good physical training or strict adherence to the regime for.

Five-day workouts allow you to work out each muscle group in detail in a separate workout, so it is better to build them on the split principle. However, there may be options depending on your goals.

Five-day bulking split for men

With a five-day training regimen, a split for a natural might look like this:

1. Arms (biceps, triceps)
2. Chest, back.
3. Shoulders, abs.
4. Legs.

It is better to train your legs twice a week, since this is where the largest muscles are located, which have the greatest impact on mass. This program alternates days of training that is more difficult for the body, when large muscle groups are worked, and lighter, when attention is paid to smaller muscles. This allows you to avoid overtraining and recover without the use of pharmacology.

Pumping up the arms precedes the chest and back, since often when doing chest exercises, the triceps take on part of the load, and the biceps on the back. Since the arm muscles will be tired after the second day, this will help the chest and back become more tense and more stimulated to grow.

To gain muscle mass, preference should be given to basic multi-joint exercises. The weight is selected so that you can perform at least 8 repetitions without errors in technique. In the next workout, you should try to do more, but no more than 12 times. If you perform 12 repetitions and there is strength left, then the weight needs to be increased.

Everything is done in 4-5 approaches. Before the workers, warm-up exercises are performed with a gradual increase in weight (1-3). Rest between sets – 1.5-2 minutes.

A training program for 5 days a week could be like this:

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A fit, athletic body indicates success, which is why more and more people are interested in sports. Men want to build muscle mass, make their body sculpted, and increase their strength. And women want to tighten their muscles, make their figure athletic and seductive. This can only be achieved through intensive and regular exercise.

A 5-day-a-week training program will help boys and girls achieve their desired goals. But in order to build muscle and draw a beautiful relief, you need to make an effort. Not everyone can withstand intensive five-day training; this scheme is more suitable for athletes with good physical fitness.

If there is little experience, but a person still wants to train 5 days a week, then he must strictly follow the regime and rest between trainings.

Who is the 5-day training suitable for?

A five-day split is a separate workout with which you can load your entire body in 5 days. A separate day is allocated for each muscle group, which provokes hypertrophy (muscle growth). For example, on the first day the athlete loads the back muscles, on the second - the chest, the third - the legs, the fourth - the shoulders, the fifth - the arms.

This scheme is usually used by experienced athletes with high strength levels and experience in conducting a three- or four-day split. The five-day program is not suitable for beginners, as their muscles are not prepared for such a high load, so they need to rest longer.

They can train 2-3 times a week with equal intervals between sessions. For example, Monday-Thursday or Wednesday-Saturday. During the first training, you can load your legs, shoulders, arms, and the next – your back and chest. Abdominal and cardio exercises can be performed daily.

This is interesting! Ectomorphs (thin people) can train 2-3 times a week, while endomorphs (overweight people) and mesomorphs (intermediate body type) can train about 5 times.

During five-day trainings, you need to eat right and sleep at least 8 hours a day. This is necessary for the muscles to recover after exercise.

Be sure to check out:

Detailed training program with your own weight at home

Options for complexes for men

Five-day training can be used to increase muscle mass, create relief, increase strength and endurance. To choose the appropriate complex, the athlete must first decide on the goal. Only after this can he create a program or select the most suitable scheme from those presented on the Internet.

The main thing is to correctly distribute the load on different muscle groups throughout the day. You cannot train the same group for several days in a row. For example, work on the back muscles after loading the biceps or training the chest after the triceps.

An athlete can train for 5 days in a row and then rest for 2 days. You can also arrange training days with a break of 1-2 days. When choosing a program, consider your own recovery capabilities, lifestyle, etc. The main thing is that the interval between classes does not exceed a week, otherwise you will miss the moment when the muscles have almost completely recovered, slightly increased and strengthened.

There are many split options, an athlete can load the leg muscles on the first day, the chest on the second, the back on the third, the deltoids on the fourth, the arms on the fifth, and then rest for 2 days. You can also use this option: the first day - back, the second - chest, the third - legs, the fourth - deltoids, the fifth - arms, and then 48 hours of rest. The exercises are repeated 8-10 times three or four times with no more than 2 minutes of rest between approaches.

The program lasts from 8 to 12 weeks, after which you need to change the complex.

There is an effective five-day program for gaining muscle mass:

1. Leg training – hyperextension, weighted squats, deadlifts.
2. Loading the biceps, triceps - barbell biceps press, pull-ups, arm extension on the block.
3. Working out the back and pectoral muscles - lying down, rowing, crossover, pull-ups.
4. Pumping the shoulders, abdomen - lifting the barbell above your head, rowing to the chin, dumbbell flyes, raising your arms from the lower block, crunching on a Roman chair.
5. Legs – reverse hyperextension, deadlift, machine leg raises, reverse hack squats.

You can use other exercises or add new elements to the complex.

Important! The muscles of the legs are loaded twice a week, the first time working on large muscle groups, and the second time on small ones. The arms are pumped in front of the chest and back so that the muscles of the upper limbs do not take part of the load on themselves.

