3 day full body split volume.

[Jaime]

Currently doing a full body workout three days a week. Wondered if more or less volume would be better.


Dips 15 sets.

Flat bench 10-15 sets.

Wide grip pull ups/close grip chins 14 sets.

Shrugs 5 sets.

Squats 7 sets.

Bent over rows 7 sets.

Standing triceps extensions 10 sets.

Upright rows 10 sets.

Strength is always good and i don't feel fatigued but i'm not sure of correct balance with a full body routine.

[haider]

you can't be serious? 

Thats 83 sets in one workout  with 6 major movements 

Ideally a fullbody workout should be kept as simple as possible. Or else you will burn yourself out, or your workouts will be too lengthy. So you should sacrifice trying to hit every bodypart with specific exercises.

I would do something like:

workout A:
Bench 4-5 sets
Rows 4-5 sets
Squats 4-5 sets

workout B:
Dips 4-5 sets
Pullups 4-5 sets
Deadlifts 4-5 sets

you can add in a few 'isolations' for arms and such but I think its unnecessary. Just run the fullbody split for a while then get back to a split routine if you are worried about losing some stridations in your glute-ham tie-ins.

[Yev33]

That looks like way too much.
I've been doing 3x a week full body since the beginning of January, basic and to the point.

Workout A
Pull Ups
Standing Db press
Good mornings
Single Leg calf raises
Leg raises

Workout B
Incline Bench Press
Reverse Grip BB rows
Single Leg Squats
Face pulls

Workout C
Squats
Tricep Dips
Neutral grip pull ups
Incline Crunches

[hyhyisso]

Hello,

This is what I have always recommended for full body workouts:

-Full squat - 4 sets of 15, 12, 8, 6
-Stiff legged dead lifts - 4 sets of 15, 12, 10, 8
-Pull ups - 3 sets of max reps
-Bench press - 4 sets of 12, 10, 8, 6
-Standing military press - 3 sets of 12, 10, 8
-Lying triceps extension  - 3 sets of 12, 10, 8
-Standing dumbbell curls - 3 sets of 12, 10, 8
-Superset ab crunches with reverse crunches - 3 sets of max reps

This is a pretty basic workout.  Like haider pointed out, you're doing 83 plus sets.  You might be working out to exhaustion but most likely you're probably ending up pacing yourself.  You don't want to pace yourself.  You want to up the intensity and fry your muscles in the shortest time possible without hurting yourself.  This workout shouldn't take you much more than 45 mins.  If pressed for time, you could either drop the arm work or cut it to 2 sets as your arms would be pretty warmed up by the end of the military presses.  

Again, to your question of "more or less" volume - think intensity and think shortest duration needed to get max intensity and that will answer your question.

[wes]

Personally,I could never get into a full body routine.

I know it works well for lots of people but it just isn`t my cup of tea.

[Voland]

I'd never do full body.
two bodyparts the same day is already mentally tough. Knowing that while you're doing the first there's another one coming and once you finish that one you still have another one to do.

Ideally i'd do one bodypart a day. As i don't have that many days i try to do 4 days/week at least.

[jpm101]

Don't know if were're being played by Jaime, with his version of a full body workout....and he never gets fatigued either!

General rule of thumb, for full body, is that the heaviest compound exercise, for the larger muscle groups is done first. Which in most cases is either squats or DL's. than a back/lat movement, chest, shoulders, arms &  abs.etc.  

Haider give an excellent example of a good basic full body workouts. Splitting the exercise to two main sections, on two different days. We give that type program to football players (and some other athletes) who need to add some strength and muscular weight during off season. But prefer having the squat & DL, done first. Also include some cleans and/or Hi-pulls to round out the program.

For a general full body  workout, it's usually 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps. And from 5 to 7 movements. Based on a 3 day a week plan. Which might be something like: squat, BB row, bench, overhead BB press, tricep press & BB curl & abs.  Throw in a couple sets of calf raises if you really feel the need. Or try the program that Haider suggested, with the adding of a couple more exercise to program A) and program B). Good Luck.

[oldtimer1]

Full body routines often get the beginner's tag.  In reality it's the hardest workout you can do.  I have made the quickest gains using a full body routine. I pick one or two exercises in general per body part and do two work sets per exercise. I start with the biggest body parts unless there is a conflict like doing two pressing movements back to back.

The lot of bodybuilders could be making better gains using a whole body routine and almost all athletes should be doing a whole body routine. The body fatigues as a unit and it is systemic. Body parts do not work in isolation to accomplish any athletic endeavor.

This is one variation I have used with a lot of success but it's so hard it's quick to burn out in too.

Cleans 3 x 3 then 1 x 1
squats 2 x 8
lunge 1 x 8
standing leg biceps curls 2 x 10
dumbbell bench 2 x 8
chins 2 x max
seated cable rows  2 x 12
military press 2 x 8
dumbbell laterals 2 x 10
weighted dips 2 x 10
barbell curls 2 x 10
hanging leg raises 2 x max
ab pulley crunches 2 x 20
standing calf raise 2 x 15
weighted back extensions 2 x 15

This routine is done say Monday-Wednesday-Friday with weekends off will give very quick results. I use a two week cycle then I'm fried and I go back to a split routine or I change all the exercises in a whole body routine.

