Skip to main content

3 Exercise, Full-Body Split Workouts

The Benefits of Full-Body Workouts 
    As anyone who reads this blog—or any of my articles—knows, I'm a big fan of full-body workout programs.  I'm a fan of them for a number of reasons: they allow you to train your muscle groups frequently (yes, dammit, that's a good thing!), they allow you to train your muscles frequently without being in the gym all the time, and they act as a sort of anabolic "trigger"—stimulating muscle growth throughout your entire body better than split workout programs.
     Don't get me wrong.  I am in no way opposed to split training programs.  If you look throughout this blog you'll find a number of good workout suggestions and routines that use a split schedule.  Also, if you read past article of mine from 10 years back or so—mainly in Iron Man magazine and MuscleMag International—you will discover back then that I recommended split workouts almost exclusively.

Strength Coaches, Personal Trainers, Writers, and Their Personal Efficacy
     Here's the thing: I recommend that—after laying a good foundation during your first year of training by using almost exclusive full-body workouts—you experiment with different training splits.  Two-way splits, three-way splits, four-way splits, one-muscle-group-per workout splits, double-splits—you name it, I recommend that you try it.
     But if you're going to do so, you need a good strength coach or personal trainer that understands the territory.  (Preferably this trainer/coach should be able to train you in person; if not, find someone—such as myself—on the internet that understands how to apply his/her training principles.)  If a strength coach/trainer doesn't know how to use a particular split and/or full-body program, then they aren't of much use.  And, yes, some trainers are very good at making split workouts programs "work" and some are not.  The same goes for full-body workouts.
     Myself, I understand full-body workouts.  I have used them on myself and others in order to gain lots of muscle, garner plenty of strength, train for powerlifting competitions, etc.

3 Exercise, Full-Body Split Workout Programs
     Which brings us around to the subject of this post: 3 exercise, full-body split workouts.
     There are a number of full-body workouts that are effective depending on your physique, your training experience, and your training goals.  Solely for the sake of gaining muscle mass, I like this particular form of training.
     Here's how it works:
     Train three days each week (say, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday).  On each day, pick either a lower-body pushing exercise or a lower-body pulling exercise.  Also, pick one upper body pushing exercise and one upper body pulling exercise for each session.  At each workout session, rotate exercises.  On each exercise, perform 5 to 8 sets for 5 to 8 reps.
     A week of workouts might look like this:
Monday
Deadlifts: 8 sets of 5 reps
Wide-Grip Chins: 5 sets of 5 reps
Dips: 8 sets of 5 reps
Wednesday
Squats: 5 sets of 8 reps
Bent-Over Rows: 5 sets of 5 reps
Dumbbell Bench Presses: 5 sets of 8 reps
Friday
Deadlifts: 8 sets of 5 reps
Wide-Grip Chins: 5 sets of 5 reps
Dips: 8 sets of 5 reps
     On the following Monday, you would repeat the Wednesday workout.

     Not that complicated.  But highly effective.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Metabolic Muscle-Building

  Hybrid Hypertrophy/Conditioning Programs Combining Full-Body Kettlebell Workouts with Multi-Split Bodybuilding Training      A lot of our population, including lifters and bodybuilders, are metabolically compromised.  I’ve seen a number of studies, research papers, and health articles declaring this.  But I don’t need a study or some health expert to explain it to me.  All I have to do is go to the grocery store, a local restaurant, or the local gym (not that I go to a local gym; just saying) to see the obvious right before my eyes.  People are out of shape.  And, despite a push to make America healthy once again, we’re getting even more out of shape.  But it doesn’t have to be this way, and, in fact, despite more and more obese people in this country, there are also a greater number of people who are in fantastic shape.  Even though it’s easy to be out of shape these days, it’s also easier to be in shape.  Ther...

The Strength/Power/Mass Protocol

  Get Strong, Massive, and Powerful with this Minimalist Program      Yesterday, I received an email from a reader with a simple question.  He asked what I thought was the best program for building strength and mass—this is one of the questions that I have received fairly regularly over the years.  He said that, after reading the many workout programs that I have on offer here at Integral Strength , he wasn’t sure which one he should select or what kind of program “style” in general was the best, and he said that, to be honest, all of the various programs I write about left him more than a little bit confused.  I told him, first, that there is no one program that reigns supreme over all others.  There are, in fact, a handful of programs that would be great depending on the lifter.  When selecting a program you must take into account several factors, including lifting history, age, job occupation (a construction worker needs a diff...

Train Just to Train

  Some Thoughts and Musings on Why I lift and Why You Should Lift (with a Little Help from Budo and Zen)      Over the years that I have been lifting—going on almost 4 decades of training at this point—I have been asked a number of questions.  Most of them are in the “how” category.  How do I gain muscle?  How can I increase my bench press?  How do I get big arms?  And, from primarily women, the most often asked is how do I lose weight?  Or how do I get in shape?  Occasionally, however, I have been asked the why question.  Why do I lift?  Why do I train?  Now, usually, though not always, this is a what question.  As in: what are my goals?  What am I trying to achieve?  Though there are times when the inquiry is deeper .  Especially as I get older, sometimes folks want to know why I still do this lifting thing.  After all, I’m not preparing for powerlifting meets anymore or getting...