Full Body Vs. Split

[tomc12365]

In my opinion full body, every other day is the way to go( or upper body then lower body) With no exaggeration I have bulked up 50lbs of lean muscle using a full body routine every other day. I know many bodybuilders will claim this is for beginners. However, I feel like working out an all upper body routine one day then all lower next day gives the best results. The time spent in gym may be extended, but i feel this works th best along with a proper diet, plenty of rest, and supplementation. I think about it this way, if you do the split workout every other day, and you somehow miss a workout day, one muscle group isn't being trained for a whole week. ANd i know rest is crucial but lets be honest, despite what many people claim muscle don't need more then one-two days of solid rest before they are ready to hit the weights again-well at least for younger guys producing a lot of tester one. I feel the term "overtraining" is very overused and split body part training doesn't get the job done. WHAT ARE YOUR GUY's OPINION!?

[brianbetonga]

In my opinion full body, every other day is the way to go( or upper body then lower body) With no exaggeration I have bulked up 50lbs of lean muscle using a full body routine every other day. I know many bodybuilders will claim this is for beginners. However, I feel like working out an all upper body routine one day then all lower next day gives the best results. The time spent in gym may be extended, but i feel this works th best along with a proper diet, plenty of rest, and supplementation. I think about it this way, if you do the split workout every other day, and you somehow miss a workout day, one muscle group isn't being trained for a whole week. ANd i know rest is crucial but lets be honest, despite what many people claim muscle don't need more then one-two days of solid rest before they are ready to hit the weights again-well at least for younger guys producing a lot of tester one. I feel the term "overtraining" is very overused and split body part training doesn't get the job done. WHAT ARE YOUR GUY's OPINION!?

i do full body mon,wed,frid and have gone from 160 pounds to 240 pounds using heavy weights.i have followed this for a long time and always gain good mass.
i tried splits and it actually lost me muscle and was useless to me.but that might not be the same for anyone else.everyone is diferrent
i do:
WARM UP: 50 PRESS UPS
4X8 DB PRESS
4X8 DB FLYES
4X8 DB ROW 1 ARM
4X8 DB SHRUGS
4X8 WIDE UP ROWS
4X8 MILITARY PRESS
4X10 SQUAT
4X10 DB TRI EXT
4X8 REVERSE ROWS(BICEPS)
4X10 20 KILO PLATE CHINS ON BAR

i dont advise you copy this program for a beginner btw

[CountChocula92]

Opinion? Full-body works for beginners because less focused work is required, and works for strength due to relatively low muscular fatigue since the focus is on neural gains.

For anybody that has achieved a decent size, splits will be better.

[tomc12365]

i do full body mon,wed,frid and have gone from 160 pounds to 240 pounds using heavy weights.i have followed this for a long time and always gain good mass.
i tried splits and it actually lost me muscle and was useless to me.but that might not be the same for anyone else.everyone is diferrent

Completley agree! I feel like for younger guys, we can go harder for longer both in the bed and in the gym hahah jk. But in all seriousness split workouts I feel like i get TOO MUCH REST for each muscle group and the muscles take longer to grow

[brianbetonga]

Opinion? Full-body works for beginners because less focused work is required, and works for strength due to relatively low muscular fatigue since the focus is on neural gains.

For anybody that has achieved a decent size, splits will be better.

absolute garbage your talking.im 240 pounds ffs and i have never done splits.wtf are you on? you are stereotyping alot of full body guys. how the hell would you know what puts muscle on me? i lost muscle on a split,its too much rest for me and i dont respond.

[tomc12365]

Opinion? Full-body works for beginners because less focused work is required, and works for strength due to relatively low muscular fatigue since the focus is on neural gains.

For anybody that has achieved a decent size, splits will be better.

I see where you are coming from. But when I go to the gym i can do 3-4 excercies 3 sets of 10-12 for each muscle group. DOn't you think thats enough to stimulate muscle growth instead of coin 6 or seven sets for a muscle group?

[brianbetonga]

Completley agree! I feel like for younger guys, we can go harder for longer both in the bed and in the gym hahah jk. But in all seriousness split workouts I feel like i get TOO MUCH REST for each muscle group and the muscles take longer to grow

i doubt that dude i have 8 kids and would crush you on a gym session easily.lol

[VoxExMachina]

Here's my take:

Full Body Routines vs. Splits

The question often arises, especially from beginners, about what type of routine to use. Your buddy told you to use a full body routine, but the muscle mags suggest a 5-day "bodybuilder" split. You don't want to start off on the wrong foot, but there is so much information out there that sorting through what to do can be difficult.

