C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

A Double-Split Program for Weekend Strength Warriors      A good portion of the material I write on my blog is precipitated by questions I receive in emails.  Of course, a lot of the questions that I get have been covered in my various essays and articles, so I don’t write additional material about those questions.  This morning, however, I received a question that I thought might deserve its own essay since there might be other readers in a similar situation.  To paraphrase, the questioner asked me if it would be a good idea to use a “double-split” (where you train twice in one day) on the weekends since he has plenty of time to train on Saturday and Sunday but little time for training during the week.  His plan is to get 4 training sessions in on the weekend, then try to fit one more workout in during the week.  After a few emails back and forth to understand his training history, I told him that, yes, I do think it’s a good idea, especially if he can get one full-body workout in the

  Utilize the Best of Both Full-Body and Split Workouts for Awesome Results Old-school bodybuilders such as Freddy Ortiz used a combination of both split workouts and full-body sessions. One of the decisions that lifters have to make when designing a program is whether to use a “split” workout program or to stick with a full-body workout program.  I say “stick” with a program because the very first thing ALL lifters should do—and I don’t care whether your goals are geared more toward bodybuilding or power and strength training—is follow a full-body program.  But there will come a time when you have to make a decision.  Should you stick with a full-body program or should you switch over to a split regimen? Once you reach a more advanced stage of training beyond the beginner level then there are times when one form of lifting is more advantageous compared to the other, even though you should periodically use both.  And depending on what those exact goals are at this point will mean tha