i’m in my early to mid 40s and i been training in the gym and pool since 11 or 12 starting in Kiev, Ukraine, then in Brooklyn, NY then San Francisco Bay Area, then Long Island and currently in New Jersey …
although i have used a traditional split ( i think the one i used the most was Legs, Back, Chest / Shoulders, Arms ) in the past with good results i no longer use a split, here is why.
professional bodybuilders and regular gym rat fukbois use a split differently, but one thing they have in common is they both cheat.
every time a professional loses a competition they talk to the judges to ask whey they didn’t win and usually the culprit is one of two things
1 - they were too soft, not shredded enough, which is due to poor contest prep
2 - they had an obviously weak area such as back, which is not acceptable for a pro
upon receiving this feedback they will modify their split to include a second back day into the same week … for example i think Ronnie Coleman had a “back width” day and a “back thickness” day but the real purpose of this is simply to do extra back work.
regular gym rat ruckbois do something similar but opposite. namely they will make excuses to skip leg and back days and when they actually do show up for their leg or back day they they start doing curls because their logic is " i am already here in the gym, doing a few sets of curls won’t hurt "
the net result of this is they do curls 3 or 4 times a week, back every 2 weeks and legs once a month. this way their bicep looks good so they can kiss it like faggots and admire it in the mirror in the bathroom. of course they can’t see their back or legs in their bathroom mirror, let alone kiss them, so it doesn’t bother them.
what they fail to realize is 90% of the time when people ( both men and women ) are sizing you up they do so from the back, because they don’t want you to know they’re doing it. they can’t even see your biceps from that perspective. all they can see is your weak back and your poor posture.
the pros use a split because in contest shape every head of their muscles will be judged separately so they must be very detail oriented and since it’s their job they can afford to spend a lot of time working on those details. the only way to make so much time is by training for multiple hours every day but you only really need to hit lagging muscles about 2 - 3 times a week and other muscles once or twice a week, thus they use a split to reflect that.
but the gym rat fuck bois use a split for something entirely different - namely as an excuse to avoid training legs and back. they come up with excuses to train biceps and abs on every workout plus they also do bench press whenever their bros are with them. if they ever do legs at all it’s just leg press since that allows them to use the most plates even though they are literally seated in that exercise and you can never use leg power while seated in the real world, making the exercise 100% useless.
by not using a split i automatically guarantee symmetry because every day is a leg day ( or a rest day ). i make sure to get at least one good training session a week no matter what, two if i have time, and three if one of the other sessions was cut short by something. most days are rest days.
so does that mean is spend most of my time in the gym doing boring shit like leg curls or retarded shit like leg press ? not at all. i have no time for that since i finish ALL muscle groups in just over an hour.
how ? by doing Olympic Lifting. with one exercise i hit legs, back and shoulders. i do no other exercises for legs, but i do of course have extra exercises for back and shoulders. OL can also hit biceps pretty hard. I do bicep work mainly to keep my biceps strong so they don’t get injured on OL.
my current workout looks something like this:
20 min warmup using dumbbells and cables
30 min OL
20 min finishing exercises to get a nice pump, again, using dumbbells and cables
15 min swim warmup in therapy pool ( it has warm water that is ideal for just loosening the muscles )
20 min butterfly sprints in the competition spec ( cold, deep, long ) lap pool
including changing, showering, maybe taking a shit before i go in the shower the whole thing takes about 3 hours. the key to lasting 3 hours is drinking the right fluids. i bring four separate bottles with me - two Nalgene ( impact resistant translucent plastic ) bottles with spring water, one protein shake ( Klean Kanteen Wide Mouth stainless steel bottle ), and one Hydro Flask Vacuum Insulated Stainless Steel bottle with warm “tea” that has various herbal stuff and carbs to optimize how i feel.
make sure your protein and tea bottles have a wide mouth so you can use a brush to clean them out properly. simply rinsing them off is not enough. for just spring water i feel Nalegene is enough but i wouldn’t put anything other than water into a Nalgene bottle. the benefit of plastic Nalegene over Stainless Steel is it is lighter and doesn’t dent. the benefit of Stainless is the surface can be cleaned back go original condition with enough scrubbing and chemicals even if you had like mold growing there. if you use the bottles for something that can support mold and bacteria ( basically any drink other than just water ) stainless is a must IMO.
anyway, when we feel “exhausted” what we are actually feeling is usually:
1 - dehydration
2 - overheating
3 - running out of carbs
in other words our body had capacity for more work, but we didn’t manage it properly.
because the average gym rat fuckboi is too stupid to be able to manage these things they run out of steam in 1 hour and go home. but if you go to a gym with good air conditioning, wear clothes that are well ventilated, drink plenty of water and fill in any missing nutrients like carbs and protein you can last 3 hours no problem.
now overheating in itself can be a beneficial stimulus and some people prefer working out without AC for this reason … and i would say knock yourself out AS LONG AS you are able to complete your workout and not quit half way. otherwise switch to a gym with AC.
