With split routines, some body parts are worked on some days, while others are worked on other days. Therefore, some muscle groups rest while others work, and the working and resting times rotate. Serious strength-trainers do this kind of training so that they can exercise every day without inhibiting their progress because they know that a muscle grows when it is at rest.

One way to keep your total workout time from getting too long is to split up the body parts to exercise. The simplest way is to split up the body between upper and lower muscles. For example, on three days that fall every other day, you could exercise your back, chest, shoulders, triceps, and biceps. Then on the other three days (again, every other day), you could exercise your gluteals (buttocks), quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, and abdominals.

There are other advanced split routines to use, and if you are interested, ask a trainer to advise you. This six-day-a-week program is merely an example, and not meant to overwhelm you. You could do the same program by exercising each muscle group once or twice a week.

Here is a sample split routine for upper and lower body:

In this split routine, you are alternating the upper body and the lower body. Upper-body muscle groups include the back, chest, shoulders, and arms (triceps and biceps). Lower-body muscle groups include the gluteals, legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, and calves), and abdominals (actually, the abdominals can be worked on either day since they go from the upper to the lower parts of the body).