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.

Marvin Eder’s Mass-Building Methods

The Many and Varied Mass-Building Methods of Power Bodybuilding’s G.O.A.T. Eder as he appeared in my article "Full Body Workouts" for IronMan magazine. In many ways, the essay you are now reading is the one that has had the “longest time coming.” I have no clue why it has taken me this long to write an article specifically on Marvin Eder, especially considering the fact that I have long considered him the greatest bodybuilder cum strength athlete of all friggin’ time . In fact, over 20 years ago, I wrote this in the pages of IronMan magazine: In my opinion, the greatest all-around bodybuilder, powerlifter and strength athlete ever to walk the planet, Eder had 19-inch arms at a bodyweight of 198. He could bench 510, squat 550 for 10 reps and do a barbell press with 365. He was reported to have achieved the amazing feat of cranking out 1,000 dips in only 17 minutes. Imagine doing a dip a second for 17 minutes. As Gene Mozee once put ...

The Big and Strong Series - Legs and Back

The High-Set, Low-Rep Training Manifesto Part 1: Training the Legs and Back In several of my recent essays and articles, I have discussed various HFT methods, most of them using higher volume. Starting with this article, I’m now going to turn my attention to a series of essays on (what I believe to be) the most effective method for attaining a combination of muscle mass and serious strength: workouts that combine high sets with (relatively) low reps. I’m going to do a series for one primary reason—different lifts/muscle groups should be trained in different ways. I will cover legs and back (this one), shoulders (overhead press training), chest and lats, and arm training. Each of those are best developed when trained a little bit different from one another. So, we will have 4 parts, with, perhaps, some additional essays on how to bring the 4 together into a cohesive, holistic strength program or on anything else that come...

High-Frequency Wave Load Training

A Highly Effective High-Frequency Program for Strength, Power, and Muscle Mass In several recent articles, I have presented a few key concepts to building strength, power, and muscle mass. One of the concepts is the “90% method” where you do most of your sets at 90% of a certain rep range. It could be 90% of 1 rep, of 3 reps, of 5 reps, or even as high as 10 reps. (If you want more in depth discussion on the 90% method then read my article “ Skill Training as Size Building .”) I have also presented the concepts of weight ladders and wave loading , where, instead of sticking with the same weight throughout several sets before moving to a different weight, you move back and forth from heavier to lighter sets. One of my more popular recent articles that used the above concepts is “ The 1-5 Program .” It’s a high-volume program. It’s good for lifters who like to use split programs, as it’s a mul...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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