October 8, 2025, 6:18 pm | Read time: 5 minutes
When planning a workout, you must choose between two options: training muscles separately by muscle groups in what’s called a split routine or in a full-body workout. Trainer and FITBOOK expert Alina Bock introduces split training and full-body training, explaining the pros and cons of each method. Plus: Which training variant she recommends and why.
What is Split Training?
The word “split” translates to “division” or “partition” in German and describes a training method where the body is divided into several muscle groups, each targeted on different training days. Depending on time and recovery possibilities, a division into upper and lower body or, with a higher training volume, into push (chest, shoulders, and triceps), pull (back, rear shoulders, and biceps), and legs can be beneficial. These divisions are particularly popular among trainees. However, you can also arrange the division differently based on preference.
Training according to the push/pull principle:
A push workout consists of exercises with pushing movements, such as bench presses, while pull workouts include pulling movements like dumbbell rows.
Advantages of Split Training
With split training, you can focus specifically on one muscle group, which can lead to a stronger muscle stimulus and thus faster progress. The method also ensures complete muscle exhaustion, which is essential for muscle growth.
Split training also provides sufficient recovery for the muscles, as different muscles are trained on different days. The alternating training sessions give the muscles enough time to recover, which is a crucial prerequisite for muscle growth.
Although split training only makes sense with a high frequency of training sessions per week, it saves time in individual sessions. By focusing on just one or two target muscles in a session, the workouts can be significantly shorter yet more intense.
Additionally, you can intensely focus on weak points. Especially in cases of injuries, imbalances, or specific preferences, dividing muscle groups can be helpful for addressing these issues. A targeted activation of the muscles can also be facilitated through split training. This so-called muscle-mind connection is essential for targeting the desired muscle and subsequently for muscle growth.
Also important: Split training is varied and can make the training week diverse. This can support motivation and significantly contribute to training success.
Disadvantages of Split Training
However, there are also disadvantages to be aware of, mostly related to training frequency. A muscle group should experience at least two training stimuli per week. If you train twice a week and divide the training into two sessions with different target groups, it can hinder muscle growth. Therefore, split training is only sensible if the training week consists of three to six sessions.
Frequent training sessions with high intensity can also lead to injuries and especially overtraining. Split training is not suitable for beginners, as their muscles are not accustomed to the intensity and frequency of the sessions. If performance decreases despite training, it’s a sign of overtraining. In this case, you should switch to a less intense and frequent training method.
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What a Full-Body Workout Includes
A full-body workout, as the name suggests, involves training all muscle groups of the body in a single session. This means both the legs and the entire upper body are engaged during a workout.
Advantages of Full-Body Training
As mentioned with the disadvantages of split training, the pros and cons are related to training frequency. A full-body workout offers the advantage of engaging the muscles in such a way that the conditions for muscle building regarding recovery and training stimulus are ideally aligned when training two to three times a week. This significantly reduces the likelihood of overtraining and thus a decrease in training success.
While a full-body workout may require more time per session, it is less time-consuming over the week. Fewer sessions per week are needed compared to split training.
Furthermore, a full-body workout enhances coordination by performing exercises that train the entire body. Specifically, the collaboration of different muscles in the body promotes intermuscular coordination, leading to increased stability, balance, and back health, to name a few. However, this requires that the training includes both coordination and full-body exercises.
A comprehensive full-body workout also results in high calorie consumption, making it ideal for those looking to lose weight.
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Disadvantages of Full-Body Training
Those who engage in full-body training need to allocate more time per session. Even though it requires fewer sessions per week, each session is time-intensive. Additionally, the intensity with which the muscles are stimulated is lower. While the trainee determines the training intensity and can make the workout challenging, the number of exercises and sets is still lower than in split training, making it harder to create muscle stimuli.
Another downside: In full-body training, it’s harder to focus on weak points. Training all muscle groups can make addressing weak spots, imbalances, and injuries challenging.
Is Split Training or Full-Body Training More Sensible?
To determine whether full-body or split training is more sensible, certain prerequisites must be examined.
If you’re a beginner, a full-body workout is the right choice. It allows the body to get used to strength training, learn movement patterns, and avoid being overwhelmed. For more advanced trainees, factors like time and age must be considered. The older the person, the longer the recovery process. Factors like sleep, nutrition, and stress management also significantly impact recovery phases. This means that optimizing these factors can positively influence recovery.
If you have two to three sessions available per week, you should definitely opt for a full-body training plan. If more sessions per week can or should be performed, or if you want to focus on specific muscle groups or weak points, dividing into multiple muscle groups is advisable.