Workout splits: full body, upper/lower, push pull legs or bro split

Workout splits by the numbers

A workout split sets how many days you train and how many times a week each muscle group works. The table works this out for a large muscle group, such as chest, at 9-11 sets a week.

The split doesn't decide how much muscle you build: with the same number of sets, full body and split routines produced similar muscle and strength in a meta-analysis of 14 studies (Ramos-Campo et al. 2024). It decides how many days you need, how long a session takes, how many times a week each muscle works and what you lose when you miss a session.

Full body, upper/lower, push pull legs and bro split explained

When people compare "full body vs split", a split is any routine that trains different muscle groups on different days, upper/lower included; one or two muscle groups per day is a bro split.

Full body training

Full body training means every session covers chest, back and legs, usually with 1 exercise and about 3 sets per muscle, 2-3 times a week with a rest day in between. The main lifts change between days: day A is Barbell Squat, Barbell Bench Press and Cable Lat Pulldown, day B opens with the Romanian deadlift and day C with the leg press. Isolation work gets little room, so a biceps and triceps superset keeps the session short.

Upper/lower split

An upper/lower split alternates an upper body day (chest, back, shoulders, arms) with a lower body day (thighs, glutes, calves), usually 4 sessions a week. The upper day usually opens with the barbell bench press and the barbell bent over row, the lower day with the barbell squat and the Romanian deadlift. With 4 sessions of 40-50 minutes, each muscle works twice a week, but the lower day is the hardest session of the week. On 3 days, the third session is full body so that upper and lower each work twice.

Push pull legs and push/pull

Push pull legs (PPL) splits the week into a push day (chest, shoulders, triceps), a pull day (back, rear delts, biceps) and a leg day (thighs, glutes, calves), 3 or 6 sessions a week. On 6 days a session takes 30-40 minutes, but you're in the gym 6 times; on 3 days each muscle works once a week. A 4-day push/pull split spreads the legs over both days: the squat on push day, the Romanian deadlift on pull day.

Bro split

A bro split, or body part split, gives each day 1-2 muscle groups, such as chest and triceps, back and biceps, legs, shoulders and arms, and each large muscle one session a week. You can fit 3-4 exercises for one muscle, but 9-11 sets in one session means you do the last ones tired, and a missed day is a week without that muscle. A split doesn't have to mean once a week: in a survey of 235 competitive bodybuilders, 85.5% used a split and more than half trained large muscle groups twice a week (Hackett 2022).

How to choose a workout split

The best workout split is the one you can keep up for 8 weeks; the ACSM 2026 position stand calls consistency a top priority.

In the plans we recommend, large muscle groups work at least twice a week, because a missed session then doesn't cost a muscle the whole week, and a second session per muscle helps strength (Pelland et al. 2025). The heavy lift usually comes once a week, and the second session gives the muscle a different exercise. We mark splits that train a muscle once a week as acceptable. Training frequency shows how often each muscle works in each layout, and how to build a workout plan covers fitting exercises to days.

How to switch splits without losing progress

When you switch workout splits, you move the same sets from the old week into the new one.

1. Count each muscle group's weekly working sets: a direct set counts as 1, an indirect set as 0.5 (how to count sets); the weekly volume calculator does it faster.
2. Choose a split for the days you averaged over the last 8 weeks, not the days you'd like to train.
3. Spread the same sets over the new days, at most about 10 per muscle in one session (sets per session).
4. Keep your main exercises and weights. Do the lift you want to get stronger at twice a week, once lighter, e.g. barbell squat 3 × 8 at RIR 3 on the second lower day instead of the machine hack squat.
5. Space hard sessions for the same muscle 48-72 h apart, e.g. upper on Monday and Thursday, lower on Tuesday and Friday. If Monday's barbell bent over rows tire your lower back before Tuesday's squats, do the chest supported machine row on upper days.
6. After 6-8 weeks, compare your weights and e1RM; if they've stalled, go through the plateau checklist first: effort, sets, rest, sleep and food.

