My Weekly Workout Split
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In this episode of Embrace Your Real, we are going to chat through what my weekly workout split looks like and why I have chosen this split for optimal results.
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 you to focus your efforts in a way that optimizes results. All of this is also science-backed and a split that I have been doing for years. It’s also the workout split I use with my Movement with Julie ladies.
Ready to optimize your weekly workouts? This episode is for you!
Links mentioned in this episode:
Workout app: sale.movementwithjulie.com
If you want more from me, be sure to check out…
Instagram: @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
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Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get hugs, girl. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your podcast. Really excited about today's episode. I get this question so many times throughout a weekly basis, especially on my movement with Julie Pages, and that is first of all, what is your weekly workout split and why do you choose this weekly workout split for optimal results? And so basically, that's exactly what we're going to be talking about in today's episode. What is my weekly workout split? And essentially a workout sweat is just how you divide up your workouts out the week, either by body, region or movement specific movement, body part or left. It's kind of this divide and conquer approach that allows you to focus your efforts in the way that optimizes results. And this is also science backed. And this split that I've been doing for years is one that I am so passionate about and absolutely love. And I know, you know, thousands of other women inside the movement with Julie Apple Love as well. But before I kind of share the why and the why behind my workouts, but I wanted to first share this super Superspreader video comes from Georgia eight gave a five star review and said, Amazing. I can relate when it comes to over exercising and I feel like I need to do better at my workouts at the gym. Your podcast and pages open my eyes for health and is really help keep a steady healthy habit going for months and I have been way happier.
I love that so much. I'm so proud of you and I'm so grateful that this podcast is helping you. If this podcast has helped you in any way, whether it's, you know, the podcast in general or specific episode, I want to know about it. So all you have to do is go to Apple Podcasts, which is on any Apple device. So an iPad, your iPhone, a computer and type in embrace cereal first, make sure you subscribe so that you never miss an episode. And also, I would love for you to leave a reading interview. That section is at the very bottom and it just helps us out and it also helps our team know, you know, what is helping you, what are the episodes, you know, how are they impacting you? Just kind of feedback that way. And then it also helps people who stumble across the podcast, kind of read their views and see if this is a show that is for them. So thank you in advance for doing that. Let's dove into my weekly workout split, kind of the why and the why behind it. So on Monday we have lower body. Now this is always going to include exercises that work my quads, my hamstrings, my glutes are doctors and abductors and sometimes working our calves as well. Now I'm not always doing targeted exercises strictly for one muscle group and then kind of moving on to the next muscle group. That would take a lot of time. So the program that I do and kind of the way that I program my workouts is to include movements that hit 2 to 3 of these muscle groups at a time. So, for example, a curtsy lunge is going to work your quads, your glutes, your doctors.
Sumo squats, on the other hand, are going to work your quads, your glutes, your doctors. Inner thigh muscles and hip thrusts are going to work your glutes and your hamstrings. You know, if you add a band above your knees, it will also work. The Abductors. So with any day of my workouts, whether it's leg day, arm day, you're going to want to kind of start predominantly with focusing on exercises that work your largest muscle groups first and then move on to the smaller muscle groups. So for example, I typically always program more of the compound exercises that are going to require the most energy at the beginning of the workout. Again, these movements may also hit my glutes and inductors, but it's predominantly, you know, quad centric exercise. And I'll start with the big movements like squats, lunges, whatever variation that may be, and then I'll kind of move on to the other larger muscle groups, which would be your hamstrings, your glutes. And then in my workouts, I typically always program some sort of movement that targets the super small muscles. So the abductors and the abductors and then I, I typically always end my leg workouts with a burn out. So a burn out circuit. Now I personally decide to do lower body on Mondays, typically because it's the hardest workout of the week. And Mondays are the days where most of us are fired up for the week and have the most energy to hit our workouts hard. So I know for me, you know, I'm eating good. I might have gone out to eat on the weekend and I have just a ton of energy to get that workout in. I actually release the workouts on Saturdays at 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, so I do know a lot of my girls inside the AB actually do their first workout of the week on Sundays and if that's a case like do what works best for you, I personally don't work out on Sundays.
Sundays is my Sabbath and so I take rest. I spend time with my family, go to church, and all of those things kind of get my head space prepared for the week ahead. So I personally love starting out a week by just crushing lower body, but totally up to you. That's just kind of why I have programed lower body to be the first workout of the week. Now moving on to Tuesday, it's upper body. So since I've worked my lower body pretty hard on Monday, I'm not going to show up to my workout thinking I'm going to do legs again on Tuesday. My legs need a break. They need time to recover, rebuild and grow because muscle growth and fat burn happens between your workouts during the time that you are resting. Let me say that again. Muscle growth and fat burn happens in between your workouts during the time that you are resting. So. You showed up to your workout to do more movements that required legs, you would be breaking down your muscles more, which is going to be super counterproductive to what you're trying to achieve. So that's why on Tuesdays I do upper body days. Now these workouts will focus on back chest, biceps and triceps. Now you'll notice I didn't say shoulders, and you'll find out why in a little bit. But with these workouts, I typically program a superset to begin with that's either back biceps, triceps or chest or some sort of combination with any of those muscle groups. Keep in mind, although I don't program shoulder specific work into my upper body days on Tuesday. Back and chest movements do require some shoulder work, so you aren't completely neglecting them within your upper body workout on Tuesdays.
