Full body workout VS. 3 Day Split

[frezel]

hey guys,

i have been doing a 3 day split chest/tri, back/bi, shoulder/legs and recently under advice of someone i changed over to a full body workout and dont feel as good as i did on the 3 day split.
i have been only doing it for about 2 weeks and maybe im not giving it enought time. what is your guys thoughts on full body training? do u like it or recemend i go back to the 3 day split.

here is what im doing for full body
Monday:
Military Press
Bench Press
Bent-over Row
Barbell Curl
Triceps Extension
Parallel Squat
Standing Calf Raise
Deadlift
Crunch

Wednesday:
Alternating Dumbbell Military Press
Parallel Bar Dip
Pull-up
Alternating Dumbbell Curl
Triceps Extension Bench Press
Front Squat
Seated Calf Raise
Back Raise
Hanging Leg-raise

Friday:
Upright Row
Incline Press
One-arm Dumbbell Row
Concentration Curl
Lying Triceps Extension
Dumbbell Lunge
Standing Calf Raise
Deadlift
Sit-up

Should i do each of these routines heavy? im trying to gain size? i am doing roughly 3 sets about 8-10 reps each exercise.

im also coming off the superpump, hypershock high too, i wonder if that has alot to do with it? this is the first month all im taking is Eass's and some creatine ethyl ester. Anyway letme hear what u guys think about full body routines vs split body

[thesinner]

Do only ONE "working set", the other two should be warmups and not challenging. You're not working out to kill your muscle, you just want enough to tell your body "you are small".

Instead of doing 8-10 reps, try changing your reps every other week. Example: 2 weeks @ 12 reps, 2 weeks @ 8-10, 2 weeks @ 6 reps.

If you want to keep at a constant 8-10 reps, try changing up the tempo in which you are performing your reps.

Reason I suggest changing up the reps or tempo is because your body will learn to "pace" itself and become more efficient. If size is your goal, efficiency is NOT DESIRED.

[frezel]

thanks for the inf, but what do u guys think of actual full body training, is it effective to build size?i feel abit sceptical about this routine, and if im only really doing one hard working set thats even less exercising that i have been doing, maybe i was over training before?

[thesinner]

There's actually a lot of pro's who train full body 3x per week.

What do you do on your off days? The reason I ask is because I like to run on my off days, and I've found that with full body 3x per week, my legs never get a chance to recover. I think this should be the deciding factor on whether or not you go full body or a 3-day split.

[frezel]

yeah my legs are getting kicked big time, i have just been sucking up the pain, exspecially my calves they kill me. hey , thesinner if im doing 3 sets of say bench press for example and i can bench like 225 10x's, and u say to do a warm up sets for the first 2, should i do something like

set 1 145 x 12
set 2 145 x 10
than max out? or do 225 like 8 - 10x's?

Were u saying that only one of the sets i should go big
:

[thesinner]

yeah my legs are getting kicked big time, i have just been sucking up the pain, exspecially my calves they kill me. hey , thesinner if im doing 3 sets of say bench press for example and i can bench like 225 10x's, and u say to do a warm up sets for the first 2, should i do something like

set 1 145 x 12
set 2 145 x 10
than max out? or do 225 like 8 - 10x's?

Were u saying that only one of the sets i should go big
:

Because you are training to build muscle mass/size, only 1 set is needed. Several studies have been done comparing 1 set vs. 3 sets. 3 sets greatly improves strength, but compared to 1 set shows no added benefits in building muscle. Believe it or not, increased strength may actually constrict your ability to build muscle mass. That's why you'll see a big bodybuilder who benches the same weight as a powerlifter half his size.


For your warm up and working sets go like this:
1st set: 10 reps with a weight you could easily do for 20
2nd set: 8-10 reps with a weight you could do for 15
work set: 8-10 reps to a "sticking point"

*Sticking point: this is a part in your motion where you despite how hard you push, the weight will not budge. For example, on the bench press this usually occurs when you're arms are bent at about 90 degrees.

[Movin_weight]

i like the full body 3x week routine... in about 2 months my back and shoulders have blown up

but i haven't seen alot of growth in my legs or arms... i'v decided this is due to overtraining so i'v recently dropped the amount of sets i do for both, we'll see if this helps

[frezel]

movin _weight how many sets are you doing and what does your full body routine consist of?

the sinner thanks again for al your help, ill keep at this for a month to see what it does, i really needto get my diet in shape as well.

[Irish Cannon]

How about split it up into two workouts, and then train everything 2x a week. That's what I was doing for my last routine, and it worked real well. 10 sets for each body part, two of which were warmups.

Mon = Back/Bis/Legs/Traps
Tue = Chest/Shoulders/Tris/Calves

Thur = Same as Mon but different exercises
Fri = Same as Tue but different exercises

[Movin_weight]

My routine is not that strict... i just make sure that I rotate which bodypart I start with, and make sure i hit a core lift for each muscle group

So one day i'll start with Military press, 2 days later i'll start with squats, 2 days later i'll start with bent rows ect...

I make sure i hit at least 1 core lift per bodypart x2 working sets of 8-10 reps... Then i'll usually superset 1-2 secondary lifts for each bodypart for 3x10

keep in mind I do this all in an hour or less so i'm usually haulin azz around the gym...

