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.

The Pure Power Program

Before we get started here, sorry for the delay in posts. I have had some "personal issues" that have kept me away from writing and was on vacation all of last week. However, I hope the following article - which I have been working on for the last few days - will more than make up for it. Also, please look for regular posts the remainder of the month (and the year). With that out of the way... An East-Meets-West Powerlifting Program for Out-of-this-World Strength Gains Here I am pulling over 500 pounds over twenty years ago. My Uncle Kirk - who can still deadlift 400 pounds at 74 years young - is in the red singlet in the background shouting me on. The following program is one that I have been experimenting with for a few weeks. So far, the results have been quite good—good enough that I decided it was time to write an article about it. Typically I don’t write about a powerlifting program until I’ve had longer to ...

Muscle-Building Made Easy (No, Really!)

Some Simple Methods and Workouts for Easy Mass Gains My son Garrett displays the kind of NATURAL physique that can be built using the methods in this article. Modern lifters can often be quite confused about what makes for an effective, result-producing workout. They think that if their training is “hard” or if it fatigues their whole body or if their muscles “burn” during a tough set or if their workouts made them sweat profusely—I could go on and on—then, surely, that must mean that their training is effective. But this simply isn’t true. Now, don’t get me wrong, it could very well be that a “good” workout program does contain some of the above “symptoms” but not necessarily. Let me explain. When lifters train under my personal direction—and this is especially true for any bodybuilders that I’ve worked with—they are often doubtful that what I have them doing will be effective. Sometim...

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...

C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

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