How to Structure Full Body Workouts (& why to do them)
There are countless ways to split up your workouts throughout the week.
What I would argue is the best (for most people) is a full-body workout split.
Full-body workouts are one in which every muscle in the body gets trained to some degree in every workout.
In this article, I will briefly explain why I’d argue a full-body workout split would serve you best, and how to structure them for best results.
As always, if you feel you have questions left unanswered, you’re welcome to email me at info@fitnesssimplified.org.
Why Full-Body Workouts are Helpful
First things first: how your workouts are split up in the week isn’t what matters most.
What matter is most is your total weekly volume.
In other words, how many sets per muscle per week is the important metric to focus on. If that number is equal, it makes little difference how those sets are split up throughout the week.
In other words, you can think of it this way. Say you were doing 7 sets for all muscle groups in a week. It would make very little difference if those sets were done through full-body workouts or if you did a single muscle in each session.
In light of that being said, here are the main reasons why full-body workouts are probably still your best bet:
They allow for life to happen
Odds are you may have to miss a workout here and there. Maybe you had some extra work come up, or maybe you had a friend visit town for a few days. Say you were following a traditional workout split popularized by bodybuilding culture where you train one muscle per session (i.e. “chest day” or “leg day”). If this were the case, you’d miss your entire weekly volume for a muscle by missing one session!
With full-body workouts, this isn’t a worry. Since you’re training every muscle in every workout, you’ll never miss out on a muscle’s entire weekly volume by missing one workout.
They leave you less “beat up” feeling
The reason so many people feel like they got hit by a car after every workout is because they’re giving individual muscles too much volume in a single session.
With full-body workouts, you perform much less volume per muscle per session; but with a higher frequency of training. As a result, it’s easier to recovery from each individual session and problems such as joint pain are less likely to show up.
They mix more easily with activities outside of strength training
Say you wanted to build muscle and strength, but you also wanted to build your cardiorespiratory health & fitness; or you wanted to train a martial art throughout the week as well; or you want to try out the new rock climbing gym in your area; or any other desired physical pursuit. Because overall fatigue is more evenly distributed with full-body workouts, using them in conjunction with other physical pursuits is much easier.
They give you access to more exercises than other workout splits
Many exercises themselves use so many muscles in the body that they are effectively full-body exercises. Take a bent over row, for example. This is commonly used as a back exercise. However, since you are basically performing a paused deadlift the entire time, it does stimulate your legs a good deal too. Front squats provide another example. Commonly used as a leg exercise, but requires intense work from your upper body throughout the movement as well.
How to Structure an Effective Full-Body Workout
It should be noted that there is a near infinite ways to go about this. What’s best for YOU will vary depending on goals, time available, current fitness level, limitations, etc.
However, as a general starting point, the following would work well for most people:
1-2 Power movements or plyometric exercises
Examples: snatch variations, pogo jumps, box jumps, plyometric push-ups, etc.
1 Upper body pull movement & 1 upper body push movement (superset)
Examples: dumbbell bench press & dumbbell row, lat pulldown & shoulder press, etc.
2 opposing lower body movements (superset)
Examples: squat variation & leg curl variation, deadlift variation & leg extension variation, etc.
Core & accessory work
Examples: abdominal training, oblique training, arm training, lateral raises, etc.
To put this all together, here’s an example workout:
1 set
1 set
Flat dumbbell bench press & Bent over row superset
2-3 sets each
Goblet squat & leg curl superset
2-3 sets each
2 sets
In a workout such as this, every muscle in the body is trained effectively. Plus, power production and strength production are trained, which are important for not just performance but also your physical health.
This sort of session would be performed anywhere from 2-3x per week, depending on your specific situation.
It should be noted that the workouts throughout the week should be varied in their exercise selection, but your weekly routine should remain the same and be progressed for at least 4 weeks.
As a final caveat, the structure I’ve laid out isn’t the only way to set them up. It is simply the way I’ve found most appropriate for most people in terms of time availability and volume tolerance.
