Full body vs. Splits - forgive me if this has been disc...

[kgravel]

After lurking on this board for a couple years, I still am somewhat unclear about the reasons for doing full body weight workouts vs. splits.

Every fitness book/article I have read usually recommends several full body weight workouts a week for beginners. Most suggest that as you progress you move on to UB/LB splits, and then eventually 3 day splits. Is there a somewhat brief explanation for this? If not, is there a resource I can be pointed to? Specifically, why do you need to work a muscle less often, as you progress? What would be your goals for doing one vs. the other?

Thanks in advance, please feel free to send me to the library ;-)!

Kim

 

[Logos]

It is the time spend on each muscle, when you move to the three day split, you are working each muscle for about 20+ minutes, doing more reps and or more sets, whereas in the full body workout, you spend less time so the workout is not as intense. You work each muscle group once a week and then you need to rest for it to recover.

Exercise is the architech, recovery is the builder.

 

[kgravel]

Interesting, thanks for the explanation!

 

[Kit_]

Also most of the time the beginner is too weak to do a 3 days split and really keep good form the whole time. So the full body allows them to increase strength and really burn the calories, as your calorie burn does go down a bit when you only work one or two body parts a day. But then usually adds more days, so you burn more in a week and not a single day. So the other reason is weight loss. But a lot of times it's easier to do the whole body and get into it, 3 days a week, then to jump head first into 5-6 days a week. I've found most people can stick with it, if you give them 3 days a week for a while. You give them more then that, and their sucess rate, drops down to the dirt. As your not just training the body, your training the mind. And the mind is stubborn. As I'm sure sitting here right at this moment you can think of over 100 reasons why you shouldn't exercise today. For a beginner, those reasons are much harder to fight off then someone who has been doing it. Which is another reason why when you get more advance you keep breaking up body parts. You know your going to stick with it. Your not going to do your arms on monday, and make up excuses all week long, and then next week maybe do your legs on Wednesday, and make up excuesses again. This will cut down your strength but also cause a lot of frustration. And this is what happens to the beginners who jump in head first but haven't learned how to battle the excuses yet. Excerise is a whole lot of pyschology, as well as fitness. As in general we are creatures of habit we don't like to change, and we are generally lazy. Just try to get a front parking space at the store, you'll nearly get your car smashed, as everyone wants that spot, but the space 10 cars down, is ignored as it's too far away. And it's only an extra 20 steps to the store. Which is way we get to re-train the brain, so we can workout every day, after a period of time.

Kit

 

[kathryn]

As you progrss with weight training, it's easy to reach a plateau with full-body workouts. Split routines allow you to spend more time on each body part, incorporate more rest between sets (and thus lift heavier), and get more rest between workouts for body parts. All of these factors allow for better strength gains.

Still, as you become advanced, full-body workouts are good for maintenance, and they are more time efficient.

 

[kathryn]

>Exercise is the architech, recovery is the builder.

I like that!