Now I typically always do some sort of burn set that includes two or three exercises that target the same muscle, just different parts to fatigue that muscle. So it could be like a bicep burn set or it could be a tricep burn set or a chest burn set or back burn set. So that's kind of how I structure my upper body. I do the burn set and then I go into some sort of super set and or a giant circuit at the end that kind of incorporates pulling, pushing movements, you know, really making sure that you're targeting all of your biceps, your triceps, your chest in your back. Now, many people think that you can effectively work your back when it comes to working out at home with dumbbells. This is the number one thing that I get. People say like, I'm totally down to do demo workouts, but how am I going to target my back at home? And you absolutely can actually just recently shared some videos of dumbbell only back exercises that I do regularly on both my @movementwithjulie Instagram as well as my @movementwithjulie Tiktok. And so you can check those out, but there are tons of different variations of exercises that you can do to target your back. And I'm telling you, if you workout strictly at home with a pair of dumbbells and you'll know why, I recommend resistance bands in a second. You can absolutely strengthen your back like 100%. There are tons of different types of variation. For example, even just the back row in general, you have the neutral grip, you have the wide grip, you have the reverse grip. Each one of those movements will slightly target a different part of the back.
You also can add in like an incline bench. So sitting opposite of the incline, kind of in a decline movement and doing a neutral grip or a wide grip or a reverse grip. Backrow you could do guerilla style, like the list goes on and on, reverse back slides. Those are great for the rear delts. Obviously you're going to be targeting some of that shoulder as well. And then there's tons of good ones like prisoner style back extension to get that lower back. And then there are tons of bodyweight exercises that can target your lats. Some of them that I regularly program into my upper body days are snow angels w extension. I mean, the list keeps going on and on back extension, which you could use with holding a resistance band or even holding like a towel. And you are basically you're laying on the ground with your belly down on the ground and your arms are up above. You're holding that towel or that resistance band like you would kind of that lat pull down movement and then you're just pulling down. So kind of hard to explain over a podcast, but I've done tons of different videos on my pages that have those types of movements. One thing, though, I will say is that investing in a pair of resistance bands with interchangeable handles as well as a door anchor is 100% a total game changer because you will actually be able to mimic the movements that you could do at the gym, such as lat cable, pull down single hand, double hand, neutral grip. I mean, there's tons of different variations as well, seated back rows, back flys, all of those things. And you can do all of that with the Resistance Band, like the Resistance Band set that I use and recommend to everybody inside.
My group is on Amazon, it's 22 bucks. It comes with a whole set of resistance bands. The handles are not glued on and that's key because you're also can use those resistance bands for tons of other movements, such as tricep push downs. You could do bicep curls, you could do rear delt flys. Like there are tons of different again, just movements that you can do with the resistance band. You could even do cable glute kickbacks and all of those, but that's only if you get the resistance bands that don't have the handles glued to it simply because you have so much more variation there. Now moving on to Wednesday is cardio on course. So by this point in the week, I have worked my entire body for the most part. So my muscles typically need a break from resistance training if I want to avoid overtraining to ensure that I'm just seeing optimal results and giving my body rest. So that's why I do cardio in choir on Wednesdays. Now, if there's a day of workouts that I need to set for the week, let's say I can only commit to four days a week instead of five days a week. This is typically the one that I would omit. Now, if you listen to my podcast episode last week on why I stopped doing cardio only workouts, you'll know, and I actually mentioned that you could never do cardio a day in your life and resistance training exclusively and still see amazing results. And that's something I. Wish I would have known like years ago, because I spent so much time and so much energy on the dang cardio machines, but I personally like doing a little bit of cardio. So whether that's doing a cycle, whether that's going out on a hike with my dogs, whether that's going for a run on my chad or outside here and there.
