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.

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C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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