How much recovery a muscle needs, lower back included, is covered under training frequency, and how the weeks change within a block is shown in periodization.

Three days a week in four splits

You can lay out three sessions a week in four splits; the table shows week 2 of our plans.

Chest gets 9 sets in every layout, in similar time: full body spreads them over 3 sessions, upper/lower over 2, and PPL and the bro split do them all at once. In a small study (19 people with training experience), with the same 9 sets per muscle, a 3-day split and 3 full body sessions produced similar lean mass and strength over 8 weeks (Thomas and Burns 2016). The difference shows when you miss a session.

Missing the lower day in upper/lower costs the quads 6 of their 9 sets, so on 3 days we recommend full body, and upper/lower with a full body day if you rarely miss sessions. If you miss a day in a bro split or PPL, move it to Saturday instead of skipping it.

Full body vs split for muscle growth, strength and fat loss

Full body and split routines give similar results for every common goal; strength depends not on the split's name but on how often each muscle works and how often you do a given lift.

Common mistakes when choosing a split

1. A split for more days than you actually train. A 5-day split done 3 times a week trains each muscle about every 12 days. Choose a plan for the number of days you train in a busy week.
2. A new split instead of more sets. With the same sets, a new weekly layout won't break a plateau. If your weights stall despite sets at RIR 1-2, decent sleep and enough food, and the muscle gets fewer than 10 sets a week, add 2 sets.
3. The same lifts in every full body session. Three heavy squat sessions a week are more tiring than one plus two lighter leg exercises. Rotate the heavy lift between days A, B and C.
4. A bro split "because I'm advanced". In trained lifters, too, full body and splits gave similar results. Choose a split by your days and what you enjoy.

What the research says

No study has compared push pull legs with upper/lower directly or checked in which split people miss fewer sessions; the studies lasted 4-12 weeks and mostly involved young men.

What SmartWorkout logs show

Simply rotating through the days would give legs 0.5-0.8 sessions a week at 2-3 workouts a week, so with a median of 0.36, some lifters in our logs, mostly in Poland, who train one part per day do legs rarely or never. Every number is based on at least 50 people.

How to choose and set up a split in SmartWorkout

You choose a split in SmartWorkout in an AI plan, and you can build your own week with “Create new plan” or paste it in with “Import plan”.

1. On the Workout tab, in “My Plans”, tap “+” and choose “Generate plan with AI”.
2. In the quick start, answer “How many days a week can you train?”.
3. Under “How do you want to split your training?”, choose “Full body”, “Upper / Lower”, “Push / Pull / Legs”, “Body part split” or “Choose for me”. With 2 days and any split other than “Full body” or “Choose for me”, the app warns that each muscle won't get 2 sessions a week, and with 3 days and “Body part split”, that it gets one.

From version 5.2, the free plans from the table above are also in the app.

The AI writes one week that repeats throughout the plan, and a plan from the Luna model costs 10 AI credits (AI plan).

The free full body to split plan takes you through four splits for 2 weeks each, each as a separate training block in the plan's tabs.

With Premium, the plan's volume analysis shows before you start whether the new split gives each muscle group as many sets as the old one.

You can paste day Lower A from the 4-day upper/lower split, without the crunches, through plan import (Workout > My Plans > “+” > “Import plan”). Import costs 10 AI credits, so the welcome credits cover it.

DAY: Lower A- Barbell Squat | WU 2x5 | 3x6-10 RIR 2 | TEMPO 20X0 | REST 180- Romanian Deadlift | 3x8-12 RIR 2 | TEMPO 3010 | REST 150- Seated Leg Curl | 3x10-15 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2011 | REST 90- Seated Leg Extension Machine | 2x10-15 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2011 | REST 90- Calf Leg Press | 3x10-15 RIR 1 | TEMPO 2210 | REST 60