I like I mentioned in that episode, which I will link at the end of this podcast, I also link it in the show. I typically do 1 to 2 sessions of cardio, which is high, intense interval training per week, and that's about, you know, 15 to 20 minutes max, like I like short and effective cardio workouts. And then when it comes to getting my steps in, I typically try to get anywhere from 7500 to 10000 steps a day. We always commit to walking our dogs at least once, if not twice a day, which is typically 1 to 2 miles, and then just being active because the majority of my day, even though I am a fitness instructor, the majority of my day actually is very sedentary because I'm sitting at the computer, whether I'm, you know, programing a new week of workouts or I'm talking and chatting with you guys or I'm creating content like, you know, editing and all of those things that's very sedentary. So I try to just, you know, overall maintain a very healthy lifestyle when it comes to getting my steps in. But just know that if your goals are strictly to build and or maintain muscle and you do not like cardio, then resistance training is truly all that you need. Also, I do want to state that core isn't 100% necessary. I personally like doing core workouts. I know that it makes my core stronger and it really helps me to perform all of my other movements with greater ease. When I do have a strong core, it can also help me out in so many other areas, just my day to day life. But if you are using correct form and all of your other resistance training movements, you should be bracing and working your core muscles as well.
So strength aside, a lot of what's going on to the midsection and really strengthening your core really does come down to first nourishing your body. And I know that sounds kind of counterintuitive, but you guys have all heard the saying, ABS are made in the kitchen. It's truly it's it's true that nutrition plays, you know, 85 to 95% of what the results are that you're going to see with strength in your core. And then obviously making sure that you're having that correct form in your resistance training movements throughout the week. I personally though do like having a strong core because it can help with better balance stability and to me those things are very important. And then also I do understand I have a lot of women inside the movement with Julia that are either looking to have kids in the future or already have kids. They've gone through a pregnancy. It's really important to focus on embracing that core strength and then that core with the deep core movements. And those can be very beneficial, especially for healing when it comes to postpartum. And even prior to having kids really focusing on that strong core can really help you tremendously throughout your pregnancy. So that is my Wednesday's cardio and core. Now moving on to Thursdays, we do shoulders and glutes. Now I have an entire dedicated day to these two muscle groups simply because I have found most women desire stronger shoulders and bigger slash more defined glutes. So on Thursdays we give them a little bit more TLC. This is a hands down, one of my favorite workouts of the week. I absolutely love the split of shoulders and glutes. Like I just feel strong as heck every time I finish this workout.
Now I want to say it is okay to work your shoulders and glutes again because we haven't touched them since Monday and Tuesday. And so they've had that full 24 hours to recover. Now, if you're nourishing your body properly, you're hydrating and you're sleeping enough. 24 hours can be a sweet spot for recovery. Now, by having a dedicated day to shoulders and glutes, it really allows me to target them better. So going back to Monday's leg workout, I said even though squats were predominantly quads, it still does require some of my glutes to be target in. And then the same way with lunges. So by the time that I get to working my glutes, they are going to be quite fatigued and kind of the same like with shoulders going back to Tuesday's upper body workout. So I said that back and chest exercises will both target some of the shoulders. So again, after doing back and then chest because they are the two muscle groups that I target in my upper body as well as biceps and triceps. But time I would get to my shoulders, they would be quite fatigued. And also I notice that if I were to add in some adequate amount of shoulder exercises into the upper body, it would just be a lot longer of a workout. And my workouts are very efficient. They're very effective in and out. You know, a the full workout will take you anywhere from 45 to 55 minutes. I know that it's just not sustainable for people to have, you know, an hour and 32 or two hour long workouts. And so that's another reason why I add the shoulders into a separate day along with glutes. So by having a separate day where I can really focus on them allows me to have the other workouts be a little bit quicker. [00:15:22][91.8]
[00:15:23] And I personally in this workout. Can really burn out my glutes and shoulders exclusively on top of also working them a little bit early in the week. So again, that is kind of why I choose the shoulders and glutes split on Thursdays. I personally love this. I think it is a fan favorite. Like every time Thursday rolls around I just hear the girls and I see their faces like gleaming. They feel so strong. They love, you know, lifting heavy in their glutes and also like burning out their shoulders. There is nothing like a good shoulder burnout. And honestly, it took me a few years, like the first few years of getting into weight lifting. I was so self-conscious of, you know, I was like, I don't want to have bulky arms. And the more and more I got into resistance training and just felt what it felt like to feel strong not only in the like in my workouts, but also throughout my life, like doing the day to day things, like being able to pick up something and not ask for help for something because I'm able to pick it up and just not feeling as fatigued throughout the day. There is nothing like just feeling strong. So Shoulders includes on Thursdays and moving on to Fridays, which is full body. So if you're really wanting to focus on growing your muscles and only have about three times to commit to resistance training full body is the one that I would skip simply because you truly target all of your muscles by completing lower body, upper body and shoulders and glutes. Keeping in mind that there should be a 24 hour rest between each workout. So if you're doing like a three day split, I would recommend doing Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or I've also seen women do Monday, Thursday, Saturday, or I've also seen women do Monday, Thursday, Saturday really depends on what works best for you and what you can commit to.
