workout splits

Workout Splits For Women

Workout Splits For Women

When it comes to getting physical and aesthetic results in weightlifting; workout splits are vital for the most efficient outcomes.  If you want sustainable results, you absolutely must be strategically splitting your workouts.

Why weightlifters need workout splits

The primary purpose of a workout split is to allow your muscles sufficient recovery time between workouts.

Recovery is necessary in weightlifting because when you lift you create tiny little tears in the muscle.  It is during your rest periods (mostly when you’re actually sleeping) that your muscles repair themselves.  Those tears you create in the gym are knitted back together, making the muscle a little bigger each time.

If you continue to lift/tear the same muscle repeatedly without allowing it time to recover, you will eventually fatigue which could result in injury.  Be that an overuse injury that comes on over time, or an acute injury such as a large muscle tear.  Neither is desirable, so pay attention to how you’re training.

Weightlifting isn’t about going hard in every workout – it’s about going smart.

By training a different muscle group with each workout, you are able to train every day without overworking a single muscle group.

Below are some workout split examples.

Beginner workout splits

In a slight contradiction to what has been explained above; an absolute beginner who has zero background in weightlifting can start with general full body workouts. 

This is acceptable at this stage because your primary objective should be to wake your muscles up and get them used to training.  Also, an absolute beginner is unlikely to train daily, so the recovery period is still achieved.

As another side note; a more experienced lifter who cannot train daily for other reasons, will still benefit from full body workouts on the days they can train.

Back to a beginner workout split…

Upper/lower body split

The upper/lower body split is a nice and simple approach to breaking down your workouts.  It’s straight forward and ideal for beginners.

For example; you can train your upper body on day 1 – your lower body on day 2 – a cardio workout on day 3, back to upper body on day 4 and so on.

Intermediate to advanced workout splits

Muscle group rotation

Muscle group rotation is simply breaking your workouts down by muscle groups. 

There are some common workout splits that lifters follow, but ultimately, if you know which muscles you’re working with each exercise – you can break your workouts down however you prefer.

Below are some typical examples…


Back, shoulders & triceps

Boobs (chest) & biceps

…or you might consider…

Bum & thighs

Back & chest

Shoulders, biceps & triceps

Abs, calves & cardio

…another common split…




See: Push pull legs method explained here.

Advanced workout splits

Power & Hypertrophy Upper & Lower Split



Your split would look something like this:

Day 1: Upper body power

Day 2: Lower body power

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Upper body hypertrophy

Day 5: Lower body hypertrophy

Powerlifters split

For the powerlifter, workouts are generally broken down by key move:

Day 1: Squat

Day 2: Deadlift

Day 3: Bench

See; Female powerlifters: Beginner and advanced powerlifting exercises

Workout splits concluded

How you split your workouts will depend heavily on your own goals and personal preferences.  But the bottom line is; provided you’re not working the same muscle groups day in and day out, you’re good to go.  Just be sure not to forget any muscle groups!


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