Why is full body workouts better

By focusing on a muscle group once a week you can give yourself seven days to rebuild, so can target specific areas more intensely. Pulling weight towards you incorporates your back and biceps. Pushing it away takes chest and triceps. Split routines demand greater discipline, though. Whichever muscle methodology you adopt, the key is variation.

Blending both full-body and split routines can help shock your body into coping with different types of training. The result? Big muscles, fast. When you start feeling fatigued, switch to more isolated exercises for a targeted workout. At the end of the day, like most of these intractable fitness questions, a full body workout vs. You can effectively build muscle, or lose fat with both types of workouts if you train hard, have a sensible routine, and focus on nutrition.

With that said, I do think full body workouts is the way to go for most people to help you develop the most lean, strong, and well balanced body possible. Great article!! This is how I train my clients too. If you want to be a fitness model or have a weakness then we can split up the workout.

For the rest of us, a total body workout is a great way to get the metabolic benefits and efficiency of every other day workouts without being at the gym everyday for hours. For me i prefer a full body workout , im not looking for mass but want to look better and improve my body and abs. A full body workout makes me lose the weight and also gets me in better shape. But the problem is that you cant do the same program 3 or 4 times a week as this will be boring.

Ahmad — I do agree doing full body workouts 3x or more per week can be tough, but I do believe doing lighter circuits can make it easier to do full body workouts more frequently to get better results. Hi Mark, As usual great post! Would a third workout day focusing on this be a viable option? Full upper, full lower, full upper, focused lower then repeat?

Noah — Thanks for the comment! I would try to separate your leg workout from your 3rd workout by days if possible. In fair shape, but starting from scratch again because I was not satisfied with my trainer at fitness I bought the builtlean program but have not quite started the exercises yet. I walk in the morning 1 mile with a backpack, then do 7 flights of stairs, then stretch 20 minutes. In the evening 2 to 3 times a week I work out at fitness 19 currently with a 7 minute warmup on the eliptic machine, then I do light weights.

At my age what do I need to keep in mind? Tom — First off, thanks for purchasing my BuiltLean Program. I am also happy to hear you are taking your health and exercise regimen so seriously. To properly answer your questions would take many, many posts. In the spirit of brevity and keeping the answer short and sweet, I offer you the following advice:. I know you have heard me talk about the 5 basic movements before, but they are very important to helping you stay strong.

Strength is the foundation upon which all other aspects of fitness are based. Our cardiovascular system supports our muscular system. Great for your body. This will help improve posture in combination with everything else you are doing. Maintaining flexibility is critical. Be sure not to neglect any areas, but cover everything hips, quads, calves, groin, psoas, shoulders, chest.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, enjoy the fitness journey! Learn to adapt the exercises to your body and do what feels right. Listen to your body. Hello Marc. I am working on when to start a routine. Thanks for posting. Good article. Thanks for writing this!

This is a fairly comprehensive pro and con discussion on full body vs split routine. I will definitely be posting the link to this on my facebook page. Alex Miller — Thanks for sharing the article with your followers. Just checked out your website and it looks like you have a lot of solid info on it! Excellent info. Straight to the point. Also picked up built lean. The way you rationalize nutrition has been of a HUGE help! I have train both over the years. I also train in JKD. Walt Conklin — Really happy you have picked up the BuiltLean Program and you found it useful, particularly the nutrition section.

Thanks for your participation! If I posted my routine would anybody be willing to review it for me? Ian — I hope some people will chime in. Might as well post your routine. This is what I did to get in shape to get into police training and now there will be a lot of fitness in the class so I want to cut it back especially with the weights. Cardio will likely be enough in class.

I went from a max bench press of lbs to lbs. My goal was strictly for strength and not for mass gain. I already weigh lbs. Ideally I would work out with weights for about 45 minutes times per week with a full body workout. That is why I want to know the best compound exercises to do. I have to keep doing push ups, pull ups, chin ups and sit ups because that is a class requirement but as far as other exercises go I am open to any advice people are willing to give me.