This is some of my opinion on the subject, and maybe it'll help a few people out.


Full Body Routines:

In my opinion, this is the place for a beginner to start. I have many years of lifting experience, and have pretty much always used some form of bodybuilding split routine. However, if I had it to do over again, I would have begun with a good full-body routine, built around the compound lifts, done 3 times per week. When you are a beginner you don't generally have the muscular strength to work intensely enough, or with enough volume, to require as much recovery time as someone who is stronger or more experienced. If you are a young beginner, on top of that, you have very good recovery abilities due to high hormone levels. So, because you are recovered relatively quickly after each workout, you want to stimulate each muscle group more often to induce strength and growth.

Another reason to start with a full body program is that this gives you the opportunity to learn and practice the basic lifts: squats, deadlifts, bench press, overhead press, barbell rows, etc. Whether your goal is bodybuilding, strength athlete, sports, or just remaining fit, these really ought to form the basis of any routine. No matter what path you choose to "branch out" on later, these core lifts will serve you well.


2-Day Split Routines:

So the next question becomes: when should I think about split routines? In very simple terms, the answer is: when full body routines become too much. Usually, as you get stronger, it becomes very difficult to maintain enough energy to do squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc. all on the same day. You may also find that you want to add in a few isolation exercises to bring up your weak areas, or you may want to begin focusing more on each core lift. Another issue is recovery; as you get stronger, you are able to work out more intensely, and that means longer recovery times. So at that point, it makes sense to "split" things up by only doing a part of your previous full routine on any given day.

A logical place to make your first split is into an Upper / Lower type routine. This will have you doing your upper body work like bench press, rows, overhead pressing on 1 day, and your lower body work like squats on another day. Another way to go would be a "push/pull" type split where you do all your pulling exercises (rows, deads) on one day and your pushing exercises (squats, overhead press, bench) on another day. Exactly how you do it is up to you, but the point is to divide the workload per session. This will give you more time (and volume) per body part, and also give you a bit more recovery before you work that muscle again. Most people will typically cycle through a 2-day split like these twice per week. So instead of every muscle being stimulated 3 times per week with the full body, now it's twice per week with the 2-day split.


3+ Day Splits:

3, 4, 5 (or more!) day splits come in when you again feel the need to divide your workload to match your recovery abilities, or increase the amount of work you want to do on specific muscles or lifts. Generally, these type of splits are mostly bodybuilding related, but even strength athletes may chose to split so they can work on speed lifts one day, strength work another, etc.

At this point (speaking to bodybuilding) many lifters will only hit each muscle group once per week. This has the advantage of letting you really hammer a muscle group with a lot of weight and volume, and then give it plenty of time to recover while you're bringing the pain to the next group. Your full body effort is broken down into segments that are manageable from a workload, energy, and recovery standpoint.

If you are an "experienced" (older) lifter with decreased recovery abilities (we all ain't as young as we used to be), this type of split often is useful for staying healthy due to the increased recovery time per body part. The kids might not think it's important, but your tendons might.

There are so many variations of splits that I won't even attempt to detail all the possibilities. If you follow the advice in this post, by the time you need a multiple day split, you'll know your body, your goals, and have a pretty good idea of what you want to do.


Final Thoughts:

I believe it's a logical notion to start with a full body routine, and begin splitting only when you feel the need to increase your recovery or increase your volume. If you stick with the concept that you're trying to hit a muscle as often as you are able while still recovering adequately, and let that be your guide, you'll do okay.

Hopefully, this gives some food for thought to help you decide what type of routine you should use. Ultimately, however, it's worth saying that you can do fine with any well-designed program even if you begin with a split routine right from the beginning.



Repost from my thread in the Exercises Section...it's more applicable here.

[adamdavidson47]

I've been doing full body for about 7 months now. I'm starting to see exactly what Vox just said. I'm thinking of switching to an upper/lower split soon.

