Body-Part Training Is Dead
By Joseph Arangio, M.S., C.S.C.S.
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BUILD A BETTER WORKOUT
Now that you understand how to group your exercises by movement patterns instead of body parts, the rest is easy. Simply use the guidelines below to structure your workout.
Practice organized lifting. To create an effective training split, divide your workout into two upper-body sessions and two lower-body
sessions per week. For example, you might work your upper body on Monday and Thursday, and your lower body on Tuesday and Friday. In your first upper-body session, perform only horizontal-push and horizontal-pull movements; in the second upper-body session, do only vertical-push and vertical-pull
movements. For your lower body, use quad-dominant exercises in your first workout and hip-dominant exercises in your second workout. This technique provides an ample amount of work for all your muscles while allowing more recovery time than body-part training.
Match sets. Do an equal number of sets for each movement pattern.
As a general guideline, shoot for 6-12 sets for each movement pattern,
performing the low end of the recommendation if you're a beginner and the high end if you've been lifting more than a year. Doing the same amount of work for each movement pattern helps eliminate weak links, the common cause of muscle-size and strength plateaus. Note that you'll only be doing one movement pattern on lower-body days, so you'll do fewer total sets (6-12) than on your upper-body days (12-24). That's acceptable because lower-body exercises such as squats are more physically demanding than upper-body movements.
Master energy efficiency. For a time-saving workout that doesn't sacrifice muscle gains, use an alternating-set technique during your upper-body workouts. That is, alternate between sets of opposite-movement patterns, resting 30 seconds between each set. For instance, alternate between sets of bench presses (horizontal push) and bent-over rows (horizontal pull), resting 30 seconds between each set until you've completed the planned number of sets for each. While your horizontal-pushing muscles work, your horizontal-pulling muscles rest, and vice versa. So your muscles are actually resting for 90-120 seconds before repeating a movement, since each set takes at least 30-60 seconds to perform. This cuts your workout time in half while allowing you to train both movements--and all the muscles involved--intensely.
THE FINAL DETAILS
You've probably noticed there is no direct arm work in this system. If you feel it's necessary, divide your arm exercises into elbow flexion, such as curls, where you bend your elbows to lift the weight, and elbow extension, such as lying triceps extensions, which require you to straighten your arms to lift the weight. Perform elbow-flexion exercises on the same day you do horizontal-push movements, and do elbow-extension exercises on the same day you perform vertical-pull movements. You can also perform calf exercises for your lower legs on either your quad-dominant or hip-dominant day. For all of these,
do the detail exercises at the end of your workout. You won't need to work any of these movements much, though: 2-4 sets are plenty.
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