“The strength lies in the variety” – Pretty much everyone who has already been informed about the most efficient fitness training possible will have read this sentence. In fact, a varied training plan is indispensable for rapid muscle building, since a different load on the same muscle groups sets new growth stimuli over and over again and thus stimulates muscle building. Often we get questions from people who have been training hard for a long time and are still unable to make any significant progress. This usually has two main causes:
- The training plan is not adapted to the initial training success: At the beginning, full-body training is usually practiced so that the muscles can get used to the strain and form a stable basis for later more intensive muscle group or “split” training.
- Diet is neglected: The effects of correct or incorrect nutrition in weight training or in sport in general should not be underestimated! If you don’t pay attention to your diet, you will waste your time in the fitness studio and will never stand out from the average, because what applies in business also applies here: No half measures! (You can find more on this topic under nutrition).
The split training plan
Anyone who has been training for more than four months and can no longer notice any progress should now switch to split training. In this training variation, the different muscle parts of the body are stimulated on separate training days. This enables the muscles to be trained much more intensely, since fewer muscles are used in the same training time. Accordingly, the stress on the muscles is more intense, the growth stimuli are stronger and the muscle grows significantly faster. In order to make this type of training even more efficient, you can find the free training plan as a PDF here f for a so-called 3 split with a) and b) days. This training plan is about combining the increase in intensity through split training with the efficiency of varied muscle strain.
For this we have six different training days , which are divided into the stress of three muscle groups . For each muscle group there is a a) – tag and a b) – tag . For example, on training day 1 ( day a : chest, triceps, stomach) we have the classic bench press as the first chest exercise. However, on Training Day 4 ( Day b : chest, triceps, stomach) negative bench press. It is true that the same muscle is used, but the different types of stress enable optimized muscle building through different growth stimuli and also ensure that the growth stimulus remains in place over the long term. In addition, the cardio units ensure additional fat burning and thus support e.g. when defining the six-pack.
Since this split training plan always trains independent muscle groups with a few exceptions, it always allows a partial regeneration time of at least two days per muscle group. In this way, the aspect of regeneration is never neglected in spite of the high stress – otherwise the fatal consequences of overtraining would quickly become noticeable! Regeneration is just as important as diet and training, because the muscles grow in the resting phases!
It doesn’t matter how your training plan is structured. There are an almost infinite number of full-body training plans and split training plans, all of which use a different selection of exercises, a different training frequency, training intensity or a different training volume.
All these parameters are not necessarily of the highest importance for complete beginners, but become more and more important as the training level progresses. You will only be able to achieve training success if you are able to control, optimize and completely individualize all training parameters.
Seriously. Save your gimmick. Stop trying out tens of thousands of training plans, throwing it back into the corner, devising the next training plan and starting over. And if you then get the idea to ask in various fitness forums or with us why your training is stagnating – then please just change the sport. Start golfing or play chess. There is no such thing as a perfect training plan. So you can save yourself the search for the “holy grail”.
Watch out: YOU are your training plan! Your training plan can only make visible progress if you allow it to! And to do this, you have to set your own training focus and customize your training plan accordingly. Your training plan is only as good as you design it!
And that only works if you have mastered the fundamental training principles. Don’t let your clueless fitness coach fool you. Take your success into your own hands. Read our Hypertrophy Guide , customize your training plan and finally achieve the success you could have achieved for a long time!