To full body or to isolate and split, that is the question!
For all my years of training and in the fitness industry at a high level (17 years) I’ve played a professional sport, worked with some of the best fitness coaches in the world and spent more hours studying than I can remember.
I’ve used myself as a guinea pig with every style of diet and types of training. So when I get asked the best way to train, I have an opinion of-course. Now for the vast vast majority of us who aren’t trying to be a professional body builder and have every element of their muscle fibres critiqued, the answer is quite simple- Full body workouts!
Why train full body instead of splitting and isolating muscle groups. Well for one, most people don’t have hours a day, every day to spend working out and if you want to isolate and split muscle groups, that’s what you’ll need to see some improvement. Think about it, if you focus on biceps for your session, and you don’t train them again until 4 or 5 days later once they roll around again in your “training program” its quite a low frequency.
But if you incorporate bicep workout in 3 or 4 of your sessions per week while training other parts, these muscles are getting worked more often and will be provided with a greater stimulus, thus, greater growth.
Not only will each muscle group get worked more frequently but because you are training multiple muscle groups in the same session your body and you are working harder= more calories burned.
So not only are you providing more of a chance for muscle growth but you are burning more energy and if fat loss if a goal, then this is a major plus. Now, what if you don’t want to lose fat and you want to gain more muscle? That’s fine. Full body workouts are still the way unless of course you are a pro bodybuilder and have hours each day to split your sessions and still get the volume in! Then it just comes down to replacing those burned calories with good quality fuel to help you gain!
I’ve tried both methods, and by far the most beneficial is a workout which involves multiple muscle groups rather than isolating. That’s not to say I don’t put an extra focus on a muscle group sometimes during a session, but it just won’t be the only thing I focus on. An example of this, using biceps again- would be training chin-ups, which is also hitting the back, core, and shoulders, mixing up the grip on these so biceps become a focus, but in between these sets- I might do sprints, push-ups or squats too.
So, my advice to everyone who doesn’t want to be a body builder for a living? Focus on multiple muscle group workouts, workouts where cardio and strength are combined.
I post a lot of these workouts on my INSTAGRAM and YOUTUBE so you can check it out and give them a try at home!
Go crush it!
Matt