Full Body Workout
The full body workout is, unfortunately, very underused nowadays.
There’s always the latest, greatest workout program, technique or marketing angle that people flock to.
Even beginners rarely stay on a full body workout routine for very long, if at all, before jumping to some complicated split routine as the foundation of their program.
People seem to think full body workouts are out of date, old fashioned, or just not as effective as all the new split routines you see everywhere.
This is a shame because the total body routine is still the most effective muscle building and fat burning program available.
Most people should be spending a good part of their program utilizing this type of program.
One of the biggest obstacles to getting great fitness results is over training. It’s a lot easier to over train when working out almost daily on a split routine.
A split routine gives you a false sense of security when it comes to over training. While you may be working different body parts each day, it’s almost impossible to avoid overlap.
Here are a few examples.
When you work chest, you also work the triceps and shoulders, and to a lesser degree, the back and biceps.
When you work back, you work the biceps and shoulders and to a lesser degree the chest and triceps.
When you work shoulders, you work triceps and on some exercises the traps and upper back.
Besides the overlap you also have the cumulative toll that almost daily workouts take on your entire body. Every day is kidney day.
In other words, while you may be working different body parts each day, you are still working out which has other effects on your entire body. Your body doesn’t know that one day is tricep day and the next is back.
Another problem is expanded workouts. Because you only work one or maybe two body parts each workout, a lot of people end up making the workout longer by adding more sets and reps.
This defeats a major reason for implementing the split routine in the first place and can cause over training.
These are just some of the reasons to use a full body workout program.
Here’s an example of a full body weight training program to get you started.
Train on a three days a week schedule, such as Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
- Squats 2 x 10
- Stiff-legged Deadlifts 2 x 10
- Standing Calf Raises 2 x 10
- Decline Bench Presses 2 x 10
- Curl Grip Lat Pulldowns 2 x 10
- Seated Cable Rows or One Arm DB Rows 2 x 10
- Seated DB or Machine Presses 2 x 10
- DB Upright Rows 2 x 10
- Tricep Pressdowns 2 x 10
- Seated DB Curls 2 x 10
Be sure to warm up. The amount of warm up can vary for each individual. You want to get the muscles warm without exerting yourself too much.
A good rule of thumb is one set of 8 reps using 50% of your working weight and then one set using 75% of your working weight.
If I’m doing a full body workout like the one above I most likely won’t do any warm up set for the bicep and tricep exercises and maybe not for the shoulder exercises as well. Or possibly just one warm up set instead of two.
The weights are lighter and the shoulders, biceps and triceps get a lot of work during the back and chest exercises in the program.
Rest 1 to 2 minutes between work sets.