in other words heat and sweating ( whether from sauna or training itself ) may have benefits, but i refuse to believe those benefits outweigh those of training itself. and besides, even with ice cold AC you can always just train harder and still be hot and sweating like a pig.
for the most part all this “hardcore gym with no AC” is just a way for broke guys to argue that they are Alpha, not broke. too bad there is nobody to make that argument to except other broke guys. Because girls don’t go to such gyms. girls like luxury and successful men ( which they find in LifeTime Athletic ) not stench and broke retards ( which is what “hardcore” gyms offer ).
i have done 20 hour long workouts on Amphetamines but that was when i decided i was not willing to train in brooklyn and had to travel to Long Island to train which was 3 hours in traffic each way so i would take amphetamines and train the whole day and then just sleep for the next two days … i do NOT recommend doing that !
ultimately though, that period was the genesis of my current workout. except back then i had to use several gyms to complete one workout. one of those gyms i used just because it was 24/7 and allowed me to keep working out when others were closed …
today i’m very lucky to train in a gym that has both olympic lifting and swimming under the same roof, which is something all Life Time Athletic gyms have, but i am not at Lifetime anymore and very lucky to be able to continue to train this way.
i literally had to move out of NYC to escape the traffic that was forcing my Amphetamine workout on me. because i am now 15 minutes away from a gym that has everything i need i no longer have use for amphetamines as i can just train more frequently now that it doesn’t take me 3 hours to get to the gym.
still, more frequently is really just 2 or 3 times a week, because my training system doesn’t need more.
and even though my workout is only 3 hours long now, again, i don’t need more. the reason i went for 20 hours on amphetamines is because i had come back from a dislocated shoulder and was very overweight and basically used these long workouts to burn calories. i mean once you take those amphetamines it’s not like you are going to sleep so might as well workout. 20 hour workouts were a good fit for me then, but a 3 hour workout is a good fit now.
if you work out at home, which means you spend ZERO time getting to the gym, then you may as well use a split and train every day - why not ?
but if getting to the gym and back, changing etc. consumes time and money then you may as well get your time and money’s worth out of the workout by doing a full body workout every time.
currently between driving, changing, packing my gym bag and so on it takes me about an hour for every gym trip so i have to train for about 3 hours to make it worth it. in the amphetamine days it would take me several hours of driving, packing, changing etc ( i would use multiple sets of clothes, shower multiple times and also use multiple sets of shakes and also stop by a real diner and eat salmon and rice there all in one workout spanning several geographical areas ) so to make it worth it my workout had to be over 10 hours long …
regardless, once i switched to full body training there was no going back. it’s just more efficient.
i need to move out of my current residence and new location will have different gym and pool situation and i will again adopt my routine - but it again will be a full body workout of some kind. i just may have to split it across several facilities and hit those facilities on different days but within any given facility i will make use of everything that it offers all in one workout - no splits.
as Mark Sisson said splits are for people who literally have nothing else to do than workout which is the case for Professional Bodybuilders. it’s worth it for them because it allows them to optimize the shape of every single muscle to get just the right look the judges want, and the judges are VERY picky about those things.
but for those of us who don’t spend six figures a year on drugs any and all such effort would be 100% wasted as nobody would ever appreciate the shape of your quad sweep or chest-shoulder tie-in.
what we are after, is simply being strong and looking alpha - and a full body workout is perfectly adequate for that.
on other hand doing curls every day and legs once a month will only make you look like a faggot.
and doing 20 different leg isolation exercises like leg curls and butt blaster will only make you look like a homosexual.
if Olympic Lifting is too advanced for you - a combination of deadlifts and squats hit pretty much the same muscles ( except less arms and shoulders ). if you deadlift and squat on every single workout that is pretty much all the leg training you need.
Yes it is better if you also do unilateral exercises like Lunges and so on but at that point your workout will be getting so long you will need a split and then you will just come up with an excuse to skip leg day.
finally i would also strongly recommend running, not to lose weight, but to strengthen your feet.
and a punching bag to strengthen your wrists.
whether you want to run outdoors or get a punching bag for home or whatever is up to you.
to summarize - splits are good for pro bodybuilders, but no other athletes except bodybuilders use splits and unless you’re a pro bodybuilder you probably shouldn’t either, unless you literally have noting to do with your time or you have a home gym.
i actually do have a home gym but i only use it to rehab from injuries. i prefer a real gym because it allows for a more well-rounded training and also because it allows girls to admire me. i noticed i am much stronger in the real gym than at home on same exact exercises simply because the girls are watching.
on the flip side i never got injured at home but had many injuries in the gym - almost all of them while showing off in front of hot girls. needless to say it’s a delicate balance but if i couldn’t show off i would lose motivation and quit. when i do rehab at home it’s just so i can get back to showing off in the gym.
