Odd Training Splits and Ideas (That Work)

On the Joy of Creative Training

     I love training for many reasons.  Like a lot of lifters, I’ve always loved training because, more than anything else, I just loved the feel of moving heavy iron.  I also loved the kind of training that goes along with being incredibly strong.  I can think of fewer pleasures in life than a workout that involves near max sets of squats, bench presses, deadlifts, overhead presses, and curls.  But I also love training because I love the creativity of it all.  I am a creative, after all.  An artist.  Writing is one of the arts that my creative side is attracted to—not just attracted to but needs.  But I love lifting for the same reason that I love writing.  The gym is where I practice the art of training.

     Training is both science and art.  If you neglect either side, you’re neglecting the full range of benefits that lifting provides.  Nowadays, we (apparently, if my sons are correct in what they tell me) have a lot of proponents of so-called “science-based training.”  I think the attraction is that science provides all of the “answers” to everything that a lifter needs to know about how to build muscle, get stronger, lose fat, simply look better, or perhaps a combination of all the preceding.  But it’s shortsighted at best.  I also think the reliance on science has something to do with our secular, materialistic, post-modern world that believes science—as opposed to, say, religion or philosophy—has all of the answers.  We think science can be relied upon, but I think art is what one can truly rely upon.  I also suppose that on the other side of the coin, you do have some lifters (primarily bodybuilders, most likely) who think that training is only art, and that’s not true, either.  There have been successful bodybuilding artists who trained entirely “instinctively,” for instance.  But the serious lifter needs both.  Science can help explain a lot about the ideal amount of volume, the best set/rep ranges to utilize depending on your goals, and how to take advantage of optimal rest, nutrition, sleep, and whatnot.  You should understand the science, no doubt, but like any good scientist, you also have to get in the lab and do the experimenting.  That’s where the art comes in.

     A successful scientist understands the textbooks but also spends a lot of time in the lab actually doing the experiments.  That’s what makes for a great lifter, as well.  Make sure that you understand all of the various training methods.  Do your research.  Understand the science involved.  Then get in the gym and apply what you’ve learned.  You will then find what works best for you, and what you need to toss out from your training repertoire.  That’s also where you need to apply some creativity.  Some of the best physiques and strongest lifters became that way by going against the grain of what was accepted and doing something completely and entirely different.

     One of the issues is that lifters do read and study different training methods.  (Okay, it could be that not enough of them actually read but just watch a lot of videos on YouTube or whatnot, but that aside…)  But what they encounter is just the same old stuff—full-body workouts, 2-way upper/lower splits, 3-way push/pull/legs splits, along with whatever else is the “accepted” framework for training.  We won’t get into everything here, but I do want to cover some “odd” training splits that go against the grain of what is commonly used.  Some of the best results that I achieved came from doing some uncommon training splits.  Same thing for lifters that I’ve worked with.

     I think one of the first “odd” training splits I encountered was in the early ‘90s when I read about a split method that Bradley J. Steiner wrote in the ‘70s.  If you know anything about Steiner, then you also know that he was fond of writing that most lifters should never use a training split.  He believed that the vast majority of lifters could spend their entire training life doing absolutely nothing but full-body workouts.  He was quite adamant about it, in fact.  He called 3 days per week, full-body training the “sane and sensible” route to continuous gains.  He thought most lifters only needed 3 to 5 (at the most) sets per muscle group, only a handful of lifts or so for each session, and that most workouts should last no more than 90 minutes (again, at most).  Then, in the ‘70s, he surprised everyone who read his monthly Ironman column by writing a program entitled “The Rugged Size and Strength Split Routine.”  But this program was a bit different from what one would expect from a split program.  He only suggested it for advanced lifters who had spent years doing basic full-body routines.  It worked like this: On 3 days a week, you trained bench presses, bent-over rows, stiff-legged deadlifts, squats, and some sort of abdominal movement.  Then, on another 2 days a week, you did overhead presses and barbell curls.  That’s it.

     I tried it.  And loved it.  It also made me realize that a great 2-way split involves this:

Workout 1: chest, back, legs

Workout 2: shoulders and arms

     It’s “odd” but it works.  I think it works well, odd as it might be, for a few reasons.  First, Steiner was always correct in the fact that there is just something about full-body workouts that make them more “anabolic” growth-producers than split workouts, especially split training where you only train one or two muscles at a session.  Training your chest, back, and legs in a single workout is, essentially, a full-body session.

