Do you recommend a full body workout 3 times a week or a 4 day plan with 2 leg days, one push and one pull day? I also do HITT, followed by easy steady state cardio for 30 minutes 3 times/week. Shooting for fatloss and building muscle. Thanks
Do you recommend a full body workout 3 times a week or a 4 day plan with 2 leg days, one push and one pull day? I also do HITT, followed by easy steady state cardio for 30 minutes 3 times/week. Shooting for fatloss and building muscle. Thanks
I would do 3 full body workouts as you are doing alot of training a week if you are doing cardio aswell!Hope your diet is good
It really depends on your goal and how your body best responds. I gain better strength and lose more fat on a 3x/wk full-body, but I tend to put on more mass on a 4x/wk push pull.
However, I've not done a Cosgrove hypertrophy program yet, so I might be talking out my ass.
Still, while it's the general case that full-body's work best, sometimes, for certain individuals, they do not. But, since it is a general case, try it and see what results you get.
I'm on a full-body, 3X program ... and frankly, I can't stand it. Yeah, I sweat my ass off at workouts but I find I'm not mentally engaged enough. I like a four- or five-day split that keeps me going back to the gym every day.
Flashy I was having the same problem when I was doing full body routines. The solution I came up with was to do Upper body, Lower body and a core workout each twice per week with some HIIT on 5 of those days. This gives my body the rest time I need but still gets me to the gym on a regular basis to keep up a consistent program.
__________________ -50# by 4/1/10 2 down 48 to go.
That's very similar to what I do, GG300. I work a three day pattern of lower body, upper body, cardio and extensive stretching. I do a mini cardio warmup and stretching session at the start of each lifting day, but just 5 minutes to get the heart woke up.
I like the split routine since it forces me to the gym 6 days a week, and still gives me time for recovery. I tried full body, but found that it was just too taxing for me to do a complete and intense full body 3x week. My lifts were going up and down, my form was inconsistent with the amount of weight I could life, my muscles were constant sore and fatigued. I walked around in a constant state of feeling dazed and sore. DOMS was unbearable somedays. Just wasn't for me.
I allow the one day off per week as a floating day....for the day that getting to the gym just seems impossible. But I never vary the order of my workouts, always keeping the same sequence of lower/upper/cardio.
__________________ "I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. So let the winds of change blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead."
A key factor to consider is other activities you are involved with (example: other sports, physical labor etc...)
If you look at the Primary Research Data a wide array of frequencies and intensities have been shown to be benefical to gains in strength and hypertrophy
Thanks for all the responses. I'm very active, I play tennis and do a kickboxing class once a week on top of weight training 3 times a week and HIIT 3 times a week. I just wasn't sure if a fullbody workout is better for a woman then a split. With everything else I do, I'm thinking the fullbody would be the best for me.
Everytime I try to make a full body workout, it takes forever in the gym and makes me want to change up my routine to try and get it in an hour or less instead of hour and a half-2 hours. I do splits now because of this reason. I am tired of having to change it up all the time because of the length of time I am in the weightroom and plus the last few exercises I do, I would not be performing at my best due to fatique feeling. Spending too much time in the weightroom gets me tired and feel like I did not make the right workouts and such. To avoid that, I just do split based on how many movements I have included and my goals. Once I reach my goal, then I can go back to doing full body and not needing so many movement and exercises.
It all really depends on your goals. I did an experiment with this and I felt that doing a split is the best for me because of the length amount of time, how many movements/exercises I am using based on my goals, and how I feel.
Everytime I try to make a full body workout, it takes forever in the gym and makes me want to change up my routine to try and get it in an hour or less instead of hour and a half-2 hours. I do splits now because of this reason. I am tired of having to change it up all the time because of the length of time I am in the weightroom and plus the last few exercises I do, I would not be performing at my best due to fatique feeling. Spending too much time in the weightroom gets me tired and feel like I did not make the right workouts and such. To avoid that, I just do split based on how many movements I have included and my goals. Once I reach my goal, then I can go back to doing full body and not needing so many movement and exercises.
It all really depends on your goals. I did an experiment with this and I felt that doing a split is the best for me because of the length amount of time, how many movements/exercises I am using based on my goals, and how I feel.
