The name “bro splits” comes from the popular application of the split by, well, gym bros. You know the type: an amateur weightlifter who is occasionally an influencer thinks they’re a personal trainer and isn’t afraid to spread false information about fitness and nutrition.
Ok, I already know what you’re thinking… WHY would anyone, especially pro bodybuilders use a method called by those guys, right?! Just wait, you will learn in a bit.
Pro bodybuilders do bro splits because it allows them to train muscles more frequently, intensely, and deeply, resulting in most hypertrophy when compared to other training methods. They can train at full capacity, recover, and prepare for the next session.
The Origin of Bro Splits
Joe Weider has been dubbed the “Father of Modern Bodybuilding” by many. He co-founded the International Federation of Bodybuilding with his brother Ben, legitimizing what was then considered a fringe sport. He founded some of the world’s most renowned bodybuilding magazines, including Flex, Muscle & Fitness, and Shape, as well as the Mr. and Ms. Olympia competitions. Weider also made a wide variety of supplements and fitness equipment. He was the self-styled “Master Blaster” who helped train several prominent bodybuilders and played a crucial part in introducing Arnold Schwarzenegger to the public, despite having a background in Olympic lifting and never really achieving anything as a bodybuilder.
You’re probably wondering why does this guy matter…
Well this guy, Weider, ever the self-promoter, produced the Weider Principles, an encyclopedia of training methods aimed at helping athletes get more out of their workouts. While he did not discover most of these ideas, he was the first to bring them all together to create an all-encompassing training guidebook.
In this article, we’ll look at one of the most effective Weider Principle and Training Method a.k.a. Split-System Training.
Split Training Method
Bodybuilders in the pre-1940s primarily used full-body workouts and exercised three times per week. As a result, they only had time for one set of each exercise. Weider believed that this was insufficient volume for optimal muscular growth.
Weider encouraged that bodybuilders train different muscles on separate days to accommodate his multi-set method. This was dubbed the Split Training Method by him. Split training is the most popular approach to organizing your exercises nowadays, and practically every bodybuilder follows it.
Bro splits, in general, entail performing a high number of sets and reps in each session, leaving the target muscle part swollen, sore, and pumped, which is one of the reasons they’re so popular.
Workout splits provide professional bodybuilders with a plan for achieving a specific goal. Splits are important for more than just mental clarity; they’ve also been shown to produce results. According to a study of 127 competitive bodybuilders, every single one of them followed a workout split.
That’s because the importance of sticking to a routine has been emphasized in bodybuilding since the beginning. Their many hours at the gym would be in vain if they didn’t have a plan. Developing a split allows them to target a small number of muscles, exhaust them, and then recover and prepare for the next session. They can train with maximal effort because of this calculated strategy.
Is Bro Split Method Effective for Pro Bodybuilders?
Because of its promotion in bodybuilding magazines and video shoots, bro splits became the most popular training method. And just like that, everyone was soon doing a bro split.
Then the bros arrived. You know, the bros that only work out their chest and arms and ignore their legs, and these bros naturally gravitated into bro splits. They wouldn’t do a program that required you to work out your legs twice or three times per week.
It became the standard to see these guys doing the bro splits. And the hardcore strength training world began to think of bro splits as a terrible thing. This became a popular training method that often gets a lot of flak, but it’s actually a pretty effective way to plan your workouts. It has been used by bodybuilders for over 50 years, so it’s safe to assume it works.
The bro split, also known as a body part split, entails training 4-5 times a week and dedicating one session to 1-2 muscle groups. Muscle groups are typically trained once a week with moderate to high volume. Per muscle group, several exercises are performed to train it from diverse aspects.
So Why Do Bro Splits Have Bad Reputation?
The main argument against bro splits is that they are set up in such a way that each body part can only be targeted once each week. And, due to Dr. Brad Schoenfeld, we now know that at least twice a week is the best exercise frequency for optimum muscle growth (for most major body parts). Many complex actions indirectly target other muscles in the body, which is ignored when this information is overgeneralized.
When creating a body part workout split, it’s crucial to think about exercise selection on each specific body part-day and how this might account for total training volume based on the overlap. The human body is rarely trained in isolation; practically every movement you can think of involves another muscle group in some way.
Compound movements target many body parts, which is why they’re called a compound. Even though chest day is meant to focus on the chest, you’ll also be training your shoulders, arms, and back delts. Rows and deadlifts, on the other hand, work more than simply your back muscles. As a result, we can’t exclude the possibility that bro splits work more like frequency training than we’ve been led to believe.
Let’s take a look at the lat pull down or pull up, for example. This vertical pull movement pattern is commonly thought of as a back workout that primarily targets the lats. And it is, with an emphasis on the word “primary.” They do, however, indirectly target the biceps. Both movements involve a certain amount of shoulder extension, which will engage the deltoids as well as the pecs and even the triceps. The back day has now evolved into back, bicep, shoulder, chest, and tricep day.
What we can conclude from all of the above is that each muscle group can be targeted multiple times per week with a well-designed body part split – the shoulders, for example, could be targeted directly and indirectly 4-5 times per week. Incorporating a direct volume for sluggish body parts may be necessary depending on individual goals.
What Are The Benefits Of Bro Splits For Pro Bodybuilders?
Bodybuilders prefer a bro split because it allows them to train muscles more frequently, resulting in faster growth. This training approach resulted in the most hypertrophy when compared to other training regimens, according to a study published in the journal Sports Medicine.
In comparison to other workout splits, targeting a muscle two times per week led to greater muscle thickness and overall body composition.
Main benefits:
- Bro splits are really simple to follow, so bodybuilders will be able to exercise every day in a more fresh and healed state.
- They are able to completely exhaust muscle groups as a result of this.
- Working a specific muscle group rather than dividing their focus across a few is more enjoyable.
- It’s a superior method for targeting certain muscle groups.
- Their session may be shorter or longer depending on the frequency. As a result, instead of cramming in a lot of volumes, they may spread it out over multiple sessions per week, lowering the risk of overtraining.
The entire goal of bro splits, as well as its most significant advantage, is to intensely and deeply train muscles. Bodybuilders can’t hit a muscle any harder than exhaustion, and this split is designed to achieve just that.
As you should know by now, a body adapts to the stressors applied to it. When you make a muscle move weight, it responds by becoming bigger and stronger. Your body does not need to adjust if you keep the stressor at the same level; it merely maintains its capacities to serve that static stress. By putting each individual muscle to work for an entire workout and hitting it hard and deep, the Bro Split keeps you from hitting a plateau.
The Bro Split ensures that bodybuilders get an opportunity to apply plenty of new tension to a muscle by wearing it out completely, which is exactly what they need to get a result.
Cons Of Bro Splits For Pro Bodybuilders:
- A missed workout can toss your entire training week off
- Severe muscle soreness after exercise
Basically, – If you miss a workout, you miss your one chance to target and build that muscle area. This will throw off the balance of your entire training week, and if you miss the same session more than a few times, it may have an impact on your body as well. With the bro split, it’s difficult to make up lost exercises.
Also, bro split workouts can leave you feeling quite sore. The bro split is characterized by a high volume of activity mixed with infrequent workouts, resulting in delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS).
To Conclude
As you can see, there are more benefits to bro splits than downsides. Professional bodybuilders use this method because IT WORKS. It results in most hypertrophy and that’s possibly the main goal for pro bodybuilders.
Without spending hours in the gym, they achieve superior results in less time through strength training using compound exercises. These exercises are time-saving and effective muscle builders. Remember, these men are pros, and if anyone knows how to build a body successfully, it’s them. So, take their lead and work smarter, not harder.
