3 Day Vs 5 Day Split: Pros/Cons Of Each?

[Vanchatron]

I've been training now for around 6 years am have mostly trained using 3-4 day splits, but I've never really used a 5 day split. Having watched the way the Pros train, around 95% of them use a 5 day split training a single body part each day. Now obviously I'm not gonna go ahead & copy the Pros exactly, but there must be a reason why the vast majority of them do 5 day splits as opposed to 3-4 day splits, and I was just wondering why.

The only reason I could think of for using a 5 day split, would be if you wanted to train a particular muscle TWICE per week as opposed to just once, but having spent the past few hours reading up on people's 5 day splits & the 5 day splits the Pros use (again, not copying them, just observing) they tend to just train a single body part each day, once per week (as opposed to twice), which looks something like the following.

Typical 5 Day Split:

Mon - Chest
Tue - Back
Wed - Legs
Thu - Shoulders
Fri - Arms

As opposed to...

Typical 3 Day Split:

Mon - Chest/Triceps
Wed - Legs/Shoulders
Fri - Back/Biceps


Surely Arms & shoulders don't need their own days & can be coupled longside the bigger muscle groups as shown in the 3 day split, but these 5 day splits training a single muscle each day seem to be really popular and I'm just wondering WHY. WHY use a 5 day split as opposed to a 3 day split, if you can spend less time in the gym on a 3 day split? There's got to be a reason why all the Pros etc use them. I don't think I've EVER seen an IFBB Pro's workout which is based on a 3 day split. As I said above, they almost always train using a 5 day split, training one muscle per day. The thing is, having been training now for 6+ years, I've been reading that the advanced trainee benefits MORE from a 5 day split as opposed to a 3 day split (which is why the Pros use it I guess) but I can't see how. How would training 5x a week be any MORE beneficial to growth for an advanced trainee than training just 3x a week?

Also, I'm hearing a lot lately of muscles growing BETTER off training them twice per week as opposed to just once, because apparently they don't need a week to recover, but I really can't see how you can train a muscle twice per week using a typical Split Program.

Anyway, what do you think?

 

[viciousness]

Well you can definitely get each muscle group way better with paying more attention to each specific one on each day, but its really to each his own. everyones body responds different to each split bro, whichever works for you wont work for some of hte pro's probably

 

[lockdownd7]

Keep in mind pro BBer's are also taking thousands of dollars worth of "supplements", and have many years of experience. If you're not them, you can't do their workout.

Your question is a complicated one. There are other factors that have to be considered before deciding what is optimal at a given time. Here's a couple of articles that explain the topic of frequency vs. recovery in more detail:

Strength vs Size and Optimal Frequency Training | Mind and Muscle
Recovery and the Nervous System | Mind and Muscle

 

[SouthernLord]

3 days a week for me. I use an A B split so I am able to train heavy and each body part is hit twice in every eight day period. This is working great for me. I am getting stronger and adding lbm. Training is fun, but I can personally think of much better things to do than spending all week in the gym.