Try Them Today
Try Them Today
You hear both sides and one is as convincing as the other. In one camp are the full-body believers who feel that simplicity and minimalism is best; that often criticize split training programs and harken back to the old days of lifting styles from the 50's and 60's.
In the other camp is the split routine army who feel they have experience on their side. They believe smashing a body part with unwavering focus is the path to a bigger, more muscular physique. Why split your focus on numerous body parts each workout when you can concentrate on only one at a time?
Let's open this issue to debate, break down the pros and cons and come to some sort of verdict on which is the better way to go. Although this argument may never go away, at least we can make a little headway into understanding the reason behind both.
It bears mentioning that there are several significantly different forms of split training. For example, there is a huge difference between an upper/lower split which may have you training each body part twice per week and another training program which has you train each body part once per week.
Don't think there's much of a difference? In a year's time you will have trained everything 104x with an upper/lower split versus only 52x with a once-per-week split.
For the purposes of this article and the sake of argument, we are comparing full-body with once per week with the goal of building muscle mass and developing some strength.
Everyone in gym has different goals; build muscle, lose fat, be more athletic, gain strength, create more power, increase endurance or any combination.
Here's the verdict: It completely depends on what your goal is. With that said, let's list-out a few goals as they relate to each training program.
If your goal includes general fitness, building overall athleticism, muscular endurance training, base strength, or if you desire to complement an aerobic training program with resistance training then full-body is best.
If your goal includes developing maximum amounts of muscle mass, continuing an intermediate or advanced weight training program, developing maximum strength or simply want to maintain your current levels of muscle mass and strength then a split routine is best.
The answer is somewhere in the middle for most gym-goers. Full-body training doesn't allow for enough flexibility for specializing and/or adding volume to develop weak areas and once-per-week training allows for too much flexibility and not enough frequency.
Below is a program designed for both camps to meet in the middle. With enough frequency, volume and rest it will provide any level gym-goer with just the right amount of stimulation. Remember, simpler is better and your efforts should be steered more toward progressing in amount of weight used or increasing reps each session. As long as you are training toward those goals and recovering properly, you'e on the right track.
Session 1 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Monday and Thursday | |||||
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |||
Incline bench barbell or dumbbell press - Warm-up sets | 2 | 12 | |||
Incline bench barbell or dumbbell press - 60 sec rest between sets | 4 | 8-12 | |||
Flat bench dumbbell press - 60 sec rest between sets | 4 | 8-12 | |||
Lat Pull Downs - Warm-up sets | 2 | 12 | |||
Medium or wide-grip pull-up - 60 sec rest between sets | 4 | AMAP* | |||
Barbell or dumbbell row - 60 sec rest between sets | 4 | 8-12 | |||
Seated dumbbell shoulder press - Warm-up sets | 1 | 12 | |||
Seated dumbbell shoulder press - 45 sec rest between sets | 3 | 8-12 | |||
Standing dumbbell side lateral raise - 45 sec rest between sets | 3 | 8-12 | |||
Floor crunch - 30 sec rest between sets | 3 | 15-20 | |||
Hanging leg lift - 30 sec rest between sets | 3 | 15-20 |
Session 2 | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Tuesday and Friday | |||||
Exercise | Sets | Reps | |||
Barbell or dumbbell curl - Warm-up | 2 | 12 | |||
Barbell or dumbbell curl - 45 sec rest between sets | 4 | 8-12 | |||
Parallel bar dip or close-grip bench press - Warm-up | 2 | 12 | |||
Parallel bar dip or close-grip bench press - 45 sec rest between sets | 4 | 8-12 | |||
Standing or seated calf raise - Warm-up | 2 | 12 | |||
Standing or seated calf raise - 45 sec rest between sets | 4 | 10-15 | |||
Barbell back squat - Warm-up | 2 | 12 | |||
Barbell back squat - 90 sec rest between sets | 4 | 8-12 | |||
Bulgarian split squat or leg press - 60 sec rest between sets | 3 | 8-12 | |||
Barbell or dumbbell Romanian deadlift or lying leg curl - 60 sec rest between sets | 3 | 8-12 |