The weight of the projectiles must be selected so that you can do 8-12 repetitions with them with effort. Exercises are performed in 4-5 sets. Before the complex there is a warm-up (running, jumping rope). The workout lasts up to 60 minutes.

When working on relief, the athlete must train in a high-repetition mode. We can say that this is cardio training with elements of strength training.

The complex can be built in this way:

1. The legs and muscle corset are loaded with the help of hyperextensions, bench press, extension, bending in the simulator, twisting, etc.
2. To pump up the chest and biceps, do bench presses, abductions, and arm curls in the machine.
3. A dumbbell press, arm raises in a machine, Smith squats, and lunges with an apparatus will help load your legs and shoulders.
4. The back and trapezius are developed with pull-downs, arm extensions, and pull-ups.
5. For the delta, the abdominal muscles perform crunches, leg raises, bench presses, and dumbbell swings.

This scheme helps to load each muscle structure 2 times a week.

The training follows the principle of a superset: after completing one exercise, the athlete immediately moves on to another, and then rests. The pause between sets does not exceed 1 minute. You need to do 4-5 supersets of double exercises. The number of repetitions increases to 15-25.

Important! If you have a tendency to be overweight, then day 6 should be devoted to long-term cardio exercises - 40 minutes or more.

To increase strength, you need to train for at least 4-8 weeks.

Example of a program for developing strength:

1. The first day is devoted to the back muscles - various types of traction in the simulator.
2. On the second, the legs are loaded - squats with weights, extension, flexion in the simulator.
3. This is followed by rest, since the first 2 days are quite difficult.
4. On the fourth day, the chest works, the shoulders do presses, swings with apparatus.
5. The fifth day is devoted to the arms and abs - lifting equipment, flexion, extension in a block, twisting, hanging leg raises.

Then follow 2 days of rest.

The main feature of the program for increasing strength is that before and after performing the complex, cardio training is performed, which accelerates muscle growth. The movements are performed 8-12 times three or four times. Cardio exercise is given for 5-15 minutes.

Complexes for girls for mass, relief, strength

Five-day complexes for girls are used to draw relief, increase muscle mass, increase strength and endurance.

To make the body more prominent, a woman should combine strength training with cardio. The former stimulate muscle growth, and the latter accelerate fat burning. Strength exercises are recommended to be performed with equipment that allows you to perform 12-20 repetitions. Aerobic exercise should be done for 40 to 60 minutes.

It is harder for girls to gain muscle mass than for guys. This is due to the fact that the body of the former has 15 times less testosterone than the latter. It is this substance that stimulates muscle growth. Therefore, a woman should not be afraid to pump up her muscles and feel free to use sports equipment to develop muscles.

To increase the percentage of muscle tissue and increase strength, you need to repeat the exercises 6-12 times so that the latter are difficult. The complex is performed three or four times with a break of up to 2 minutes.

Program option for muscle growth and strength improvement:

1. The first workout is devoted to the upper body (arms, chest) - different types of presses, pull-downs to the chest.
2. On day 2, the buttocks and legs are loaded - squats with weights, block press, lunges in a Smith machine, curls in a machine.
3. Day 3 – rest.
4. On day 4, the upper body is trained again - bench press, deadlift, barbell lift, vertical row in the simulator.
5. Day 5 is devoted to working out the bottom - deadlifts, different types of block leg presses, lunges in a Smith machine.
6. On day 6, the upper body works again - bench press, standing, pruning, raising arms.
7. Then comes rest.

To achieve definition, girls can take note of the following five-day program:

1. To develop the upper body, perform exercises to the sides, rows to the shoulders, bending of arms with apparatuses above the head, extension on a vertical block, twisting, lifting, leg swings.
2. Day 2 is devoted to cardio exercise - up to 30 minutes.
3. Day 3 is devoted to pumping up the lower body - squats, lunges with apparatus, deadlifts, flexion, abduction, leg press in the simulator, different types of crunches on a fitball.
4. On day 4, cardio is performed.
5. On day 5, you need to load your arms and chest - exercises, pull-downs, arm raises and extensions, push-ups.

This complex involves performing 2 exercises in a row without a break. Each element must be repeated 15 times. The break after the second exercise is up to 2 minutes, then the circle starts over. In total you need to do 3-4 laps.

Useful video

Main conclusions

A five-day training is an effective way to work every muscle group. However, it is only suitable for experienced athletes who have previously trained on a 2- or 3-day schedule.

To achieve good results, you first need to decide on your goal: gaining mass, increasing strength, body contour.

To accelerate muscle growth, increase strength and endurance, you need to train with heavy weights, perform exercises from 6 to 12 times three times or four times with a break of no more than 2 minutes. Gradually the weight of the shells needs to be increased.

To draw relief, the athlete must focus on high-repetition mode, work with medium weights, and supplement strength training with cardio exercises.

During a five-day split, it is prohibited to train the same muscle group several days in a row.

You need to supplement your workouts with proper nutrition and good sleep.