The Best 5 Day Split Weekly Workout Routine for Muscle Growth

There are lots of factors that go into bulking, cutting, or just trying to get fitter. However, one of the most important factors is your schedule. I get that you want to target the muscles that you want to target, but it is very important to work your whole body over a course of time.

When you try to target the same muscles every day, it becomes almost impossible to stay consistent due to soreness and muscle fatigue. This is where the legendary 5-day split comes in.

A 5-day split is essentially a 5-day workout routine that targets a different muscle group on your body, every day, repeating this routine every week. This works amazingly because after you target a body part, due to DOMS (delayed-onset muscle soreness), the muscles you work become very sore the next day, and they stay sore for up to 3 or 4 days! I, and many other gym-goers, find that it is incredibly difficult to exercise and even move that muscle group for a couple of days.

The magic of a 5-day split is that you can work out a muscle group, and the next day, while that first muscle group is sore, you can work out the complete opposite muscle, and feel no extra pain at all. The sore muscle can still rest while you work out a new muscle group. Personally, I think that this is one of the best ways to schedule your gym fitness workouts. So, let’s get started with Day 1.

Note: You do not need to follow this schedule in the exact order that it is in, this is just what usually seems to work best for me and lots of other people.

Day 1

Chest and Triceps

The chest is one of the best muscles to work for a muscular physique and strong upper body.

However, it gets easily sore and tired after an intense workout. It is good to target this muscle first because you have the most energy and the least soreness on the first day of the routine.

Good exercises for the chest include all the different variations of the bench press, like the hex dumbbell press, incline press, close grip, etc.

On this day, you should also target and train your triceps. Think of this day as your push day, but without the shoulders.

A lot of chest exercises also target the triceps, like the bench press, machine chest press, and push-ups, so it shouldn’t be difficult to include the triceps on this day, but you should also try isolating the triceps with exercises like tricep extensions, dumbbell kickbacks, pushdowns, and diamond push-ups.

Day 2

Shoulders

This is another push muscle group, but I feel like it is so important and diverse, it should get a day of its own. The shoulders need to be trained in almost every single person out there.

Especially for men, training shoulders is beneficial because it makes the upper body wider and broader while making the waist and hips look tiny in comparison. The Dorito-shaped physique is in high demand, and shoulder exercises have the supply! In women, trained and defined shoulders are also a sign of good health, fitness, and strength.

Therefore everyone must do this workout properly. Training shoulders also makes it easier to perform other exercises like the chest press, and it can also prevent injury to your rotator cuff.

Some of the best exercises for your shoulders/deltoids are frontal raises, the shoulder press, Arnold press, bent over reverse flys, and lateral raises.

Day 3

Legs

Time to give your upper body a break.

On day 3, I’d train my legs nicely and properly. Your legs should not be sore before you train them, making sure that you can perform well on your workout, building lots of muscle. Training your legs has lots of benefits including stronger legs, more endurance, thick and muscular legs, and many more.

Training your legs also just generally promotes muscle growth across the entire body because compound movements like the deadlift and squat all put your body into the muscle-building mode, not to mention that they increase testosterone in men, which promotes fat loss and muscle growth.

On this day, I like to do exercises like the leg press, squats, the deadlift, heavy calf raises, lunges, and leg extensions.

Day 4

Back and Biceps

Now it’s time to pull. This day will be full of pulling exercises as you will be targeting your biceps, forearms, lats, traps, and rhomboids.

This is important to train as it will help you become stronger in all pushing motions, make you look good from behind, and give you a more aesthetically pleasing, triangular physique. On this day, I mainly like to do exercises like pull-ups, chin-ups, rows, different types of bicep curls, shrugs, and lat pulldowns.

These all target the back and biceps, and exercises like pull-ups and chin-ups have the added benefit of training your forearms’ grip strength. So do bicep curls.

Day 5

Core and Cardio

This is your day to shred. You can target the core completely on its own on this day, and while a lot of other exercises on other days also target your abs, it’s necessary to have a stand-alone workout for your abs, obliques, and core.

To target your core, do exercises like weighted sit-ups, V-ups, Russian twists, leg raises, knee drives, bicycle crunches, and any more than you can find.

On this day I also do lots of cardio. It doesn’t hurt to have some cardio before and after every workout, but just like your core, it is beneficial to have a dedicated day to do cardio to make sure that you are keeping your heart healthy, training your legs for endurance, and burning enough calories (if you want to be burning calories at all).

Exercises like jogging, sprinting, biking, and custom HIIT workouts all do the trick.

Another great benefit of this kind of workout routine split is that you can get 2 rest days in between! Enjoy your rest, and your cheat meals! Speaking of which, make sure that your diet is healthy, and it aligns with your fitness goals.

You may be working your butt off in the gym, but see no results, and that can be due to your diet. I hope you hit those goals of yours as fast as possible!

Happy training!