What's the best type of workout? Full body or split routine?

[Austinstarkey]

Hi, my name is Austin my coach right now has me doing full body exercise 5 times a week and I honestly do not feel like I'm getting the full benefit since I only get to lift for 45minutes to an hour. So my question is would it be more beneficial to focus on one muscle group a day or stick with full-body? A little bit about me is that I am not trying to lose weight, but gain muscle size and strength. Right now my stats are....bench-255 squat-405 -powerclean-255 deadline 405 I weight 175pounds.

 

[BamBam0319]

There is nothing wrong with only lifting for an hour a day

 

[puccah8808]

My friend is thinking about lifting heavy only once every two weeks. Some study about bigger gains with more days off.

And like Bam said, there's nothing wrong with training only an hour a day. I get more done in 45-1 hour than most people do in 2 hours.

 

[AaaPee]

It is not about the time you lift in the gym, but the effort you put on it. In my eyes your stats look good, build your base first, then start thinking what's next.

 

[bolt10]

Talk to your coach then. Regardless of if the programming is effective you haven't bought in so it won't work regardless. Have him explain why he has you doing what your doing and that may help.

 

[PILL]

I doubted it at first too, but hitting upper and lower every day lets you up the volume without killing your muscles every day. Deadlifting and squatting all week long is awesome.

 

[Famine]

Those are pretty solid numbers. From experience, for me, full body works well for the lower body...a lot of squat programs call for squats multiple times per week. If it's been recommended, then follow your coach's advice. If you notice part of your body advancing while another part lags, then it's time to switch the split.

An hour a day is plenty (provided you're not waiting in line for machines for most of that time). If you don't feel spent after an hour, try pushing harder next time.

 

[Vector300]

To me it depends on how much time you have to devote each week. I enjoy both high frequency and high volume so I typically go for either a full body EOD split or an upper/lower split. I've used typical "bro" splits to some success but they were never ideal for me. Plus if I missed a day because of work, illness, life, etc. then a muscle group wasn't trained...no bueno. And then some muscle groups (like legs and back) were only hit 1x a week which, once again for ME, wasn't ideal.

So it depends on you and your goals. For pure strength gains a full body split done every other day (EOD) seemed to work best for me and I put on size as well. The days in between we're mostly **** around days where I did thinks like arms, core, and conditioning for about a half hour. For more muscular development AND strength I like the upper/lower split. Bit more room to accessorize and really chisel your physique. About four days a week and my "rest days" are usually for arms or lagging muscle groups that need some extra stimulation without taxing the CNS.

 

[imlee888]

Okay, here's the thing about full body routines. I have no clue why he does 5 a week, but with three a week it is the most effective routine you can do as a beginner. This may sound off, but let's look at the math
If you're a beginner it only takes about 48 hours to recover from workout to workout (volume and intensity wise for the most part)
That would be a 3 day a week full body routine
52(weeks in a year) x3 = roughly 156 workouts in a year for every body part. This is more volume and more practice with the lifts than say a push pull legs split which may hit every body part two times a week
Which is roughly 104 workouts for every muscle group a year. This is only 2/3 the volume you will get with a full body routine (which you can sustain for over a year, I'd say it'd be effective for 1.5-2 years).
Now if you want to hit every body part just once a week, that is 1/3 the volume of a 3x a week full body split. Only 52 work outs per body part per week.
As a beginner that is extremely unnecessary, as your recovery time is so short.

Also in regards to the only about an hour in the gym thing, as a beginner you also need less volume to make gains. Strength and size both. And the longer you lift, the more and more volume you will have to get per workout for it to be effective. So doing maybe 5x5, 4x8, 5x3 etc of the big 3 and minimal accessory work as a full body split is actually optimal for you.

Remember, just because people that are advanced do it one way, that doesn't necessarily mean it's best for you. The position you are in is greatly different and should be treated as so

 

[jerm129]

I like doing a split with 2 on 1 off. Gets adequate recovery and while still being able to hit all areas hard in an hour or less.

But as others mention, I would ask our coach on the routine.