     Another factor is that the split is ideal for how you can train at each session.  When training chest, back, and legs, you can focus on heavy, compound lifts.  You can squat, bench press, deadlift, and row with a 5x5 session or anything similar.  Maybe it’s 8 sets of 5 reps or just 3 sets of 3—however you like to train for strength, power, and mass.  Then, in the 2nd workout, you can train the way most bodybuilders enjoy training those muscle groups—go for the pump.

     I’ve always been confused by the fact that lifters think if they are going to do a 5x5 workout on their squats then, well, they should do that for all of their other muscle groups.  Says who?  The creative bodybuilder does what he wants for each muscle group based on what that particular muscle group, whatever it is, responds well to.

     You can use this split for high-frequency training (HFT) or you can use it for high-volume, high-intensity, and infrequent workouts.  If you respond well to 3 days per week, full-body workouts, then try something similar to what Steiner recommended—train workout 1 on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and train workout 2 on Tuesday and Saturday.  Your workouts on that schedule might look like this:

Workout 1:

Squats: 5x5

Bench presses: 5x5

Power cleans: 5x3

Weighted chins: 5x5

Workout 2:

Behind-the-neck presses: 8x8

Superset:

   Barbell curls: 8x8

   Skull crushers: 8x8

     For workout 1, train heavy, but take each set a rep or two shy of muscular failure.  Leave the gym feeling good—always ask yourself this: Will I be able to repeat this session in another 48 hours?  You should have more energy when you leave the gym than when you started the workout.  About an hour after training, you should have a hearty appetite and no problem scarfing down the calories you need for getting big and strong.

     At workout 2, train completely different.  You’re only training these muscles twice per week, so go for the pump.  Train fast.  Train hard.  Shoulder and arm training doesn’t take the toll on your body that squats, benches, and heavy pulls take, so take advantage of that fact.  The only factor to consider is how this workout will affect Workout 1 on Wednesday, but don’t overthink it.  Perhaps your Wednesday session will have to be easier than your other workouts because of Tuesday’s shoulder and arm training, but, again, don’t overthink it.

     Cycling training loads is important, so you could also follow a schedule such as this:

Monday: Heavy Workout 1

Tuesday: Heavy Workout 2

Wednesday: Light Workout 1

Friday: Medium Workout 1

Saturday: Medium Workout 2

     At the heavy workouts, you can go “all-out.”  At the medium workouts, use the same sets/reps but use weights that are 90% of the heavy sessions.  For the light Wednesday session, use weights that are 70-80% of the Monday workout.

     You can also train 6 days a week by adding another “light” shoulder and arm session on Thursday.  I think most lifters, however, will make better gains by sticking with the suggested schedule, but 6 days is a possibility.  After all, as I’m fond of writing, more isn’t always better but it usually is!

     One of my favorite 2-way splits has always been this one:

Workout 1: legs and back

Workout 2: chest, shoulders, and arms

     In many ways, it’s similar to our first split, and I like it for similar reasons.  At the legs and back session, you can train for strength and power.  At the 2nd workout, you can train in a more “conventional” manner.  Your workout might look something like this:

Workout One:

Squats: ramps of 5s, triples, and singles

Deadlifts: ramps of triples, doubles, and singles

Workout Two:

Bench presses: 8x5

Military presses: 5x5

Barbell curls: 5x5

Weighted close-grip dips: 5x5

     Train on a 2-on, 1-off schedule or, if you want to train on the same days each week, train Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday—or anything similar.

     You can also train in the same manner as the first split recommended here, and just add the chest training to your shoulder and arm workouts, but remove it from the 1st session.

