ON “BRO SPLITS”

I, to the shock of absolutely none of my regular readers, am a total curmudgeon and pedant and, in turn, hate the majority of language that is employed by trainees when it comes to the topic of getting bigger and stronger.  Primarily because the language employed tends to oversimplify things to the point that it drives people to incorrect conclusions which is then perpetuated by inexperienced and otherwise ignorant (in the literal definition of the term) trainees.  I’ve rallied against “bulking”, “cutting”, “IIFYM”, and hell, even the idea of “strength” is honestly pretty nebulous when you start drilling down into it.  So it should, again, shock absolutely no one that I totally loathe the term “bro split”, as it is a recently adopted term employed derisively to describe a manner of training that has worked for DECADES up until the internet only recently decided that it no longer works.  As is often the case, people are attempting to weaponized language, and it’s resulting in a lot of people overlooking a whole slew of viable training options in order to achieve their goals.

 
Let's take a moment to consider that Arnold got so goddamn big from using bro science that he had to LOSE muscle to play Conan...

If, you are fortunate enough to not know what it is that the internet deems to be a “bro split”, allow me to define it for today’s purposes: it is a training split for lifting that has the trainee focus on 1 muscle group/body part per training day, resulting in once a week frequency for a muscle group.  There’s billions of examples out there, but something simple could be “Monday-Chest (naturally), Tuesday-Back, Wednesday-Shoulders, Thursday-Legs, Friday-Arms”.  For some reason, people that design bro splits don’t train on weekends, I don’t know why.  And also, I’d hate to put a barbell on my back to squat the day after training shoulders, but whatever, you get the point.  I feel weird having to write this all out, because when I was growing up, this was simply THE way people trained: you had an arm day, a leg day, a shoulder day, etc, but with the explosion of the internet and lifting based media, this method of training is going the way of the dinosaurs…unless, of course, you are paying attention at your local gym and watching how any of the big dudes train.

 

Which is kinda the point here: this type of training works.  It’s why it was deemed “bro split” by those trying to mock it: it’s the split USED by “bros”.  The same bros that employ bro science that ALSO works: even if it doesn’t make sense or conform to current scientific research.  Primarily because, as we’ve observed time and time again, commitment to a non-optimal method with skull splitting intensity and dedication over a long period of time trumps a weak willed attempt to train optimally in 100% of all instances.  The dudes that are focused on busting their butts day in and day out in the gym, absolutely killing their worksets and chasing stupidly high protein intakes are getting results that the kids following their perfectly and precisely prescribed 3x a week frequency for the whole body can only dream of.  Must be steroids and genetics, right?

Couldn't possibly be from doing squats once every 14 days...

 

Hey: here’s a dirty little secret about bro splits: they DO train the muscle groups more than once a week.  Yet again: people get so stupid about looking at programs on paper they forget you have to actually run them for them to make sense.  Just like how people say you don’t need 10x10 to get results and don’t understand the complete and total transformation of the SELF that occurs when you run Deep Water, if you actually ran a bro split vs just looked at the words “Chest, Arms, Back”, you’d get how it makes sense.  Unless you have rigged up a way to train that ONLY uses isolation exercises, training ONE muscle group is going to necessarily result in the training of OTHER muscle groups.

 

It’s Monday: chest day.  You start off with flat bench (of course).  Hey, doesn’t that train the chest AND the front delts?  Why, I do believe it even requires the triceps to come into play too.  And then we do some incline benching?  Holy cow: even more front delt work.  That’s so weird.  And we could round it out with some decline benching, which calls in some triceps, OR, since everyone knows decline bench is silly and weighted parallel bar dips are better, we do those: which hammer our triceps.  Finish up with some flyes: those are just for chest, sure (although they can make my delts ache).  We do back day tomorrow: why do my biceps get such a pump on back day?  Weird.   Also, my rear delts are burning from all the rows.  Hey, are the rear delts shoulders or back anyway?  I mean, they’re ON my back.  Might as well do some band pull aparts.  And then I have shoulder day after that?  Lets do some overhead pressing: there go my triceps again.  The same triceps I’ll train with some close grip benching on arms day: which hits my chest.

God forbid we do anything like this on the split

 

About the only muscle group you can argue doesn’t get trained 2-3 times a week are the legs, which, given this is a bro split, fits the narrative.  HOWEVER, there’s a few things to keep in mind here.  1: if you’re only training the legs once a week, this means you can train them with the craziest, most stupidest amount of volume and intensity you can possibly manage, because you have 6 full days to recover.  Think about what you saw get done in “Pumping Iron”: squat till you drop, then chase it with some leg press stripsets and all other manner of burnouts.  2: for you more athletically inclined individuals, this means you can get in more leg training via your conditioning.  The prowler and sled are king here, but if you’re doing a bunch of explosive jumping and moving through some actual sports, that’s great stuff too (dear me: did we just go conjugate by having a day for dynamic effort stuff AND a day for heavy stuff?  Those crazy bros).  Might be a great time to try some strongman stuff too.

 

I write all of this because, yesterday, it dawned on me that my training is a 4 day a week bro split.  I have a chest day, a back day, a shoulder day and a leg day.  It boils down to a day focused on benching, a day focused on deadlifts with a bunch of back work for supplemental/assistance work, a day focused on pressing overhead and a day focused on squats.  Outside of the lifting, I have conditioning work that hammers various parts of the body, depending on what needs focus.  The only “cheat” here is that, even though I have a day dedicated to training the back, I also train the back every single time I lift, and frequently go through periods of engaging in at least 1 daily set of chins, primarily because a big strong back is awesome and never goes out of style.  I don’t have an arm day, and just do 1 set of Poundstone curls on my bench day, because my biceps are getting trained with all the back work and my triceps with all the pressing and benching work. 

And when you do it right, one set is enough

 

This style of training works.  If you want to brave your own, give it a go.  Come up with something brutally heavy and stupid for your leg day, train your back every time you’re in the gym, and go nuts on one bodypart per day.  Grow big and go kick some sand in the face of people reading training studies at the beach.