2023-06-21 16:00:23
Monday is pecs, Tuesday is back, Wednesday is panzani, Thursday is shoulders, Friday is legs, aperitif, Saturday is arms and Sunday is mass.
Here’s roughly what your routine looks like, good old SPLIT TRAINING for families where each muscle area has its dedicated day (except the legs, which you missed the last 37 sessions).
In contrast, the FULL BODY is a training format in which all the muscles of the body are worked at each session.
Often, it is reserved for beginners, telling themselves that at their level, the full body will not generate great results… what a mistake.
Let us show you why the full body has its place in your training routine.
1/ More training volume
As you probably know, training volume is described as the total amount of work you do.
There are several ways to define it, the main one being to add up the total number of sets of exercises per muscle group.
Going back to your split described above, if you work the pecs on Monday with 3 exercises of 4 sets each, your training volume is 12 sets on this muscle group.
Inasmuch as beginner (first two years of bodybuilding), 8-10 sets of work per muscle group are sufficient to have decent muscle gains.
They can therefore get by by training each muscle group once a week.
As an advanced practitioner, however, you will need to increase the volume of training to continue maximizing your gains.
Research (1) has already largely established the correlation between training volume and hypertrophy on advanced practitioners.
Basically, the more sets you do, the more muscle gains you can claim.
So, by having a higher training frequency, you are eligible for better muscle development.
And what better way to do this than to place 5 full bodies in your week?
Of course, this should be put into perspective with the famous adage that “the best is the enemy of good”.
From a certain threshold, doing too many sets can be counterproductive and lead to overtraining, but that won’t happen with the full body…
2/ An effective number of sets per workout
With full body, you can distribute your regular training volume over a larger number of training sessions, which allows you to avoid exceeding the threshold of the maximum effect volume per training session.
The question is where exactly is this tipping point?
Well, according to the scientific literature, it seems to be around 9 sets per muscle per workout.
This study (2) for example showed the supremacy of 9 sets of training VS 14 for building muscle and strength.
In the first mentioned study (1) the researchers showed better results by staying in the slice [5-10] sets per muscle per workout than in the slice [15-20] series.
We can therefore claim better results by doing less and if the subject interests you, do not miss our guide to minimalist bodybuilding: Bodybuilding: more muscles in less time, here is the only valid method.
The full body is precisely the assurance of doing fewer sets per muscle per workout, but of increasing the total volume over the week by increasing the training frequency.
Let’s take an example, you want to make a minimum of 25 sets of exercise per muscle per week.
Taking a maximum effective volume of 9 sets per workout, you should do 3 workouts per muscle per week to achieve your goal.
If you want to set the volume even higher, you will need even more training (4/ week to reach 30, 5 to reach 40, etc).
In this case, doesn’t the full body impose itself as the practical solution par excellence?
3/ Better training quality
Even if you wouldn’t aim for such high training volume totals, the full body still has advantages for you!
If we go back to our classic SPLIT example, it’s a safe bet that the quality of your repetitions decreases drastically as you train.
On a chest workout, your bench press will be ok, then it will start to deteriorate on your weighted dips (with the fatigue that accumulates) and your pulley flyes will not be the most effective.
Divide and conquer!
By spreading your training volume across several workouts during the week, you ensure that you gain in quality and do not lose in performance.
You will thus be better able to ensure a progressive overload on each of your exercises.
4/ Increased recovery capacity
It may seem intuitive, but training more often can improve recovery capacity rather than impair it, the first two weeks will be hard, but the body will adapt.
I know what you think, “yes, but if you train the same muscles 5 times a week, you don’t leave enough recovery time between each session“.
It may seem counterintuitive, but training more often can improve recovery ability.
In this study (3), the researchers formed two groups of subjects (all student bodybuilders):
a control group, a group with higher training volume.
Both groups carried out 4 resistance workouts consisting of 2 leg sessions and two upper body sessions per week.
At the end of the 4 weeks, the control group continued the protocol for two additional weeks while the second group switched to one leg session per day for 2 weeks!
At the end of these 2 weeks, group number 2 showed twice the strength results on exercises such as the squat or the leg press.
THE daily workouts were more effective that the group split controls.
The most amazing thing happened when the researchers looked at the recovery capacity of their subjects: group number 2 had significantly improved their resistance to fatigue to such an extent that their leg extension strength recovered fully in just 22 hours. .
To qualify, however, you must make sure you sleep like a baby. For this: 11 evening habits to adopt to change your nights (and your life), just copy them!
5/ The shortest
“Last, but not least” as our English-speaking friends say! Last but not least, you will save time.
Of course, you will have to visit the room more frequently, which may not be suitable for you.
But there is still a little something to save you more time…the superset.
This is a formidable technique with which you will chain 2 or 3 exercises without a break.
It works wonderfully with antagonistic muscles and fits perfectly into a full body:
bicep curls + tricep extensions, leg curls + leg extensions, push-ups + pull-ups, pulling + bench press.
This method allows more volume to be completed in the same time interval without affecting performance.
Some studies (4) even seem to show that it can improve your work capacity and boost your earnings.
A good superset template would be:
one upper body pushing exercise, one upper body pulling exercise, one lower body exercise.
See an example of a FULL BODY workout
What to remember?
The full body is not certainly not the prerogative of bodybuilding beginners.
Despite all its benefits, it is also not for everyone.
To consider switching to full body 5 times a week, it is better to be an advanced practitionerit could be counterproductive otherwise.
As a beginner, you don’t need that much training frequency/volume.
If you sleep badly and/or are in a calorie deficit, also forget this format!
Updated by Quentin on: 06/21/2023
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