Split Training vs Whole Body Training.

Most players will often follow a typical bodybuilding protocol where individual muscle groups are trained once per week with very high volume. Unfortunately, while this may work under certain circumstances for bodybuilders, football players cannot afford to adopt this method. Most significantly, this method of training makes it very difficult to integrate training with the demands of improving other elements vital to success in football. For example, many bodybuilders will train back, quadriceps, hamstrings on separate days. This will mean for most of the time players will have insufficient energy to perform their other drills, sprint work etc due to excess muscular fatigue. Furthermore, split training will mean the central nervous system is always under stress from constantly performing high intensity activity leading to impaired recovery and ability to perform other drills outside the gym with the required intensity.

This leaves two options. The first is to adopt a lower/upper body split and the second is to adopt a full body training program. Both options have their advocates. Splitting the body into lower/upper will mean legs get trained twice a week meaning five days are left for rest. By only training legs on those two days, a greater volume of work can be performed on training days compared to a typical whole body approach consisting of hitting the weights on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday basis, where because of the increased frequency and need to train upper body as well, leg training volume would need to be reduced.

Depending on the athlete's needs an upper/lower split is usually more useful for increasing strength and muscle size as many will struggle to maintain the intensity needed for a long, whole body training workout. A sample lower/upper body split would be as follows:

Monday

• Squats 4 x 4-6
• Romanian Deadlifts 4 x 4-6
• Step Ups 2 x 8
• Pullthroughs 2 x 8
• Ab Rollouts 2 x 8

Tuesday

• Incline Bench Press 4 x 4
• Hang Cleans 3 x 3
• Shoulder Press 2 x 6
• Pullups 2 x 6
• Tricep Extensions 2 x 8
• Barbell Curls 2 x 8

Thursday

• Power Cleans 5 x 3
• Snatch Grip Deadlifts 3 x 5
• One Legged Squats 2 x 6
• Glute Ham Raise 2 x 8
• Hanging Leg Raises 2 x 10

Friday

• Close Grip Bench Press 3 x 5
• Pullups 3 x 5
• Incline Dumbbell Press 2 x 8
• Seated Row Machine 2 x 8
• Tricep Extensions 2 x 12
• Dumbbell Curls 2 x 12

 Source: brianmac.co.uk