Rehashing this story again: Met a lot of older guy's (in their early to mid 30's, old to me at the time), when I was in my teens, who had come up against more responsibilities with marriage, family matters, professions, etc. Had to shorten their training time quite a bit to meet more serious obligations like new homes, paying bills, kids,etc. In other words, entering real life. The still loved to workout and keep in some form of shape, so they had to budget their workout periods. Full body workouts became their standard way of training. Most of them would K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) the training. Usually Squats, Benches, presses, lat machine/chins, etc. Or some version of these basic exercises. Usually 2 or 3 sets at most for a body part. Two to 3 times a week, nothing more. Just could not afford the time involved. Getting in and out of the gym (including showers) with-in an hour was the usually goal. A couple of guy's I knew pooled their money together and invested in a home style power rack. Suprising result was that most of these guy's, who really had not made much in gains for quite some time (or no gains at all), began adding more muscle mass, getting leaner and stronger. And this was at a some what rapid pace.That had made a great impression on me at that time, and even now, that less can be more for most people. These were serious hard core men who would train 5 to 6 days a week, not anyone who just fooled around in the gym like a lot of people do.
Doing whole body workouts can give very good results. The general rule is to work the largest muscle groups first and the smaller group last. Example: legs (squats, back (rows), chest (bench), delts (presses), arms (triceps and than biceps). Try 2 to 3 sets each muscle group, with one exercise per that muscle group. One of the reasons being that the larger muscle groups will require greater energy effort and will need your full focus because much more weight will be used. Might want to check out the H.I.T. program and others of like style, also. The old PHA system had been used by some of them with great results in stamina and fat loss with holding onto muscle size. One added point, try to avoid going to complete failure on any one exercise. Really not needed. Good Luck.
