by Tony Gjokaj February 10, 2021 4 min read

One thing I have learned about science in the fitness world is that it simplifies. It makes things less complicated.

It allows you to get minimalistic with your training, cutting out some of the overwhelming complications of exercise.

In this post, we are going to give you a minimalistic upper/lower body split. Once you finish reading this post, you will have an evergreen training process that you can use for the rest of your fitness journey.

Let's dive in!

Upper-Lower Rundown

Before we get into the training program, I wanted to give you information on how the program is laid out.

This program is laid out based on key terms that target our major muscle groups through specific movement patterns.

In following these exercises in this direction, you will have a program layout that you can use forever, as I continue to do.

If you'd like to skip the key terms and get to the TLDR version, scroll down to the section called "The Minimalistic Upper/Lower Split".

This minimalistic training split can be utilized 4-6 days per week (depending on how experienced you are in training).

We will utilize it as if it was a 4 day a week program that targets each major muscle group two times per week.

Workout Key Terms

In most of our workout splits, we typically utilize terms that mean specific movement patterns. In each section, we will breakdown what each key term means, and the exercises that they are typically for.

Upper

Horizontal Push

A Horizontal Push is any exercise that utilizes direct chest work. These exercises consist of the following:

Bench Press (Flat Bench or Decline)
Push Ups
Chest Flys

Horizontal Pull

Horizontal Pulls consist of any back exercises that revolve around a rowing movement. These exercises are the following:

Weighted Rows
Chest Supported Machine Rows
TRX Rows

Vertical Push

Vertical Push exercises are any type of shoulder-focused movement. These exercises are the following:

Overhead Presses (Seated or Standing)
Incline Bench Presses

Vertical Pull

Vertical Pulls are any back-focused exercise that moves the lats up and down. These consist of the following:

Pull Ups or Chin Ups
Lat Pulldown

Bicep Exercises

Bicep exercises consist of any exercises that curl your biceps. In training the biceps optimally, this is what we would do:

Curls in front of your torso: Preacher Curls
Curls behind your torso: Incline Dumbbell Curls
Curls that bring biceps in front of you: Standing Curls

Tricep Exercises

Tricep exercises consist of any exercises that extend your triceps. In training the triceps optimally, this is what we target these muscles:

Extensions above your head: Overhead Extensions
Extensions pushing downwards: Dips or Tricep Extensions
Extensions pushing your triceps back: Tricep Kickbacks

Lateral Raise or Trapezius Variations

Lateral Raises consist of any deltoid exercise that allows you to bring your arms out laterally.

Trapezius Variations consist of any exercise that targets the Trapezius muscles. These could be exercises like a dumbbell shrug or Farmer's Walk.

Rear Delt Exercises

Rear Delt exercises consist of any shoulder movement that targets the rear deltoid muscles. These exercises consist of the following:

Rear Delt Fly
Face Pulls

Lower

Squat Variation

Squat Variations are any dumbbell or barbell exercise that targets the quadricep muscles by squatting down and standing up.