I'm going to cross the line to argue one of the most debated topics in the history of resistance training; the full body routine vs. the split. Now let's first decide what a "full body" and "split" routine is. A "split" generally means you're splitting your workouts up by muscles, movements, or body parts; for instance, push/pull/legs is a split of movement, upper/lower is a split of body part, and conventional bodybuilding splits that target specific muscles one at a time or even two at a time are considered split of muscle groups. All of these have their place and have their pros and cons but I do have a favorite and I'll get to that later in the article.
Let's start with the "full body routine", a routine that goes by exercises and nothing else. Basically, instead of hitting the muscle with loads of volume in one day you would hit it multiple times over the week increasing the frequency and sometimes decreasing the movement variation. Full body routines can typically be better for beginners since it puts focus on the movements that need focus and less focus on the movements that are not needed. The beginning exercises that are needed for balance and strength for muscles are horizontal pushes and pulls, vertical pushes and pulls, squats, deadlifts, and hamstring work. Full body routines often put emphasis on these while some splits (although not all) put emphasis on other muscle movements.
Most full body routines are in the "workout a/workout b" format; workout 1, workout 2, and workout 3 format and often incorporates squats at the beginning of every workout. Most hit each muscle three times per week and is arguably superior for beginner strength training. They lag, however, due to neglecting certain muscle groups; for instance, if you perform a full body routine that looks like this.
Monday- Workout 1
Squat
Bench
Row
Press
Chins
Abs
Due to the amount of movements, the hormones, nervous system, muscles, and anaerobic metabolism can all be exhausted. Let's not forget muscle stores very little phosphate creatine and ATP, typically about 12-15 seconds worth ATP before the body must begin breaking down it's glucose and creatine to make energy. During a split, the hormones are better because you come in and do maybe 3-4 exercises and you're finished, so cortisol (the catabolic hormone) release is kept at minimum.
Now let's take a look at split training, it's often the most relied on routines for bodybuilders and the most popular style of training for Westside barbell powerlifters that swear by training with the conjugate method, involving upper body and lower body days. People are often stereotypical looking at splits and saying "they are for steroid users", because it just shows they're stereotyping "splits" with "bodybuilding splits" that take each muscle group and work them separately. Here is what a typical bodybuilding routine might look like.
Day 1- Chest
Day 2- Back
Day 3- Shoulders
Day 4- Legs
Day 5- Arms
Now, this type of training isn't for natural bodybuilders. 2 days on, 1 day off or 3 days per week is far more superior than that style training for hormonal reasons. While "overtraining" generally refers to the body "systems" is can refer to the endocrine system responsible for releasing anabolic and catabolic hormones, essential to muscle building. You generally need to give your endocrine system and hormone levels time to recuperate or else you won't receive hormonal help and catabolic hormones will be released predominantly more than anabolic hormones, resulting in the breakdown of muscle tissue even with a good diet plan. Luckily, those are not the only types of splits, we have 3-day splits and upper/lower splits.
Now to me, 3-day splits generally lag in frequency. Muscle is never fully recuperated when you train it again, nor does it need to be. Remodeling of muscle tissue can take several weeks, even with a high protein/high carbohydrate diet. You not recuperate faster than 24 hours hormonally; that doesn't matter to powerlifters and bodybuilders that use anabolics. When you use steroids, your natural testosterone production is cut off and replaced with a synthetic testosterone that is elevated, this new testosterone is more efficient at building muscle, so you never have to worry about catabolic hormones, so you can spend hours in the gym (like most bodybuilders do) and not overtrain your endocrine system. Now, let's not forget that natural athletes should train four days per week at the most in terms of resistance, but here is an example of a good split for a natural lifter.
Day 1- Chest & Biceps; Flat Bench, Incline Bench, Weighted Dips, Curls
Day 3- Back & Triceps; Pullups, Deadlifts, BB Rows, Skull Crushers
Day 5- Legs & Shoulders; Squats, Glute/Ham Raise, Press, BO Lateral Raise
Here is another, yet, this one is a upper/lower split.
Day 1- Upper Body
Day 2- Lower Body (Push Dominant, 3 pushes, 2 pulls)
Day 3- Off/Stretching/Cardio/Grip/Core/etc.
Day 4- Lower Body
Day 5- Upper Body (Pull Dominant, 3 pulls, 2 pushes)
2 days on, 1 day off, 2 days on, 2 days off is generally the most effective style of training I've ever seen. My clients generally start out with linear based programs like beginner specific training and stronglifts 5 x 5 and usually end up gaining about 30 pounds in a matter of months. Once they begin to stall and their lifts get impressive, i.e. 2 plate bench for 10 reps, 3 plate squat for 10 reps, 4 plate deadlift for 10 reps, 20 pullups, etc. and then you begin to stall and upper/lower splits are far superior. It doesn't take long with consistency to use a full body routine based on linear increments of huge compound lifts to get to that point where you're considered intermediate. Provided you started out skinny, with calories, and progressive resistance all that is needed is consistency.
| Will "MVP" Riggs Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Will_E_Riggs | |
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