As stated before, on previous pages, contrary to the old belief that bodybuilding training should be done with a low number of sets per body-part, going only after power, it has been proved that a high number of sets per body-part, including hitting every single muscle-group from many different angles is what it takes to achieve a competition-level physique by today’s standards.
So far so good, however we also discussed the way the body reacts to training. The fact that the more advanced someone is the more difficult it is for him/her to progress any further, is well known and accepted. Now where exactly does that leave us?
An advanced bodybuilder will probably reach the point when it’ll take him/her an awful lot of time (up to 3 hours) to do the huge number of sets for the muscle-groups he/she targets that day. This wouldn’t be a problem on its own, however - again as discussed earlier on,- the intensity at which the muscles work becomes a crucial factor in these advanced stages.
Keeping up the intensity on a good enough level to promote further muscle-development for three straight hours has been proven to be humanly impossible.
Some bodybuilders go for a lower level of intensity in the first couple of hours and then turn on the heat in the third. Trading off intensity for number of sets however is not the ideal answer to the situation.
The thing one needs to do is split the day’s training into two sessions. Rather than neglecting the muscle-groups that come last in the session, or trading off intensity for stamina, one should better tear through the training at best intensity and then leave the last few muscle-groups for later. Hopefully when their turn comes the body will have rested enough to recuperate from the previous session. That’s why the first session of the split should come in the morning, giving then enough time during the day (preferably about 8-10 hours) for the body to regenerate till the evening session comes about. The muscle-groups that weren’t worked in the morning should then receive their just deserves, at the same level of intensity the other groups were worked at in the morning.
This way not only does one solve the dilemma of intensity vs stamina, but also the body gets to burn up a lot more calories, thus the diet can be somewhat eased as well.
One more thing about split training though: in the 8-10 hours between the two training sessions of the day the body ought to really recuperate. This means no straining physical activity during the day, as this would kill the body’s chance to regenerate the muscle fibers damaged during the first workout, and to generally replenish the organism.
An ideal setup at this stage would be someone with an office-job, or no other job at all but bodybuilding. If you’re a construction worker you can probably forget about double-split training.