Every year when the weather begins to warm, I get the itch to get my whole life in order—my calendar, pantry, and yes, my fitness routine. That's where a workout "split" comes in for me. Building a movement routine is its own form of spring cleaning: the goal-setting, the taking stock, the satisfaction of beginning anew. But it can also feel overwhelming, especially when your social media feed is full of incredibly high-energy people spending what looks like endless hours at the gym or on the trails.
Luckily, it’s possible to find a middle ground that works for your lifestyle. I've found that the key is starting very simply and building from there, something I’ve had to learn the hard way after a few overly ambitious spring resets. To dig into the specifics, I consulted experts Julie Buchsbaum, an REI sales specialist, yoga teacher and ultramarathon runner based in Seattle, and Sonny Koch, a personal trainer based in Los Angeles, about the best ways to devise a workout split to fit your needs. This article covers the following:
What is a workout split?
According to Buchsbaum, “a workout split is just a distribution of workouts across a certain period of time.” You’ll often see people online describe their “weekly split”: training distributed over seven days that balances workouts with the necessary rest and recovery to achieve desired goals. In other cases, a split might span a longer period of time—like a race training plan that covers an entire month or three-month period.
A workout split does two crucial things:
Helps you work toward a goal by creating a plan with the building blocks necessary to progress over time.
Ensures that you don’t increase your volume or double up on workouts in a way that could compromise your recovery, and thus hinder your progress.
For example, if you, like Buchsbaum, are working on improving your squats, but also enjoy trail running regularly, building a split can help ensure that you’re progressively loading your squats heavier and heavier so your muscles grow stronger, while making sure that your quads have ample time to recover before you hit the trails for that long run—or return to the gym for your next squat session.
Who is a split for?
Ultimately, whether or not it’s worth implementing a workout split all comes down to your goals, how much you want to be able to track your progress and how high your training volume is.
You may not need a split if you …
Don’t have any specific training goals
Tend to keep all your workouts light
Prefer to move your body more intuitively
This might look like having the option to join a friend for a pilates class here and there or go for a spontaneous 30-minute run when the weather’s nice, for example.
A workout split may be right for you if you …
Love tracking your progress
Prefer to have a plan to follow
Log several miles on the roads or trails, or hours at the gym, in a given week to the point where dedicated recovery days are essential
If you’re more goal-oriented and/or engage in some high-intensity training, a split can help take the guesswork out of having to think through a bunch of different variables every single day. “Splits give you a sense of purpose and direction,” explains Koch. In other words, it can be a way to exercise more strategically.
But you don’t have to be an intense fitness aficionado to benefit from a split. Koch says there’s a common misconception that splits are only for bodybuilders, or people working toward extremely competitive performance goals. “This simply isn’t true,” he says. “Most of my clients are not doing bodybuilding competitions, they are just trying to get stronger, achieve certain aesthetic goals, [or] move better, and splits allow them to track [those] goals.”
Build Your Workout Split
Step One: Figure out how much time you have to dedicate to working out
Koch says the first question you want to ask yourself when building your workout split is how many days a week you can commit to training, and how much time you can commit each day. “This is the most important question because it will help you decide what goals are realistic with the frequency of training you are willing to commit to,” he explains.
If you're anything like me, your social media feeds are full of fitness influencers logging obscene amounts of activity: hours of running, weightlifting, cycling, surfing and who knows what else, sometimes twice a day at different locations. This kind of lifestyle seems utterly incompatible with holding down a job, raising kids or keeping up with basic household chores, unless your full-time occupation is achieving the fitness goal itself. “I don’t think influencers are inherently bad,” Buchsbaum says, “but people can fall into a trap of looking at [that content] and thinking, ‘I have to go from…zero to what this person on the internet is doing.’”
Buschsbaum thinks it can be helpful to look for people online to model your training plans after as long as they have the right credentials, but she says the most important thing is to find a way to move that works for you and your schedule.
Koch agrees. “Time is a huge factor and most people do not have two hours a day to train,” he says. “The good news here is that you don’t need a 5 to 7-day-a-week program to get strong or even build significant muscle.” He says even training two times per week can make a difference, though three times per week is “best for overall progress.” And those sessions don’t have to be long, either—whatever you can fit in alongside your other obligations, even if it’s a 20 minute HIIT workout or 30 bike ride, is better than nothing.
Step Two: Determine a goal to prioritize—that’s right, just one
Once you’ve figured out how much time you have to allocate to your plan, you’ll need to determine your goals. Both Koch and Buschbaum emphasize the importance of specificity. “Getting as specific as you can will help you arrive at a more appropriate split,” Koch says.