     This might seem as if it’s an odd “plus” for this split, but another reason that I like it is that it’s a good split for lifters who don’t like training legs and back.  There are a lot of casual lifters who enjoy training chest, shoulders, and arms with lots of sets and reps, and, well, whatever it is that they enjoy doing.  But then they don’t like leg and back training, especially when it comes to heavy barbell squats.  One of the problems, here, is that these lifters attempt to train their legs and backs the same way as their beloved upper body muscles.  You might love 10x10 on bench presses or barbell curls—hey, who doesn’t—but squats?  Yeah, not so much.  No problem.  Do all the high-set, high-rep training you want for your “beach” muscles but then train your squats and pulls with multiple doubles or singles.  Fun in my book is a 10x10 bench press session followed by 10 sets of singles on barbell squats the next day.  So, you might do this:

Workout One:

Squats: 10x1 using 90% of your 1-rep maximum

Deadlifts: 10x1

Workout Two:

Bench presses: 10x10

Military presses: 8x8

Barbell curls: 8x8

Weighted close-grip dips: 6x10

     Years ago, as in the previous century, when I first started researching and studying the training programs and workout routines of old-school bodybuilders, especially those of the so-called “silver era” of bodybuilding—primarily the ‘50s and ‘60s—I was surprised by the 2-way training splits that they utilized.  I was expecting upper/lower splits, I guess, but instead I found a lot of this:

Day one: chest, shoulders, quads, calves

Day two: back, hamstrings, biceps, triceps

     The more I thought about it, and then tried it myself, the more I realized the intelligence of this training.  In many ways, it’s a “full-body split” since you’re working both your lower body and your upper body at each session.  For instance, it wouldn’t look as odd if you viewed it through a “movement over muscle” framework.  Then your split might look like this:

Day one: bench presses, military presses, barbell squats, standing calf raises

Day two: weighted chins, stiff-legged deadlifts, barbell curls, close-grip weighted dips

     Looks pretty damn good to me.  Do the above on a 3-days-a-week schedule, hitting each session 3 times in 2 weeks and you’ll be on the right track.

     If you really want “odd” then do some, literally, odd lift training.  Here’s a schedule that most folks never think about, but it would be better than 99% of what you see in any gym at almost any time:

Workout one: full-body session with free weights

Workout two: full-body session with sandbags (along with barrels, sleds, tires, anvils, or anything else you have on hand)

     Your workouts might look like this:

Workout One:

Front squats: 5x5

Bench presses: 5x5

Deadlifts: 5x3

Weighted chins: 3x5

One-arm dumbbell overhead presses: 3x5 (each arm)

Barbell curls: 5x5

Workout Two:

Sandbag bear-hug squats: 3x5

Sandbag deadlifts: 3x5

Sandbag cleans and presses: 3x5

Farmer walks: 2-3 sets, hard but not all-out

Sled drags: 2-3 sets

     As with the previous split, train 3 days per week and alternate back and forth between the two sessions.

     Odd training, not just odd lifts, might be, well, odd but that doesn’t mean they don’t work.  In fact, if you have some odd training idea or workout, give it a shot.  It might end up being one of the best workouts you’ve ever done.  Just because it’s different from what the rest of your fellow trainees are doing, doesn’t mean that it’s “wrong.”  The fact that it is different might be the very reason that it will work.

     Get creative, too.  Try low reps, high reps, high sets of low reps, and everything in between.  Train daily with easy strength workouts or just twice per week with incredibly hard full-body sessions.  Experiment with something new.  If you’ve never done it before, the chances are that it will produce results for you because you’ve never done it.

     Be odd, be creative, and free the (lifting) artist within.  The gym is your lab, waiting for you to unite the scientist and artist into a cohesive singularity.  The only danger in being creative is that you might have to purchase a new wardrobe.  Only you can decide if it’s worth it.

     If you enjoyed reading this article and want more training programs and workout routines, consider purchasing one of my books.  My book Ultimate Mass and Power is PACKED with similar articles as this one.  You can find more info about it and all of my other books by clicking HERE.

     As always, if you have any comments or questions, leave them in the “comments” section below.  You can also send me an email if you prefer private correspondence or have any personal questions.  I usually get around to answering my email every couple days or so.

     Right now, I have a book that I’m working on (not workout related but "spiritual") and I’m finally putting together my upcoming “old-school bodybuilding” book.  Because of the time it’s taking to work on my other projects, I will probably post a new article here once every 4 to 5 days, as opposed to every-other-day or so as I was doing.  Once I complete my projects, or if I somehow get on a bit of a "roll", I will return to more frequent posts.  And until next time, stay strong and stay at it.  Your muscle-gaining, strength-building destiny is in your hands.