[tomc12365]

i doubt that dude i have 8 kids and would crush you on a gym session easily.lol

Highly doubt that my man! Not that many people including my own friends can keep up with me, not bragging just being real

[Engineer_Guy]

absolute garbage your talking.im 240 pounds ffs and i have never done splits.wtf are you on? you are stereotyping alot of full body guys. how the hell would you know what puts muscle on me? i lost muscle on a split,its too much rest for me and i dont respond.

Yea...240lbs...but at what BF%?

[oldballs]

In my opinion full body, every other day is the way to go( or upper body then lower body) With no exaggeration I have bulked up 50lbs of lean muscle using a full body routine every other day. I know many bodybuilders will claim this is for beginners. However, I feel like working out an all upper body routine one day then all lower next day gives the best results. The time spent in gym may be extended, but i feel this works th best along with a proper diet, plenty of rest, and supplementation. I think about it this way, if you do the split workout every other day, and you somehow miss a workout day, one muscle group isn't being trained for a whole week. ANd i know rest is crucial but lets be honest, despite what many people claim muscle don't need more then one-two days of solid rest before they are ready to hit the weights again-well at least for younger guys producing a lot of tester one. I feel the term "overtraining" is very overused and split body part training doesn't get the job done. WHAT ARE YOUR GUY's OPINION!?

Now that you have life all figured out, you should move out of your moms house while you still know everything.

[mustangjay559]

Come lift with some one serious that knows how to actually push the pace of lift. You are still young I would never say full body every day. Your massive weight gain is due to hitting puberty and massive growth spurt you just had. Very good though that you got to take advantage of your bodys natural progression along with gym progression.

I use to be able to hit chest like every other day and feel great, but the bigger I got the more time it took my body to recover. I would probably strain every muscle in my body hitting them to much, except calves and abs I cycle every other day right now...

I had a friend of mine who did full body work outs and then he started lifting with me and the next day he called me and told me he still could not even do a push up. For opt muscle growth this is my FAV split which is what I am doing now.

Mon. Off (due to school)
Tues. Chest Calves
weds Back and shoulders and abs (i am doing this to really bring out my rear delts)
Thurs Biceps and triceps Calvs
Friday Legs Traps and Abs
Sat- Dead Lifts and Pull ups

I push my secondary muscles REALLY hard for example, hitting my chest I make sure I get a nice pump in my triceps that day as well using close grips and dips. Best gains of my life, I have never gone past 198 thinking I hit my max weight and out of NO were with a better diet and this spit I am now 206

[Kickerof09]

Been using the 'Waterbury Method' 3 day full body routine and it has done wonders for me. Maybe because I get more rest vs. a 5 day split? All I know is if it ain't broke, don't fix it

[ThickAsABrick]

age: 17

[brianbetonga]

lmao i cannot believe this guy is now asking my bf ratio just because i do full body at 240 pounds hahahahahaha.so if i do split routines and was 240 pounds thats ok is it? someone get this idiot out of here ffs.i cannot stop laughing at some people on here who seem almost jealous we do full body.and it works fine and better than a split for some of us is a crime it seems.you have to work with heavy weights and do alot of volume but it works much better for me than splits.why arent people happy for us? why not accept it? I know i will go to split training and lose muscle duh

[IDrinkBloodLOL]

Opinion doesn't matter.

Tool around and find what actually works for you, that's your answer.

[barryriley]

lmao i cannot believe this guy is now asking my bf ratio just because i do full body at 240 pounds hahahahahaha.so if i do split routines and was 240 pounds thats ok is it? someone get this idiot out of here ffs.i cannot stop laughing at some people on here who seem almost jealous we do full body.and it works fine and better than a split for some of us is a crime it seems.get a life

He was asking because it's impossible to tell someone's progress without actually knowing their body fat. You said "I have gone from 160 pounds to 240 pounds using heavy weights" and this is mightily impressive if it is all muscle but I could go from 160 to 240 using McDonalds. I wouldn't take it personally, he was just trying to clarify the point.

I still do a 5 days split with only bis and tris done on the same day. I keep telling myself I'm going to switch it up as I seem to be the only person I know doing a 5 day split but I'm seeing such great results from it I don't see the point. My point is do whatever works and respect the other guys doing completely different things

[oldballs]

lmao i cannot believe this guy is now asking my bf ratio just because i do full body at 240 pounds hahahahahaha.so if i do split routines and was 240 pounds thats ok is it? someone get this idiot out of here ffs.i cannot stop laughing at some people on here who seem almost jealous we do full body.and it works fine and better than a split for some of us is a crime it seems.you have to work with heavy weights and do alot of volume but it works much better for me than splits.why arent people happy for us? why not accept it? I know i will go to split training and lose muscle duh

welcome to BB.com, let me explain how this works. When someone starts a thread saying there is a best way to train they always get flamed. Thank you.

