Men keep correcting my training plan - can you confirm?

[BrightLightsAndSound]

Newbie here!

The guys at my gym keep trying to get me to break my training down into specialised days: back day, shoulder and pecs day, you get the idea.

I tried it that way but i actually found i got better results by simply doing:
Upper body day
Lower body day
Rest day
Upper body day
Lower body day
Weekend rest

Doing this upper/lower split means im working the muscles twice a week rather than once. It may be less targeted but considering im a lanky newbie, I feel I need to hit the muscles twice in the week to see growth.

But the guys at the gym are telling me this is a really bad way of training and I should be doing each day given over to a muscle group.

Can you advise? I'm getting confused with all the different opinions/advice.

The thing is these guys are all mountains of muscle so it seems like I should listen to them.

At the same time, I'm a woman, and I'm a skinny woman with little muscle naturally, so maybe their advice doesnt necessarily apply?!

Your gym will have a pt who can advise you.

I never train like that- I do a bit of everything each time I go.

Warm up
20 mins on rower
Weights- whole body
Ab blast
Stretches

Hi OP, I have done both (sort of) and am now doing separate muscles each day. I often train with a man. I have read (and my experience bears this out) that women recover faster because we tend to have smaller muscles and recruit them less efficiently. So a mix may work for you whereas it wouldn't for a man? However, as you get more experienced it may be harder to fit everything in on upper body day and it is important to keep the balance between the different muscles. I am relatively new to this but I think the more experienced/stronger women at my gym train separate muscles groups each day.

The 'bro splits' are a bit of a fallacy - doesn't actually make much difference. If you can make your workouts more efficient the way you are then I think you're on to a winner.

Follow James Smith on Instagram - he's an online personal trainer and has done a few videos on bro splits

Do what works for you and ignore random men who decide to impart their "wisdom" at you? As with all the other parts of life where this happens

I do the same as you OP, with the same pattern. I feel I should move on to bro splits but unsure. I use dumb bells and barbells and like working out this way. I'm not into body building per se, just want to be fit and ward off osteoporosis

Tell him to leave you alone. There's nothing wrong with your split

I have always understood if you are doing weight training for muscle gain it should be done in major muscle groups I always did:
Back and biceps
Shoulders and traps
Legs and abs
Chest and triceps
I trained with my DH before baby came along and that's what we did.

Why do men do this?

What are your goals OP?

Generally, frequency is better than volume for beginners - e.g. you're better benching several times a week than having one day where you do a million different pec flyes from different angles etc. Worry about the little muscles once you've actually got some size/development.

A lot of split routines are inefficient for beginners and were popularised in the 70-80s by bodybuilders on boatloads of steroids (before this it was often 5x5 type full body routines). For the natural trainee, hitting each body part once a week isn't ideal.

A good progression would be full body 3x a week, then move to an upper/lower or push/pull/legs routine. You may never need to do a 'bro split' but if you do it's only really necessary when you've developed to the extent much that you can't focus enough on each muscle group in one day.

I'm by no means an expert but I used to be really skinny and weak until three years ago. Now I can deadlift 180kg for 3x5 and squat 140 so it's worked for me.

Seems like a sensible programme for beginners .... especially if you are doing mainly compound exercises.....

Sounds like when men try to tell you how to park

Just say cool story bro...

This is why I go to a women’s only gym. Can’t be doing with that nonsense