To begin I would first like to acknowledge a few terms used in the gym community that are widely used. Those terms are Split, Set, and Rep. These terms will be used quite frequently so I stress with the utmost importance that you know what they mean before continuing with this article.
Split: a term used to describe the layout and structure of your workouts throughout the week. These are typically only good for about 4-6 weeks before your body plateaus.
Set: a term used to label a quantified amount of reps in a given period of use during a workout
Rep: a term used to label and quantify how many times you do a movement in a set of exercise
Great now that you have the background knowledge of what each of those terms are we can start to get into my opinion on what the best levels of entry are for a beginner, intermediate, and expert gym rat.
To begin with we look towards the beginner. I would recommend the three-day split known as Push Pull Legs. This is a very simple split that consists of one day where you do only push movements, one day where you only do pull movements and a final day where you do legs. In my opinion, this is the best split to begin with as you will be running through a plethora of different styles of exercises allowing you to gain comfortability in the gym as time goes on, while also not being a split where if you miss 2, 3, even 4 days in the gym you can still make it to get you weekly workout done. For sets stay within the 2-3 range with reps of 8-12 per set.
From there I would like to jump to the moderate lifter. For them, I would recommend the 4-day Arnold Split. This split consists of 2 upper body-focused days and 2 leg-focused days with very high volume and intensity. This split is for the average lifter who doesn't know what they want to do but would like to have more intensity with their lifting. While also not too daunting for your weekly workout as you have 3 rest days and have room for missing the gym if circumstances arise. For sets stay within the 2-3 range with reps of 8-12 per set.
Now for the intermediate lifter, I would like to recommend my 5-day split. Day one consists of Chest, Day two consists of Arms, Day three consists of Quad-focused Leg Day, Day four consists of Back, and Day five consists of a Hamstring-focused Leg Day. Each of these days you should hit all secondaries as well as the main muscle group. For sets stay within the 3-5 range with reps of 8-12 per set.
Finally, for the Expert lifters who wish to try a challenge, I recommend Christopher Bumstead 6 6-Day Push Pull Leg Split. This was the second split I did personally and I can say with certainty that it is not easy but worth it, for sets to stay within the 3-5 range with reps of 8-12 per set.
To follow up on which splits are optimal for each group I would also like to touch on the meaning of a working set, and what a proper set should end at. To find a proper working set you must be able to know what weight you can consistently lift. To begin I would advise if you don't know, go to the gym and start doing your sets and write down the weight you lift, how fatigued you felt after the set, and how much difficulty the weight was in the moment compared to other weeks. After a couple of weeks of this look at the notes you have written down. Cut out the lowest weight you see written down and take the average of the numbers left over. Add about 1-2 lbs(or kgs). That should put you at a weight that is perfect for your working sets. A working set is a set that allows you to achieve 8-10 reps while having complete muscular failure be achieved at about that time as well.
What's better? 2 reps left in the tank or failure? In my opinion, they are pretty much the same efficiency. That being said, I do believe that a full failure day followed by a 2-in-the-tank day is better than sticking to one or the other. You should always be trying to achieve near or complete failure when lifting but you should also switch it up from time to time as your body will adjust to the style of lifting and will slowly begin to plateau.
For cardio, I recommend that everyone does at least 30 minutes per workout. It sucks, I know, but it is a necessity at the end of the day. Ways that you can make it better are bringing a book to the gym to read while you do it, playing a game on your phone, listening to a podcast, watch a show. Just do something other than look at the time that you have left. I promise you that it won't go any faster with you watching it so just forget about it and do something else and you will be done before you even realize it.
To conclude this article I would like to finish up by stressing the importance of nutrition. The gym is only about 20% looking and feeling better. Without a balanced diet, you will not see the proper progress. I know for most alcohol is not something they are willing to give up but if you are I would highly advise it. Alcohol shuts down a major portion of protein synthesis making the remainder of the process slower for recovery as well as making it less efficient. If you are bulking go as dirty as you want but also understand that more protein brings more muscle and more carbohydrates brings more fat. If you are trying to lose weight know that cardio and a caloric deficit are going to be your best friend. To find your intake use a calorie calculator to estimate how much you should be eating. From there track for a couple of weeks what you should be eating to get to the said goal. While doing this also take notes on how it is making you feel and if you are hitting the goals you wished to hit. After the weeks of recording are done, look back and decide if you should raise or lower the intake, and if you should change how clean or dirty your diet is.
In the coming weeks I will be writing more articles going more in-depth with each of these topics so please make sure to come check back next week to learn about the specifics of each of the splits, as well as directions of how to find your caloric intake, etc!
