Workout Structure: Are Full Body Routines what you've been missing?

Lifting weights for fitness become more commonplace in the 1970s largely due to the the popularity of body builders like Arnold Schwarzeneggar. The film "Pumping Iron" was released and suddenly everyone wanted to look like a body builder. Magazines published articles and workouts by famous body builders at the time including Arnold's "The Encyclopedia of Modern Body Building". Since body builders used body part split training effectively, the general population adopted this into their own fitness regimens to try to achieve the body of the their dreams.

There are many ways to structure your workout routine, two of the most common and effective methods are doing full body workouts or splitting each workout day into different specific body parts. Let's break some of the different methods so you can properly determine which is the right method for you.

Body Part Split Training

This style of training is where you only train 1-2 specific groups of muscles per day per week. Often it looks something like this:

Monday: Chest

Tuesday: Legs

Wednesday: Back

Thursday: Shoulders

Friday: Arms and Abs

Pros:

-It allows for more intense workouts each week for each body part. Meaning you can use heavier weight and achieve high total volume (sets x reps) for that muscle in a given workout.

-You have more recovery time for each body part in between training bouts. This ensures the muscles are fresh for each session and allows for maximal growth.

-Great to bust through a plateau. If you've been training for a while and are stuck, the additional volume from split training can help you break through and begin to see progress again.

Cons:

-Requires more time each workout. You will need at least 2-3 minutes between sets to allow for adequate recovery. By the time you've completed 2-4 sets of 5-8 exercises and accounted for setup time, you're already closing in on 30 minutes of non-exercise time within your workout.

-Not ideal for super setting.

Super Sets are when you perform 2 exercises back to back for non-competing muscles groups, this saves time by allowing you to work another muscle group while one is recovering and keeps your heart rate and breathing rate elevated to improve Cardiorespiratory function and keep calorie burn high.

A compound set is when you perform 2 exercises for the same muscle group back to back which allows for more muscle damage and can help the growth process . A Compound set is very taxing on the target muscle and is best reserved for the end of the workout as it would actually increase the recovery time necessary between sets.

-If you miss a day or lack consistency you fall behind.

This often leads to either lack of adherence to the program over the long term or repeatedly skipping the workouts you like the least (legs for a lot of people).

-DOMS

Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness in the target muscle group is much more severe in this type of training due to the increased volume.

Full body workouts

As the name implies, full body training typically incorporates most or all of the major muscle groups in each workout.

Pros:

-Focus more on compound lifts

Compound exercises use multiple joints and large muscle groups which lead to a greater calorie burn, developing more overall muscle, and improving coordination.

-Increase frequency of practice for compound exercises.

Rather than squatting or bench pressing only once per week, full body workouts typically will incorporate these types of movement multiple times per week which allows for greater mastery of movement.

-Very conducive to super setting.

As stated above super sets allow you to maximize your time in the gym by utilizing your rest period to work opposing muscle groups, keep your hear rate elevated and burn more calories.

-Lower training frequency is necessary

Full body routines are typically 3-4 workouts per week rather than 5-6 workouts per week in most body part split routines.

Cons:

-More taxing on the Nervous System

This type of training leads to a more Sympathetic Nervous System state due to the stimulating the entire body. (Offset this by adding Para Sympathetic activity like Zone 2 Cardio)

-Increased fatigue

You may feel more tired as you adapt to this type of training. Generally start with 2-3 workouts per week as your body adapts and work up to 3-4 workouts per week.

-Harder to target growth in specific muscle groups due to the lower volume per muscle

A few other Training Splits to consider:

Upper/Lower

In this type of training split you can utilize supersets and still work towards higher volumes per muscle. This split works best for a 4 workouts per week structure.

Push/Pull/Lower

A good 3-day per week workout option is to have one upper body day focus on pushing movements like Bench Press, Overhead Press, Push-ups, tricep and deltoid exercises, one upper body day focusing on pulling movements, such as Rows, Pull-Ups, Back Flys, and curls, and one lower body workout for all of your leg movements.

Agonist/Antagonist Days

This is a training style where your work both sides of a joint within the same workout. Typically, this could be something like Horizontal Pressing/Horizontal Pulling (Bench Press/Rows), Vertical Pressing/Vertical Pulling (Overhead Press/ Pull-ups), Hamstrings and Quads, Glutes and abs/hip flexors. Variations of this can be adopted to accommodate 3-5 workout days.

Anterior/Posterior Split

A variation of full body training where your work only the muscles on the front side of your body in one day and the muscles on the back side of your body on another day.