I also have a life outside of the weights so I am serious about sticking to a full body workout and having some free time for other things. If I could do a few heavy lifts and stay in shape that would be awesome. Ian — Thanks for your questions. Those are some impressive strength increases so kudos to you for putting in the hard work. The best workouts I have are when I choose only a exercises excluding core and hit the weight hard.

For example, doing a triset of a lunge, DB bench, and pull up for rounds is a solid, intense workout that is full body. Something to consider are the 5 basic movements squat, lunge, push, pull, twist. Do each of these movements at least once per week. Hi Marc: Your articles and research once again are not only very topical, infomative and interesting but thought inspiring.

I wonder what would result by rotating a full body work out for two weeks and then going to a split routine for two weeks? Keep up the good work. Vic Virzera — My guess is it would be ok for fat loss to switch things up. Thanks for the comment! The one I usually ends up with is a 2 split routine. Works well for me. I was thinking of doing that but substituting the Shoulder press with the Clean and Press and adding chin ups, push ups and sit ups.

Ian — I would definitely use caution when doing too many structural exercises in one workout i. If you do, you really need to warm up thoroughly and by VERY careful with your lower back.

This type of workout is extremely metabolically intense and could require days of recovery. In addition, I know from experience unfortunately it only takes one rep, one second of losing your focus to cause serious damage, or injury when lifting heavy weights with structural exercises. Big reward, but big risk. With all that said, I think you should give my suggestions I wrote in my comment a try to help create a well balanced exercise routine.

Great article. But everyone keeps trying to tell me that full body workouts are the way to go. Turan — Thanks for the comment. If you are motivated to make it to the gym, do whatever it is that you enjoy the most and gives you the best workout. The 3 day body part split and one full body exercise regimen sounds like it can be a sensible routine. I have gone through a few book programs in the last year or so and have seen great fat loss, dropped a couple of dress sizes and am maintaining a very good BMI.

Not necessarily looking to get smaller anymore, just to maintain and maybe get stronger I still have to work to eek out push ups. But how do I build in progression? Is there a formula to follow? Jenny — Congrats on the fat loss so far. I think your plan sounds sensible. Regarding my BuiltLean Program, yes, it definitely can be used by women and has been used by women very successfully.

Especially if you want to focus on building strength, the progression I have built into the program is very solid. Not many program can offer you that! Marc, I want to ask about Full Body Workout i have read your article : split training vs total body workout. I want to ask about Total Body Workout. Novan — That routine sounds reasonable. As you can see below, the movement patters are similar, but different. What also is important is the total volume.

For example, if your doing 10 sets of each exercise, that would be a lot of volume. Marc, thanks for your answer, so the key related to full body workout is the volume of each exercise, right?

Novan — Volume is one variable to consider along with movement patterns for sure when completing full body workout. Remember that you can reach your body fat percentage goals using either full body workout, or body part splits. I am an older guy 50 who switched to full body workouts twice a week in the form of a circuit doing exercises once for reps except abs ,2 sets.

The whole workout takes approx mins and I am fit to drop by the end of it. I already have mass but I find doing this gives me good tone and maintains the muscle I have.

I just need to take care of my diet more! Does this make good sense?. Drew — Sounds like you have a solid exercise routine.

The 2x full body strength training workouts and x cardio sounds excellent. The one thing I would consider changing is the number of repetitions lower. This way, you will be getting both strength and endurance benefits and changing up the rep ranges to keep your body guessing. Hi , i was an unusually fit 70 year old, however i have undertaken three spinal operations over the past 4 years first two unsuccessful.

The periods of inactivity whilst recuperation have had an undesirable effect inasmuch as gained belly. I come from a line of longevity from both sides of the family and have always looked much younger than my true age. Surgery is always a difficult process. I am happy to hear though that you are back on track. I do believe full body workouts can be beneficial for you in addition to swimming.

Just be careful of course. May be a good idea to hire a knowledgeable trainer, or choose exercises that provide very little compression on your discs. Good luck and keep strong. Hi, Mark Very nice article. As your article suggests, I think I will adhere to a full body work out with an hour of swimming on off days. No squats? No problem! Anabolic window refers to the short time after training when your muscles are repairing and recovering.

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