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.

Get Big Quick

If you have been involved in the iron game for even a little while, you probably know most of the “get big advice.” Stuff such as “eat a lot of protein and calories,” “train heavy on the big lifts,” “get plenty of rest and recovery,” and other such “basic” advice can be found in any number of articles, YouTube videos, or Facebook posts. And most of it is pretty good and fairly sound—I’ve written plenty of such articles covering similar material here on the blog and I will continue to do so. But in this essay, I want to do something just a little bit different. Here, I want to look at some various tips, training ideas, and nutritional hacks that are not your run-of-the-mill suggestions. Most of these are not to be used long-term, but they can be quite useful when utilized over a short period of time, such as one training cycle or even over the course of only a few weeks. Before we get starte...

Basic Lifting, Instinctive Training

While doing research for my last article, I was re-reading Bradley Steiner’s original “Rugged Size and Strength” essay (from 1972) and came across this bit of advice: “Do not attempt to set up a pre-planned schedule of either sets or reps.” That may not seem like much—it’s the kind of “basic” advice that’s easily overlooked—but there is wisdom in it, minimal as it may seem at first glance. Depending on the workout program and the lifting population it’s aiming for, that quote could be either good or bad. It’s not good advice for a beginner’s program, any beginner’s program. It’s not good advice for intermediate or advanced lifters, either, who are attempting a new workout program or a new “style” of lifting that they haven’t utilized before. For instance, if you’ve been training for the past decade on a bodybuilding workout consi...

Bradley Steiner’s Rugged Size and Strength Split Routine – Easy Strength Version

Bradley J. Steiner, author of the original "Rugged Size and Strength Split Routine" In the ‘70s, ‘80s, and ‘90s, Bradley J. Steiner was the voice of (what he called) “sane, sensible” barbell training. His workouts were full-body programs done 3 times per week, utilizing a limited number of big “bang-for-your-buck” movements such as squats, deadlifts, barbell rows, bench presses, overhead presses, barbell curls and the like. They were intended for the average, drug-free lifter who didn’t have the luxury of living at Muscle Beach in Venice, California and training all day, but worked a full-time job, had a wife and kids—you know, a “regular” life—but still wanted to build a strong, impressive physique that could move some heavy iron and turn heads at the local swimming hole. He wrote prolifically for (primarily) IronMan magazine up until the early years of this century. When I started writing for IronMan i...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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