total body vs splits

[the man in black]

i read an article in mens health talking about total body workouts verse splits.
they report that it takes only 48 hr. for muscle repair to take place. so if you do splits and only train your chest once or even twice a week your missing out on training time. this was the argument that made the most sense to me, but i will scan the article and post if you all want me to. i have recently switched to this routine. i do a total body workout doing supersets for each body part 3 days a week and i am really enjoying it, i am seeing strength gains again. i squeeze it all in a hour to...at first i found it hard to only limit myself to 3 days a week and even now from time to time i want to sneak in an extra work out. i start my cycle in two weeks i think i will up it to four days per week since recovery should be better and even more of a drive to lift. but i would recommend this type of routine to anyone.

[access]

This is good to change things up a little but would not stay on a routine like this long term. Everyone responds differently too in some way so we all need to find what works best for us.

[the man in black]

out of curiosity why would you not run this routine long term?

[Martano666]

Well, first of all, that sounds good on paper. But, if you were to do FULL BODY workouts, every other day, how long would your average workout be???? I personally like splits because it allows you to fully destroy a couple muslce groups in only 1hour or 2. If you were doing full body workouts, you would have to spend like 4 hrs in the gym to get the full workout. That isn't practical if you work a full time job. Ofcourse, if you are a pro, then maybe that is the best way. I would need to split it up and do a workout in the morning and then another in the evening. Just my opinion.

[the man in black]

if you would of read the whole post you would of seen that i do it in an hour. if it is taking you an hour or two for only 2 muscle groups you are taking to much time when you rest. imo if you are doing ...100 reps at 10 reps at a time you need to also increase the weight that you are lifting.

[getingbiger]

Mostly depends onwhat phase you are in and as Martano said "some people respond diffently to specific programs." Yes, muscle does take approximately 48 hours to repair, but if you are in your hypertrophy phase you are probably causing a siignificant amount of micro trauma to the muscle therefore requiring more rest. A program/routine should never last more than 3-5 weeks as that is the normal adaptation time for the human body. I personally have had the best gains training one (maybe two) muscle group(s) per day.

[C.Diesel]

I'm with getingbiger. The general rule is 48-72 hours..and that suggestion encompasses the general population, not necessarily us meat-heads!

I have to assume those of us on this website work out harder than the participants of that reseach that came up with 48-72 hour rule.

The two most important constants are intensity and variety.

[godsgifttoearth]

i thought it was closer to a week for the muscle to fully repair and complete a growth cycle? 48hrs maybe to repair only. my arguement towards splits would be how effieciently ur body was able to repair and grow. if u blast ur entire body, then how far is ur protein intake going to go towards muscle growth on each muscle group, same with ur natural hgh etc. i would have thought the majority would be wasted/used on repairing all the muscle fibres u just abused, then once the sacromeres were repaired, think about making more. 48hrs would seem a short time for ur entire body to fix+grow. id also be worried about my overall intensity levels through the entire session. fade towards the end from fatigue + boredom(lol)

i used to do a full body workout when i was more focused on staminaerformance ratio. i could never get my weight over 10.5stone doing 3 full bodies a week with cardio inbetween. i was ripped tho and could run a half marathon in 80mins. i switched to a push/pull/legs periodization style workout when recommended by my coach to pack on the mass and i got comparatively massive in such a short time. i always found using the split i could keep more focus and energy through out the entire session, that and i got much better pumps to pose with lol.

[aceboogie]

i actually have been doing full body work outs for a bout a year. at most ill spend two hours in the gym, 3 days a week (MWF) and do cardio on the other days. i have consistently seen gains in strength but dont hope for too much as far as size is concerned because it takes only 24-48 hr for muscles to heal, but 3-4 days for them to grow

[NickM357]

First question, are you hardcore into bodybuilding (meaning you don't care about strength, just size)? If you really are then, for example, you aren't really going to be that concerned with training the CNS ( a bodybuilding type routine will train it little, most strength gains are almost solely from increases in mucle mass) and this will make your training different from someone who wants to compete in strength sports or someone who is a more casual lifter and usually goes for both.

As far as completely destroying a muscle group goes, I don't know if it is necessary to cause as much damage as possible to signal growth.

If you want a good amount of strength for your size. I wouldn't recomend splitting the body up into more than 2, 3 max groups and even a full body workout could be very good. If you are going hardcore into bodybuilding than you may want to split it up more.

So if your goal is simply put to get as big as possible, then yes, a split like chest/back/shoulders/leg/arms could work good for you. If you want to be large and strong but are not as specific on perfect proportions a whole body workout could be good for you, but I would not do the same whole body workout every time. Here, I'll show you an example:

workout 1
Power Cleans+Push Press 6x2 (setxreps)
Squat 3-4 warm-ups to build weight up, 3x5
Overhead Press 3-4 warm-ups to build weight up. 3x6-8
Bent Over Rows 3-4 warm-up, 3x6-8
Curls 3x8

workout 2
Box or Speed Squats 6x2
Straight leg deadlift or straight leg goodmornings 3-4 warm-ups,3x5
Bench Press 3-4 warm-ups, 3x3-5
Pull-ups 3-4 warm-ups, 3x5-8
Calf Raises 3x12
weighted Crunches 3x10-20

workout 3
Snatch or Clean and Jerk 6x2
Front Squats 3-4 warm-ups, 3x5-8
One-hand Barbell overhead press 3-4 warm-ups, 3x5-8
Upright Rows 3-4 warm-ups, 3x5-8
Hyperextensions 2-3 warm-ups, 3x5-8
Skull crushers 3x5-8

That would be good to do M-W-F but I would make sure if you do hit failure it is only on the last set. It would build up good size and strength. This would be good if you play sports (it will put on weight if you eat for it, and will put on strength even when you aren't gaining), but not is you are a bodybuilder. But if you play sports a bodybuilding workout would not be adequete because it won't train up your CNS, and if I was 260 and could bench 370 and squats 480 I wouldn't want to go up against someone 240 that benchs 500 and squats 650. But if you are a bodybuilder you need the size and proportion not the strength.