How splitting your muscle groups into different days effect your training.
Training splits play a crucial role in fitness by targeting specific muscle groups on designated days. This approach enhances training efficiency, boosts performance, and contributes to greater muscle growth, strength, and power (1).
One popular example is the “bro split,” a training method where you focus on one muscle group per day. Other common splits include push/pull/legs and upper body/lower body routines. But how do you decide which split is right for you?
In this guide, we’ll explore the bro split in depth and explain why it’s an effective option to level up your training. Despite its name, the bro split isn’t exclusively for “bros” — it’s a versatile and impactful approach for anyone looking to optimize their workouts.
By the end of this guide, you’ll have a clear understanding of what makes the bro split unique, how it works, and whether it aligns with your fitness goals. Ready to start your bro split journey? Let’s dive in!
Overview — What Is the Bro Split?
Before delving into what bro splits are, we need to understand what training splits mean. Training splits are an effective way to structure your exercises to meet your training goals. Whatever those goals are, you tailor your training splits to meet those needs. Those everyday needs are usually to build your overall fitness, increase strength, and build muscularity.
The bro split is a type of training split that focuses on building one or maybe two particular muscle groups per day. For this training split to be more effective, consider dividing it into five to six days a week to target every muscle group and meet your overall training goals.
Compared to other training splits, the bro split is one of the commonly used training splits. If you visit a random gym or check out workout routines promoted by athletes, you’ll find that they mostly use a bro split.
The bro split dates as far back as the “Golden Age” of bodybuilding. It doesn’t discriminate, so whether you’re a bodybuilder, CrossFit athlete, fitness influencer, powerlifter, strongman, or just a gym enthusiast, the bro split could be an effective way to meet your training goals.
Bro Split Benefits
Compared to the other training splits, the bro split offers some of the most significant benefits.
Basic Understanding of Training Structure
One benefit of doing the bro split is that it helps you understand the importance of keeping a training structure. It teaches when to train and when to let your muscles relax.
Many people visit the gym without fully understanding what they are doing. The bro split introduces you to the basics of training and keeps you on a structured plan. With this, you’ll be able to meet your training goals more effectively. Frankly, if you look at someone with a training program and another without one, you can always tell the difference.
Easy to Understand
Sometimes, as a beginner, it isn’t easy to figure out where to begin when it comes to training. Employing a bro split can help solve this initial confusion in the simplest way possible. You can divide your training sessions into body parts.
Day one can be for legs, day two can be for chest and shoulders, and day three can be for the forearms, triceps, and biceps.
Effectively Hits Every Muscle Group
The goal of the bro split training is to hit every muscle group without leaving any muscle untouched. For instance, on a leg day, you hit every muscle group in your leg, which includes your calves, hamstrings, quads, abductors, and adductors. On another day, you target every muscle in that group, focusing on working each one to exhaustion.
Great Way to Build Better Mind-Muscle Connection
In building strength and muscle, the mind-muscle connection is key because it allows you to focus when training. This is a significant factor for effective muscle and strength gains (2). With the mind-muscle connection, you can focus on the pump and get the most from your training on that body part.
Recovery
Three great ways to build muscle: weight training, nutrition, and recovery. Recovery is an important part of building muscle. This is because after an intense day of workouts, your muscles need to take time to repair after being broken down.
With bro splits, you’re able to space your body part workout days and focus on recovery while building other muscle parts. Though fatigue is a big challenge, especially with training, the bro splits allow plenty of time to recover before targeting the same muscle group again.
Are There Any Downsides?
While the bro split is an effective way to build muscle, there might be a few challenges when implementing the training split. However, the pros outweigh the cons here.
While the bro split is beneficial for building muscle and strength, it requires a low training frequency since you focus on working one muscle group weekly. It also mostly lacks building functional and compound movements; the focus is usually on working smaller muscle groups. However, in your bro splits, you can introduce a few compound routines to handle this pitfall.