 Figure out from past experience what your goals are on the sixth work out will be concerning poundage.  Then drop bag 5 to ten pounds going back to workout one.  So if on work out 6 your goal is deep reps in weighted dips with 35lbs. your first workout you will use 10lbs.  Then every workout go up 5 lbs. 1st Monday it's 10lbs. Wednesday it's 15lbs. Friday it's 20lbs.  Next week Monday it's 25 lbs and so forth.  Experience will be used to predict your 6th workout goal.  

I have used this routine in the past when I felt I was out of shape and no bs in two week you can see a drastic difference. It's just to hard of a workout to continue more than 2 to 3 weeks if you are truly pushing yourself.

[Jaime]

Don't know if were're being played by Jaime, with his version of a full body workout....and he never gets fatigued either!

General rule of thumb, for full body, is that the heaviest compound exercise, for the larger muscle groups is done first. Which in most cases is either squats or DL's. than a back/lat movement, chest, shoulders, arms &  abs.etc.  

Haider give an excellent example of a good basic full body workouts. Splitting the exercise to two main sections, on two different days. We give that type program to football players (and some other athletes) who need to add some strength and muscular weight during off season. But prefer having the squat & DL, done first. Also include some cleans and/or Hi-pulls to round out the program.

For a general full body  workout, it's usually 2-3 sets of 8-10 reps. And from 5 to 7 movements. Based on a 3 day a week plan. Which might be something like: squat, BB row, bench, overhead BB press, tricep press & BB curl & abs.  Throw in a couple sets of calf raises if you really feel the need. Or try the program that Haider suggested, with the adding of a couple more exercise to program A) and program B). Good Luck.

Not at all. I know that it's not conventional and i would adapt aspects of it to see whether it was more efficent.

But i really like volume training. I don't seem to get fatigued, strength is always constant or up and i feel great. The efficency in regards to gains is the grey area, i guess the only way to test this is to play around with less volume and see the effects from a first person perspective.

Thanks for some of the routines guys, it's nice to have a basic outline.

[jparker]

Currently doing a full body workout three days a week. Wondered if more or less volume would be better.


Dips 15 sets.

Flat bench 10-15 sets.

Wide grip pull ups/close grip chins 14 sets.

Shrugs 5 sets.

Squats 7 sets.

Bent over rows 7 sets.

Standing triceps extensions 10 sets.

Upright rows 10 sets.

Strength is always good and i don't feel fatigued but i'm not sure of correct balance with a full body routine.

How may reps per set?

[Jaime]

How may reps per set?

Most sets 10 few more few less to failure.

[jparker]

Most sets 10 few more few less to failure.

oh ok, i thought you did that amount of volume 3 days a week i was like holy shit!

[Rammstein]

Doing Wendler's full body template right now:

http://www.t-nation.com/strength-training-topics/1316

[jpm101]

With the K.I.S.S. factor in mind, I'm finding that the brief full body workouts are starting to make a comeback (been included in high school and college spots training for many, many years). The original Bill Star program (with slightly different versions) still holds true. Though he was not the first to suggest such type training programs. Very huge and powerful men were training that way since the beginning of the last century. And lifting with the crude solid BB/DB's, some loaded with shot.

Europe had a strong influence on the short and heavy workouts, later adapted to America. Some of those stories about old time  strongmen and their lifts were truly amazing (kept very careful records of lifts back than). And a lot of the training quarters were in the back of beer gardens and such. Kind of cool, really..taking beer and cigar breaks during workouts. Beer barrel lifting was also very popular back than. Those guy's weren't pretty like BB'ers, but probably could walk through walls. Or so I have read. Good luck.

[rambo_john]

With the K.I.S.S. factor in mind, I'm finding that the brief full body workouts are starting to make a comeback (been included in high school and college spots training for many, many years). The original Bill Star program (with slightly different versions) still holds true. Though he was not the first to suggest such type training programs. Very huge and powerful men were training that way since the beginning of the last century. And lifting with the crude solid BB/DB's, some loaded with shot.

Europe had a strong influence on the short and heavy workouts, later adapted to America. Some of those stories about old time  strongmen and their lifts were truly amazing (kept very careful records of lifts back than). And a lot of the training quarters were in the back of beer gardens and such. Kind of cool, really..taking beer and cigar breaks during workouts. Beer barrel lifting was also very popular back than. Those guy's weren't pretty like BB'ers, but probably could walk through walls. Or so I have read. Good luck.

IMO, they got STRONG using such a program because that's what it is designed for, but they got BIG with it because of their DRUG usage.

[jpm101]

Rambo, John: First let me give you the up most respect for your war record and all the challenges you encountered during the many battles, hand to hand fights and combat adventures you have had over the years. Just my humble view ,but I think "First Blood" was the best film about your early life. Guessing you in you 60's by now.

Actually I was mentioning the strong men of the early 20th and late 19th century, mostly in  Europe, where chemical engineering drugs where not available (not invented). And of course that was the intention to using those strength building programs...to get stronger. Lift big weights, eat big and get jumbo size was pretty much the idea back than. Sorry that point eludes you. Russia (and perhaps East Germany) was the first country to use serious drugs for their Olympic, and lifting, sports for both men and women.

 Weaker strains of 'roids began being put into medical use after WWII. Directed to the American and other prisoners of war, as an effort to rebuild their bodies, from the inhuman conditions they went under. Japan had the worse record of mistreatment of prisoners, according to military records.  

Again, all my respect for your stellar military accomplishments  Rambo, John.   And Good Luck.

[Lunarr]

Was thinking of a full body workout too. Thanks to you guys. Recently saw first blood again. Watched it with a commentary by stallone. Cool. He was in shape there at 164 lbs, after rocky 3.