The Importance of Muscle Group Rotation

Muscle group rotation, aka; ‘training splits’ are by far the most superior approach to building your workout plans. 

The primary benefit of this method is that it allows you to go hard on a Monday, and then you can rest it out as you focus on an entirely different muscle group on the Tuesday.  And so on across the week.

Why does muscle group rotation matter?

Muscle group rotation matters, not only because rest and recovery is essential for muscle growth, but also because over-trained muscles do not perform well and could lead to injury.

While it may feel like you’re building your muscles in the gym, what you’re actually doing is tearing them up. 

Yes.  Literally. 

Muscles are torn in the gym, fed in the kitchen and built in bed.

Now imagine all those tiny little tears working hard to knit themselves back together and then you butt in with another heavy workout forcing them to tear again before they’ve had a chance to recover.

That’s kinda inconsiderate, don’t you think?

If you do this continually, your muscles will thank you by fatiguing and ultimately leading to either an acute or overuse injury.

So in short; if you’re not rotating muscle groups.  Start now.

How does muscle group rotation work

Ultimately, there’s no right or wrong answer to muscle group rotation.  The only thing that matters is that you make sure you do not train heavy on the same muscle group two days in a row.

So how you split your workouts is entirely down to your own personal choice.

Common examples include:

Day 1: Legs

Day 2: Back, shoulders and triceps

Day 3: Chest (boobs) and biceps

Or

Day 1: Upper body

Day 2: Lower body

Or

Day 1: Push exercises

Day 2: Pull exercises

Day 3: Legs

Read more about the push pull legs method here.

And don’t forget to work in your abs and of course cardio!

As you can see from these common examples, different muscle groups are targeted with each workout.

Advanced: Power & Hypertrophy Upper & Lower Split

This method is an upper/lower body split, based on key compound moves as well as some accessory exercises for the primary purpose of building strength and size.

In short, you will split power (strength) workouts (high volume low rep), with hypertrophy (muscle growth) workouts (low volume - high rep).

Your split would look something like this:

Day 1: Upper body power

Day 2: Lower body power

Day 3: Rest

Day 4: Upper body hypertrophy

Day 5: Lower body hypertrophy

Muscle group rotation workout plans

If you’re going it alone, you’ll need to have (at the very least) a basic understanding of which exercises target each muscle group.  Without this knowledge you won’t be able to build a suitable workout plan, much less a weeks’ worth to rotate.

Don’t worry if you’re unsure, just take the time to teach yourself.  Start by checking out our exercises database, and if you’re still not sure you can use our pre-built workout plans.