Full body or split workouts: which should you do?

The best split is the one that fits the days you can actually train and hits each muscle at least twice a week. Here's how the common options compare.

Full body (2 to 4 days a week)

Every session trains every major muscle with a few sets each. With three days a week, each muscle gets trained three times.

• Good for: beginners, busy people, anyone training three days or fewer.
• Upside: miss a day and nothing goes untrained for a week.
• Downside: sessions get long if you want lots of sets per muscle.

Upper / lower (4 days a week)

Two upper-body days and two lower-body days. Each muscle gets trained twice a week, with more sets per session than full body.

• Good for: intermediate lifters with four days.
• Upside: focused sessions, simple to run.
• Downside: a missed day leaves half your body untrained that week.

Push / pull / legs (3 or 6 days a week)

Pressing muscles one day, pulling muscles the next, legs the third. On three days a week, each muscle gets trained once; on six, twice.

• Good for: people who like training often and can do six days.
• Downside: on three days, once a week per muscle is less effective than twice.

Does frequency matter?

A 2016 meta-analysis found training a muscle twice a week grew more muscle than once. Later work suggests that when the weekly sets are the same, frequency matters less, but in practice spreading sets across two or more sessions keeps them higher quality. Aim for twice a week per muscle and you can't go far wrong.

Pick by your days

• 2 or 3 days: full body.
• 4 days: upper/lower, or full body if you like shorter sessions.
• 5 days: upper/lower plus a full body day, or a push/pull/legs rotation.
• 6 days: push/pull/legs twice.

Tip: Consistency beats the perfect split. A three-day full body plan you never miss beats a six-day plan you do half of.

Or let the plan decide

Liftsmith's adaptive plan doesn't use a fixed split. Each day it picks the muscles that are recovered and still need sets this week, so you can train whatever days you're free. If you prefer a structure, pick a push/pull/legs or upper/lower split in Settings and it still adapts the exercises and weights inside it.