I may start hitting legs only twice a week since i don't think they are getting enough rest, especially when i add in cardio on some off days

main lifts consist of:
deadlifts
incline Bench
Bent over rows
Squats
Military press

Secondary lifts:
Lat pulldown/pullups
hack squat
flys
shrugs
dumbell raises
dumbell rows
leg raises

[Gutterpump]

I make sure i hit at least 1 core lift per bodypart x2 working sets of 8-10 reps... Then i'll usually superset 1-2 secondary lifts for each bodypart for 3x10

Movin, I'm doing the same routine as you and noticed the same effects, my back and shoulders blew up, I'm a lot wider, but my chest and arms stayed the same this way (but have gotten harder). I think it's over-training as well maybe, it's just weird getting used to the routine and doing fewer sets because I don't feel as though I'm hitting all the angles I could by doing more sets spread across different excercises vs hitting simply flat bench one day, incline db next day, etc.

[Movin_weight]

yeah i agree it takes a while to get used, some times i even sneak in the gym on an off day to hit some isolation lifts just because 2 days is so long to wait! lol

[Gutterpump]

I'm good at staying away on my off days, but I think I might be doing too many sets right now on my on days.

Here's an example of wht I would do for chest:

I usually do 1 warmup set. then 2 working sets of a core lift like Incline Bench - then I do 1 set of db flies (lower than 50% of 1repmax though, for reps) - then I do 1 set of cable flies - then 1 set of (not sure what it's called, hold DB's tight together over chest, and press for reps) to work inner chest. I'm trying to do all this so I can get more chest definition (and more size in my inner/upper chest) since I don't think simply doing bench will properly work the pecs. Might be my downfall atm though, but I'm trying to keep the weight low on the isolations so maybe it will be ok.

[camaroguy18]

Just for reference, I've trained full body 3x a week since high school (so around 8 years now) and have found that when taking a break from it, it takes a few weeks to get the endurance back up to a point where I can make it through all lifts, and all sets.

My routine is typically as follows:
(Note, when I list two, they are lifts that alternate from one to the other each week)

Flat Bench/Incline D-bells
Rows/Lat pulldown
Dips (weighted)
Pull ups (weighted)
Squats
Butterfly
Preacher curls/hammer curls
Tris (with the rope pulldown)
Shoulder press
Shrugs
Hamstring curl
Calf raise
Abs and lower back

All lifts are done in a 'drop set' manner - so I start off with the max weight that I can lift 7-8 reps. Then I drop weight each consecutive set and go to failure each set (usually 3-5 sets).

I'm sure many of you will think this is over excessive, and granted my workouts do take a few hours-- but in all honesty my body and mind are accustomed to the routine and in the past I have tried to split days...only to revert back to this method.

[Gutterpump]

Do only ONE "working set", the other two should be warmups and not challenging. You're not working out to kill your muscle, you just want enough to tell your body "you are small".

I am assuming that with this method (only 1 working set), that you must work to failure on that set.

A normal HST routine is 3 sets of equal volume.

I find I'm training different groups differently now though (diff # of sets):

I usually start with legs (lower weight on each):

3 set of squats
2 sets leg extentions
2 sets of hamstring curls
on some days I do leg press
calf raises

then shoulders:

2 sets of clean and press
2 sets of hammer strength machine press

Chest:

2 sets flat or incline bench
1 set db flies
1 set cable flies
sometimes I do a set of seated machine flies

Tris:

dropset usually till failure or close - pushdowns

Back:

2 sets - seated cable pulls
2 sets - lat pulldown or close grip pulldown

Bi's:

2 sets - olympic BB curls
1 set - hammer curls

Lower Back:

cable trunk rotations
4 sets

Abs

4+ sets


Don't know if this is overtraining, going to see how it works out but I'm open to any tweaks / comments on it.

[Jim Mills]

I may start this full body workout Saturday.... I'm going to do Legs and Abs on Mondays.... I'm going to try it for 8 weeks, then switch it up.

Saturday

Inc DB flys 3 sets for 8 reps

Dumbbell Shoulder Press 3 sets 8 reps

Machine Row 3 sets 8 reps

ez-bar Curls 3 sets 8 reps

Triceps cable Push Downs 3 sets 8 reps


Tuesday

Bench Press 3 sets 8 reps

Side DB Raises 3 sets 8 reps

Wide Grip Pulldowns 3 sets 8 reps

Incline DB curls 3 sets 8 reps

Rope pressdowns 3 sets 8 reps


Thursday

seated machine Flys 3 sets 8 reps

Bent over DB raises 3 sets 8 reps

Bent over BB rows 3 sets 8 reps

hammer curls 3 sets 8 reps

close grip bench 3 sets 8 reps

[SteelEntity]

My problem with full body routines is that by the time you get to your last couple body parts you are already burnt out,and not able to lift to near the intensity as you did for your first few body parts. If you change it around every other workout I guess that would help.

[camaroguy18]

My problem with full body routines is that by the time you get to your last couple body parts you are already burnt out,and not able to lift to near the intensity as you did for your first few body parts. If you change it around every other workout I guess that would help.

that's why I save abs/lower back and some of the smaller muscle groups for the end....I couldn't imagine benching or squatting at the end of a workout!

[Movin_weight]

yeah rotating what you begin with each day solves that prob, but i'v had days where i'd squat, then bench, then hit rows... and since your keeping the volume down, my lifts didn't really suffer

[frezel]

i did this full body 2 weeks and i know thats not enough to get anythning going , but i feel like switching form the 3 day i lost alot of pump feel, and soreness, im not sure i like this! I feeel as if though i am on vacation from working out, but at the gym im busting my arse!!!! is this normal, i might have to go back to 3 day im so confused.....