Effective Full-Body Training

Workload as an Important Factor in the Quest for Size and Strength

     What follows is nothing more than some of the thoughts that have been rattling around in my training-filled brain since writing my last couple essays, the first on the “Old School Way” and my most recent one entitled “Train Through the Soreness,” both of which were also precipitated by my series on “Tailoring Your Workout Program.”

     I think it’s fair to say, or write in this instance, that modern gym-goers believe gains in muscle or strength (or both) comes down to “hard” training coupled with rest, recovery, and eating enough calories and protein.  I think that is true but only partially so.  Since it’s not the entire truth, however, it can hold you back from achieving (potentially) even better results in the gym.

     The “whole truth” of muscle growth contains several factors.  If you want to prioritize muscle growth, here’s a list of the most important of those factors:

• “Heavy” resistance training (how heavy depends upon your personal response)

• Rest and recovery

• Proper nutrition

• Increase in workload

• Developing a “strong” work capacity (i.e. the ability to handle a high workload)

• Full-body workouts (if not full body workouts, ones that are comprised of multiple muscle groups)

• Compound, free weight exercises (i.e. barbells, dumbbells, and kettlebells, not machines)

• Frequent training.  I realize that this last factor makes my list “controversial,” but only if it’s misunderstood.  So, hear me out: you must train frequently if you want to make good gains in any sport, bodybuilding included.  Even lifters who train a muscle group just once per week still train frequently.  They might train chest on Monday, back on Tuesday, quads and calves on Wednesday, and so on and so forth.  Yes, they train each muscle group infrequently, but they are still in the gym most days of the week.  However, most lifters will get the best results by training each muscle group/lift more frequently than that, especially the drug-free lifter.  My theory of training frequency is best summed up by Zatsiorsky’s well-known (and oft-used by me) statement: train as heavy as possible as often as possible while being as fresh as possible.

     Many of my articles and essays cover the above.  In fact, most of my writings are nothing more than extrapolations of the above factors.  And most of my programs are nothing more than the means of applying those factors.

     I mention all of the factors here because I want you to keep them in mind while we discuss why full-body workouts in the manner that I recommend them—using either cyclical workloads or an “everything moderate” approach—are generally more effective for lifters than the “high-intensity” method, where you train harder, briefer, and (usually) less frequent.

     We will discuss full-body workouts not just because I believe in their efficacy—they are efficacious, that’s true—but for the simple matter of clarification, allowing us to compare the benefits, and potential drawbacks, of different methods of training.  However, what applies here to whole body training would also apply to various split methodologies.  It’s harder to lump together “split training,” though.  For example, there is a huge difference between a 2-way split program and a one-bodypart-per-day regimen.  So, if we were to use a split system for the sake of discussion, we would need to look at a 2-way split workout compared with a different 2-way split workout, a 3-way split (push/pull/legs, for instance) with other 3-way split workouts, a 4-way split with other 4-way split systems, and so forth.  Since, when I write “full-body workout,” everyone understands what is being discussed, it just allows for better elucidation.

     Because of the “mainstream” view that the “best” workouts are ones where the training is really hard, coupled with plenty of rest and recovery after the workout, a common method of training with full-body workouts is to do a couple of very “intense” sets taken to the point of momentary muscular failure, and only a couple of workouts per week.  Let’s look at one exercise for an example but understand that this applies to the entire workout as a whole.  Since squats are such an effective exercise, we’ll use it.  Let’s say that you can squat 225 pounds for one all-out set of 8 reps, at which point you reach momentary muscular failure.  You may then do a 2nd set but only manage to get 6 reps due to the fatigue accumulated from the 1st set.  In this case, your workload for the squats would be 3,150 pounds.  If you did that on Monday, you might come back on Thursday and repeat the workout, now doing 225 for 9 reps on your 1st set and 7 reps on your 2nd.  Your Thursday workload is 3,600 pounds for your 2nd session, and the total workload on squats for the week is 6,750 pounds.

     Now, let’s see what your total workload for the week would be on squats if you utilized the “everything moderate” approach.  Using this method, you stick with the same weight at each session, training the lift 3 days per week, but never taking anything to the point of failure, or, really, even close.  You stick with the same weight until it feels light and then, to use Pavel’s terminology, just add weight when it feels “natural.”  So, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, our same squatter might use 210 pounds on his squats for 3 sets of 8 reps.  It’s still relatively “hard,” because they are squats after all, but you can still get each rep on each set with relative ease.  Each workout has a workload of 5,040 pounds and the total workload for the week is 15,120 pounds, more than double your workload using the “hard” method.

     Keep in mind, as well, that your entire workload for the workout, and then the week, is significantly higher using the "everything moderate” method because you are doing the same thing for a handful, or more, of other exercises for the entire body, so the workload really “adds up” for a workout and over the course of a week, and then weeks and months. Workload, and developing a good work capacity from constantly elevating it (and cycling it), helps you to approach training with a long-term view and a vision toward the future, rather than just focusing on how hard the workout at hand is.

     This is not to say that hard training, even training hard enough that it fits the label of “H.I.T.”, is a “bad” idea.  It’s not.  If you have used such programs and you know that they work for you, my advice is to train “not quite” HIT on other days by cycling your training loads.  You can utilize the heavy-light-medium principle to accomplish this.  On your heavy day, train all-out and as hard as you like.  Go ahead and make Ken Leistner proud.  On the light day, use around 80% of the workload from the heavy day, and on the medium day utilize approximately 90%.  Our “high intensity squatter” above could do that same squat workout on Monday—225 for a set of 8 and 6 reps—then, on Wednesday, either drop down in weight to around 185 pounds for 2 sets of 8 and 6 reps, and on Friday use 205 pounds for 2x8,6.  A 2nd option is to use the same weight on each training day but just lower the repetitions.  If you squat 225 pounds for a set of 8 and 6 reps on Monday, on Wednesday squat 225 for a set of 4 and 2 reps, and Friday squat 225 for a set of 6 and 4 reps—or anything similar.

     All of this is also not to say that “workload” is the only barometer of an effective, result-producing program.  It’s not.  But it is a good way to gauge your training.  Some lifters, for example, are (what I refer to as) “low volume lifters.”  I have trained several lifters who need to use workload to ensure that they’re not doing a lot of volume.  If they get good results from 2 days per week of training on a full-body program and decide to move to a 3-days-per-week regimen, they use workload to make sure that their total workload for the week on a 3-day program is around the same as what they were utilizing for a 2-day routine.

     I will discuss more workload suggestions, along with different set/rep combinations for 3-days-per-week, full-body training in the 3rd part of my Tailoring Your Workout Program series.  Whether that’s my next post or not, I’m not entirely sure.  I have a few more articles that I have started or have notes for, such as the 4th part of my Bodyweight Training and Beyond series, the 5th part of my Big and Strong series, along with an article on the “fighter’s physique” and a handful of others.  What gets finished next depends entirely on my creative muse and her whims.  Until then, if you have any questions or would just like to comment, please leave them in the comments section below or send me an e-mail if you want a private, and more personal, response.

     “Workload” and “work capacity” are terms I learned from the great Bill Starr.  If you want to learn more about his system, along with how he used workload in his heavy-light-medium programs, then purchase my latest book “The Strongest Shall Always Survive: Lifting Lessons from an Iron Legend.”  You can find more information on it, and all of my books, in the My Books page.  If you enjoy reading my blog, purchasing my books also helps to support me and keeps the blog running.