🏋️ the best workout splits for your goals

No, we won't judge you for how many chocolate bunnies and Peeps you ate over the weekend. In the spirit of the Masters, let's just all grant ourselves a mulligan.

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Choosing the right workout split is absolutely vital to meet your goals. We're breaking down the best ones depending on what you want to accomplish.

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently posted a video of himself hitting some impressive Bulgarian split squats. Here's why you should follow his lead and put this move in your leg routine.

Chris Bumstead recently went on the record to say he'd beat Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime in a bodybuilding contest. It's certainly a hot take — but is it a wrong one?

Training Tips

Split Decision

Whether your goal is to build muscle, get stronger, or become more athletic, you need to know what you’re doing in the gym and why you’re doing it. And an essential step in formulating a thoughtful training plan is choosing the right workout split.

A workout split is how you divide up your workouts throughout the week, either by body region, movement, specific body part, or by lift. This divide-and-conquer approach to exercise allows bodybuilders and general gym-goers to focus their efforts in a way that optimizes results.

​​Instead of just hoping for bigger muscles or more strength, you guarantee it by sticking to a plan proven to work. Workout splits allow you to work smarter and harder, and here’s how to choose the right one.

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Celebrity Workouts

Hitting His Mark

​​Mark Wahlberg takes the phrase “rise and grind” seriously. Like, very seriously. The 51-year-old actor and entertainer recently hit up social media to showcase his dedication to the iron game (and some seriously impressive leg strength) by posting a video of some early-morning Bulgarian split squats.

Single-leg lifts like the Bulgarian split squat may look like a funky bunch of exercises, but they’re extremely potent. When performed properly, the Bulgarian split squat can:

• Build muscle in your quadriceps, glutes, and abdominals.

• Strengthen your core and develop lower-body muscular power.

• Stabilize your joints and improve your bodily coordination.

You don’t have to follow in Wahlberg’s footsteps and work out at 4 a.m. if you don’t want to, but you should probably take a page out of his playbook and give the Bulgarian split squat a go for yourself. Check out our in-depth tutorial below.

Bodybuilding

CBum vs. The Oak

Chris Bumstead is the proud owner of four Classic Physique Olympia titles and touts one of the biggest fan followings in the sport of bodybuilding. But with so much success comes the inevitable comparisons to competitors from past generations — more specifically, to the legendary Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Bumstead stands around 6’1″ and weighs approximately 240 pounds when on stage; impressively, those measurables are nearly identical to Schwarzenegger when he competed throughout the ‘70s. That’s led to countless debates among fans — and right here on BarBend — about who would win a pose-off between these two.

In an interview on The Full Send Podcast, Bumstead weighed in on who the judges would pick if the two went head-to-head. Check out the YouTube video below for the entire interview.

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Everything Else

Thrust Alternatives

• When it comes to growing your glutes, you have quite a few options beyond the hip thrust. Try one of these alternatives during your next leg workout.

• Before his recent WrestleMania main event, WWE Superstar Cody Rhodes took fellow grappler Sheamus through a full-body superset workout. Follow along here.

• Looking for a protein bar that packs a nutritional punch while also tasting good? We’ve got options for you to try.

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The Results Are In!

Baena's Bodybuilding Chances

In the April 3, 2023, edition of The BarBend Newsletter, we asked you whether or not Joseph Baena — Arnold Schwarzenegger's son — will ever compete as a professional bodybuilder. Here's how you voted:

1. No (60.6%)

2. Yes (27.7%)

3. Undecided (11.7%)