[Nishoba]

In my opinion full body, every other day is the way to go( or upper body then lower body) With no exaggeration I have bulked up 50lbs of lean muscle using a full body routine every other day. I know many bodybuilders will claim this is for beginners. However, I feel like working out an all upper body routine one day then all lower next day gives the best results. The time spent in gym may be extended, but i feel this works th best along with a proper diet, plenty of rest, and supplementation. I think about it this way, if you do the split workout every other day, and you somehow miss a workout day, one muscle group isn't being trained for a whole week. ANd i know rest is crucial but lets be honest, despite what many people claim muscle don't need more then one-two days of solid rest before they are ready to hit the weights again-well at least for younger guys producing a lot of tester one. I feel the term "overtraining" is very overused and split body part training doesn't get the job done. WHAT ARE YOUR GUY's OPINION!?

I agree with you, i've been doing full body 2 times a week for several months and it worked great so far.

[CountChocula92]

absolute garbage your talking.im 240 pounds ffs and i have never done splits.wtf are you on? you are stereotyping alot of full body guys. how the hell would you know what puts muscle on me? i lost muscle on a split,its too much rest for me and i dont respond.

Easy there brah. I'm saying that eventually full-body routines become too tiring to continually improve a muscle group.

A lot of powerlifters train full-body and are bigger than you, so wtf are you on? It doesn't mean their training is optimal for getting as muscular as possible.

I see where you are coming from. But when I go to the gym i can do 3-4 excercies 3 sets of 10-12 for each muscle group. DOn't you think thats enough to stimulate muscle growth instead of coin 6 or seven sets for a muscle group?

Sure, for now. Eventually it will get tougher to gain muscle though. That's when you might think about splitting up your workouts.

[Engineer_Guy]

lmao i cannot believe this guy is now asking my bf ratio just because i do full body at 240 pounds hahahahahaha.so if i do split routines and was 240 pounds thats ok is it? someone get this idiot out of here ffs.i cannot stop laughing at some people on here who seem almost jealous we do full body.and it works fine and better than a split for some of us is a crime it seems.you have to work with heavy weights and do alot of volume but it works much better for me than splits.why arent people happy for us? why not accept it? I know i will go to split training and lose muscle duh

Being 240lbs and 30% bf is completely different than being 240 lbs and 20% which is worlds away from being 240 lbs and 10% bf.

I didn't say anything about full body routines.

[Gwool]

how long should you be in the gym for a full day?

[-Lucifer]

lmao i cannot believe this guy is now asking my bf ratio just because i do full body at 240 pounds hahahahahaha.so if i do split routines and was 240 pounds thats ok is it? someone get this idiot out of here ffs.i cannot stop laughing at some people on here who seem almost jealous we do full body.and it works fine and better than a split for some of us is a crime it seems.you have to work with heavy weights and do alot of volume but it works much better for me than splits.why arent people happy for us? why not accept it? I know i will go to split training and lose muscle duh

Age: 40

Just chill.

[midcoastking33]

Frequency is more important than anything, if you're natural you're cheating yourself by hitting each muscle just once a week

[KarmicEffects]

Full body is great until you know your limitations and before you want to start hitting target parts that are lacking to maximize lifts. 3 day splits are not as effective unless you KNOW and I mean KNOWWWWW you limitations of your body...some people it takes a year, others take much longer. Big fan of the upper/lower split because if I have a bad day, it doesn't ruin my week (hit it again in 3 days) and I can do all the target work I want spending insane amounts of time in the gym. Like I said though, full body was fantastic for that first year but it definitely lost it's strength effectiveness once the major lifts got to a certain point personally. Whether that was from over training, change of workout, more interesting, or overall a better routine? Who knows. "You can't form an opinion off something if you've never tried the option. Results may vary."

[VoxExMachina]

This thread is full of fail.

[-Lucifer]

This thread is full of fail.

I disagree. Post #8 is full of win.

[medjen]

I disagree. Post #8 is full of win.

Suck up.

[VoxExMachina]

I disagree. Post #8 is full of win.