Now, if you could only lift four times a week, I would suggest doing lower upper cardio and core and either shoulders and glutes or full body. Again, this kind of goes back to your preference and depending on your goals, simply because when it comes to the glutes and the shoulders, you are going to be working them in your lower and upper body workouts and then also in full body. I always do some shoulder and glute exercises as well, not as much, simply because in your full body workouts you're not really going to be training your glutes and your shoulders to fatigue, which is why it's okay that the full body workout is the day after shoulders and glutes. But that is just kind of again up to you if you're doing four times a week lower upper cardio and core and either shoulders and glutes or full body, depending on what you prefer. On the other hand, if you only have one day to work out, this is the workout that you should be doing. You do not want to be skipping, you know, hitting any muscle groups in a week. So it's going to be a lot more productive to do total body, if you can, only resistance training one time a week than it would to just do like an upper only or lower body only. So if you can only train one time a week, full body is what is for you. Now full body isn't going to be like a bunch of different isolated movements. It's going to be made up of a bunch of different compound movements that work your entire body at once. So for example, there's a chest press with Glute Bridge. We have a deadlift with a row or we have, you know, a lunge with a bicep curl.
All of those are compound movements. And as they combine, you know, an upper body movement with a lower body movement and you actually burn more calories when doing compound movements because you're activating more muscles and recruiting more muscle fibers. So it's a great you know, it's great for longevity as it does improve the entire muscle coordination. It's also a great way to get your heart rate elevated and it obviously helps increase your muscle mass as well. So just keep that in mind with full body days, they're typically not the days where you're going to be pushing weight super heavy simply because you're activating more muscle fibers. So for example, you might be able to go heavier for a row, but if it's combined with a curl, you likely can't get the same amount of weight for the curl as you can there row. So opt for lighter weights and then just really focus on activating the muscles. And I have found when I'm doing, you know, lighter weight, I'm also able to do more wrap. So it's typically going to be like a higher rep day, especially on those movements that have arm wraps where it's as many reps as possible in a minute. Obviously, you still want to make sure you're maintaining proper form, but just simply due to the fact that the dumbbells that you're using are typically lighter, I typically get more reps in. So there you have it. Those are my that's my weekly workout split. This is exactly how I program things inside my movement. Julie Julia Now if you're already inside the app, now you have a better understanding as to why you do the movements that you're doing and on the days that you're doing them if you aren't inside the movement.
Julie App I make of all of it super simple. Like you don't have to worry about any of the technical details. I do all of that for you. All you have to do is show up and follow the workout and know that it's programed correctly for optimal results. Now if you want to learn more and join, you can get instant access to the movement with Julie app by going to sale. That’s sales.movementwithjulie.com, I will add that in this show notes below. You can also follow @movementwithjulie on Instagram or @movementwithjulie on TikTok. I always post, you know, reels with different dumbbell exercises and encouragement, their educational tips, all of those things. Now I want to end by saying one last. Thing. I'm not the type of person that says I had a, quote, bad week if I didn't get all five workouts in. Yes, ideally, I always feel my best if I workout, you know, five days a week. But some weeks, that's just not going to happen. Maybe I'm on my period. I have super bad cramps. Maybe I'm traveling, which is going to be me next week. I'm going to be traveling to California. And in that case, like, I'm just going to stay active. I'm going to have fun with my family. We're going to be at Lake Arrowhead, and I'm going to do what I can with what I have to give and let that be enough. So please, please, please know that if you are nourishing your body optimally, it is okay. It is okay. If you only get one, two or three workouts in, that is okay. Do what you can with what you have to give each day. Give yourself some grace.
There's going to be some weeks like that and that is totally fine. Now if you want to learn more about the workout splits and kind of what I would recommend, if you're only working out 2 to 3 days a week, I'm going to highly recommend that you tune in to Episode 233 Resistance Training versus Endurance Training what your weekly workout schedule should look like. I really go in depth there and that will give you a ton more information, just in depth as to what you can do with what you have to give. So I hope that this was educational. I hope that this gave you some good insight as to why I do what I do in terms of my workout split. Maybe it gave you some inspiration to create your own workout split. I would love, love, love to see that. I would also love to see you inside the group. We love working out together inside the movement. Julie App It is an amazing app. You know, five training workouts every single week delivered straight to your phone they release on Saturdays at 12 p.m. Mountain Standard Time, and there are thousands of women in there that are all working to better themselves through dumbbell only workouts. And it's just an incredible group so head over to sale that's Sally Dot movement with Julie dot com. Also tune in to episode 233 Resistance Training versus Endurance Training. What your weekly training schedule should look like. That is all that I have for today's episode. Thank you so much for tuning in and I'll talk to you in the next one. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so, Julie.
A lot better. Yes. It's with an eye in the middle for that Daily Post workout. Real time healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember, that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.