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.