What does your split look like? I've never really done one, but had a trainer try to put me on one this week. One leg day, one push, one pull and if I want another leg day. Going from full body to split almost seems like it's not enough.....
I train 6 times a week with hip dominant, upper body horizontal and vertical push/pull, and rotation Mon/Wed/Fri. On Tue/Thurs/Sat I do quad dominant with the 3 scapular movements and serratus anterior work a long with core work. If I did everything all in one day (I tested it for one day), it would take about an hour and a half-2 hours. I want to get everything at least 3 times a week.
I am applying for a job right now and waiting to hear back. When I start working, my schedule will be different so I may have to adjust to what I really need to work on right now that I know for sure I need strength and such in.
Why don't you try one week full body, one week with a push/pull split (quad dominant on one day and hip dominant on the other day), and one week upper body and lower body split to see which you feel best doing? That's what I did. People also got sick of me asking about what routines to do and then I try them, and I don't feel like its going to work out. I used to be someone who always asks for what exercises to do, what days to do them, sets and reps, etc. and then I would always change it up because I did not feel comfortable with it, and then I would ask again over and over. That's a big no no and I should not have done that. I was also very subborn and worry a lot about what would work and what may not work. I was also a thinker of "fast results", but nothing happens fast and it takes time.
What may work for me may not work for you. I have changed my routines up so much in the past and finally I found something that I feel comfortable doing and will stick to. It can take a while before you find what you feel most comfortable doing. Just try not to do what I did and change your routine up all the time. I should have done an experiment in the past with the splits and such, but I have always thought about "full body" over and over.
I train 6 times a week with hip dominant, upper body horizontal and vertical push/pull, and rotation Mon/Wed/Fri. On Tue/Thurs/Sat I do quad dominant with the 3 scapular movements and serratus anterior work a long with core work. If I did everything all in one day (I tested it for one day), it would take about an hour and a half-2 hours. I want to get everything at least 3 times a week.
I am applying for a job right now and waiting to hear back. When I start working, my schedule will be different so I may have to adjust to what I really need to work on right now that I know for sure I need strength and such in.
Why don't you try one week full body, one week with a push/pull split (quad dominant on one day and hip dominant on the other day), and one week upper body and lower body split to see which you feel best doing? That's what I did. People also got sick of me asking about what routines to do and then I try them, and I don't feel like its going to work out. I used to be someone who always asks for what exercises to do, what days to do them, sets and reps, etc. and then I would always change it up because I did not feel comfortable with it, and then I would ask again over and over. That's a big no no and I should not have done that. I was also very subborn and worry a lot about what would work and what may not work. I was also a thinker of "fast results", but nothing happens fast and it takes time.
What may work for me may not work for you. I have changed my routines up so much in the past and finally I found something that I feel comfortable doing and will stick to. It can take a while before you find what you feel most comfortable doing. Just try not to do what I did and change your routine up all the time. I should have done an experiment in the past with the splits and such, but I have always thought about "full body" over and over.
I'm going to finish the split this week and do a full body next week and see how I feel, etc. I know this is probably a dumb question, but could you elaborate on quad dominant (squats, I'm sure) and hip dominant...come examples maybe
quad dominant - squats, lunges, step ups, etc.
hip dominant - deadlifts, pull throughs, etc.
By the way, I recommend trying the split for more than one week (a month at least) and keeping track of the exercises, sets, reps, and weight you are using to see if it will work for you and if you are experiencing any gains from it. One week may not be enough to tell. It wasn't enough for me to determine what will work for me or not. The only reason the full body one stopped me after a week was because of too much time spent in the weightroom, tired, and feeling fatique.
quad dominant - squats, lunges, step ups, etc.
hip dominant - deadlifts, pull throughs, etc.
By the way, I recommend trying the split for more than one week (a month at least) and keeping track of the exercises, sets, reps, and weight you are using to see if it will work for you and if you are experiencing any gains from it. One week may not be enough to tell. It wasn't enough for me to determine what will work for me or not. The only reason the full body one stopped me after a week was because of too much time spent in the weightroom, tired, and feeling fatique.
Full body or split
"I'm growing older but not up. My metabolic rate is pleasantly stuck. So let the winds of change blow over my head. I'd rather die while I'm living then live while I'm dead."
Linear Mode