The Perfect Bro Split Workout Plan
Yes, the bro split focuses on isolating body parts. However, if you’re looking to include functional routines for each muscle group, here is a list of compound exercises you can include in a bro split training.
When doing the bro split, you can include bodyweight movements to spice up your workouts and add variety to your movements. They can also serve as warm-ups before your major heavy routines. This study shows that doing warm-ups before a major exercise can improve your exercise performance (3).
Here’s a sample bro split workout plan:
Day One — Chest
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Barbell Overhead Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Barbell Incline Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Barbell Decline Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Dumbbell Pullover | 3 | 8-12 |
| Chest Cable Fly | 3 | 8-12 |
| Wide Push-Up | 3 | 8-12 |
| Pallof Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Chest Dip | 3 | 8-12 |
| Cable Crossover | 3 | 8-12 |
Day Two — Legs
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Deadlift | 3 | 8-12 |
| 45 Degree Leg Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Superset — Leg Extension & Leg Curl | 3 | 8-12 |
| Barbell Split Squat | 3 | 8-12 |
| Romanian Deadlift | 3 | 8-12 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 8-12 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 3 | 8-12 |
| V-Up | 3 | 8-12 |
Day Three — Arms
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Dip | 3 | 8-12 |
| Chin Up | 3 | 8-12 |
| Close Grip Bench Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| EZ-Bar Biceps Curl | 3 | 8-12 |
| Skullcrusher | 3 | 8-12 |
| Preacher Curl | 3 | 8-12 |
| Biceps 21s | 3 | 8-12 |
| Triceps Rope Extension | 3 | 8-12 |
| Hammer Curl | 3 | 8-12 |
| Cable Crunches | 3 | 8-12 |
| Cable Kickbacks | 3 | 8-12 |
| Planks | 3 | 60 Seconds |
Day Four — Back
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Bodyweight Squat | 3 | 8-12 |
| Barbell Bent Over Row | 3 | 8-12 |
| Omni Grip Lat Pulldown | 3 | 8-12 |
| Chest Supported T-Bar Row | 3 | 8-12 |
| One Arm Cable Row | 3 | 8-12 |
| Cable Face Pull | 3 | 8-12 |
| Straight Arm Lat Pulldown | 3 | 8-12 |
| Wide Grip Pull-Up | 3 | 8-12 |
Day Five — Shoulders
| Exercise | Sets | Reps |
| Bench Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Dumbbell Shoulder Overhead Press | 3 | 8-12 |
| Dumbbell Shrug | 3 | 8-12 |
| High Cable Pull | 3 | 8-12 |
| Superset — Lateral Raise & Front Raise | 3 | 8-12 |
| Reverse Cable Fly | 3 | 8-12 |
| Upright Row | 3 | 8-12 |
| Barbell Face Pull | 3 | 8-12 |
Martin Fitzwater & Brett Wilkin’s Back Day Bro Split
Below is an example of a bro split focused on targeting the lats by Men’s Open bodybuilders Martin Fitzwater and Brett Wilkin as they prep for the 2025 Olympia.
- Single-Arm Cable Pulldown
- Lat Pulldown
- Mega Mass Row
- Prime Neutral Grip Row
- Flex Fitness Vertical Row
- Machine Reverse Fly
- Cable Pullover
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References
- Training splits: Optimizing training efficiency and performance. (n.d.). Training Splits: Optimizing Training Efficiency and Performance.
- Calatayud, J., Vinstrup, J., Jakobsen, M. D., Sundstrup, E., Brandt, M., Jay, K., Colado, J. C., & Andersen, L. L. (2016). Importance of mind-muscle connection during progressive resistance training. European journal of applied physiology, 116(3), 527–533. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3305-7
- Fradkin, A. J., Zazryn, T. R., & Smoliga, J. M. (2010). Effects of warming-up on physical performance: a systematic review with meta-analysis. Journal of strength and conditioning research, 24(1), 140–148. https://doi.org/10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181c643a0