He offers two examples:
- An avid hiker who has capacity to add two new training days might focus on full-body strength two days per week, with at least 48 hours of recovery between strength sessions and weekend hikes.
A weightlifter who has four days a week to train, and wants bigger legs while maintaining upper body strength, might alternate upper and lower body days—ensuring legs get hit at least twice a week for optimal growth.
It can be hard to choose a single priority but, as Buchsbaum points out, "balancing a lot of different modalities can be an unrealistic expectation." She gives an example from her own yoga practice: If she's focused on improving her flexibility, that work has to come first—even if it means letting her deadlifts take a back seat for a few months.
Step Three: Create a plan to progressively load
According to Koch, you can stick with the same split indefinitely, but it might get boring—and you’ll likely reach a plateau, where you stop seeing improvements in your performance. Regardless of your specific goal or training modality, it’s important to create a plan with progressive load, or a gradual increase in the challenge for your body week over week.
If you’re focused on building strength, this generally looks like increasing weights or reps, but probably not both at once. If you’re running, hiking, or cycling, you’ll likely be focused on increasing mileage, speed, or elevation. A good way to know whether you’re ready to progress is to assess both how hard the training feels in the moment, and how well you’re recovering.
For example, weightlifters often talk about the importance of fatiguing the muscle—going until your last rep feels nearly impossible to complete (without compromising your form, of course). For a runner, this might look like one day of speed work that incorporates a high effort. But you’ll also need to take stock of how you feel after the workout. Signs of overtraining can include lasting fatigue, persistent soreness, disrupted sleep, loss of menstrual cycles or loss of hunger cues.
Step Four: Check your plan for adequate rest and recovery
“Each training day has to be put together in a smart, intentional manner that takes recovery into account,” says Koch.
Don’t train the same muscle group on two consecutive days
Intersperse “hard” training days with easier efforts
Including rest days in your training blocks.
If you’re weight training, Koch says you ideally want to be training each muscle group two times per week for optimal muscle growth—and making sure each group has at least a day to recover.
If you’re building a workout split focused on running, hiking, or cycling, you’ll want to make sure your longest runs, hikes or rides aren’t scheduled right after your toughest speed workouts or climbs.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of considering rest and recovery in building a workout split. Undervaluing it can undercut your progress in a variety of ways—from simply making a workout feel harder, to increasing your risk of serious injury. It’s also during recovery that your fitness actually improves: When you rest and nourish yourself post-workout, your muscles are able to rebuild in a stronger and more conditioned form.
By skipping that downtime, you sabotage your goals. And no matter what sort of split you build, your routine should have enough flexibility to allow you to listen to your body, so that you’re not forcing a long run after a week of terrible sleep or trying to squat your heaviest right after helping your best friend move into a new apartment.
The Takeaway
Ultimately, a good split isn't just about optimizing your performance, it's about making your workouts feel worth showing up for. "If you are rested and fed, and you haven't worked that exact muscle group in a couple of days, you might surprise yourself," Buchsbaum says. "It might be more fulfilling—and feel more sustainable."
When it comes to splits, the goal isn’t building a plan that looks good on paper or makes you feel motivated on day one; it’s building a plan you’ll come back to. When in doubt, remember that consistency beats intensity—it’s not about the flashy workouts, but the reliable ones.
Our Expertise
Julie Buchsbaum joined the Seattle flagship team in 2024; in addition to outfitting and hyping up customers, she co-leads the run club, belays on the pinnacle climbing wall and supports the in-store experiences team. When not running ultramarathons or teaching yoga, you can find her knitting, baking sourdough, cooking vegan food with her partner or cuddling her cat, Aurora. REI Co-op Member since 2017.
Sonny Koch is a full-time personal trainer with 10 years of experience based in the Los Angeles area. He is certified by the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), is a National Personal Training Institute graduate and holds multiple certifications from PPSC (Pain Free Performance Specialist Certification). He primarily leads 1-1 training sessions as well as group strength training classes out of an LGBTQ+ gym in Cypress Park. Sonny trains a wide range of people from desk workers and seniors to recreational athletes and experienced lifters. Sonny also leads group instruction and training seminars focused on proper lifting ergonomics at The Broad and Highland Park Brewery.
Fi Lowenstein is a writer and content strategist who can always be talked into one more trail run or hike—especially if there's a great burrito waiting on the other side. They’ve been writing and editing for REI since 2022, and cover climate, LGBTQ+ issues, disability and more. REI Co-op Member since 2019.
