Minimal but Ruthless Upper Lower Split Workout

I was challenged to write a minimalist workout. So I asked myself,

Self: How would you train if you wanted to go low volume? How would you build muscle using only a handful of sets each training day?

Good question. Here is what I came up with.

1. Attack each muscle group with lower volume but greater frequency.
2. Use a taxing exercise for each major muscle group.
3. Find a way to increase the intensity (challenge) of each set. I decided to superset the second effort of each big exercise with a timed set (block set) using an isolation exercise.

You can perform this upper lower split either three or four days per week. Here are the sample schedules.

4 Day Upper Lower Split

• Day 1 - Lower Body A
• Day 2 - Upper Body A
• Day 3 - Off
• Day 4 - Lower Body B
• Day 5 - Upper Body B
• Day 6 - Off
• Day 7 - Off

3 Day Upper Lower Split Week One

• Day 1 - Lower Body A
• Day 2 - Off
• Day 3 - Upper Body A
• Day 4 - Off
• Day 5 - Lower Body B
• Day 6 - Off
• Day 7 - Upper Body B

3 Day Upper Lower Split Week Two

• Day 1 - Off
• Day 2 - Lower Body A
• Day 3 - Off
• Day 4 - Upper Body A
• Day 5 - Off
• Day 6 - Lower Body B
• Day 7 - Off

...Continue with this training day progression.

Progression of weight is king. Add a small amount of weight to each exercise when it makes sense. Don't stagnate.

For each movement, use the same weight for both sets. When you can reach the stated number of reps without being close to failure, add weight. For the superset exercise, add weight when the 3 minute window feels somewhat manageable.

Strength gains will propel the muscle building process, especially in concert with the intense nature of this program.

Note: Only use the supersetted exercise following the second set for a given body part.