TYPE OF WORKOUT ROUTINES FULL BODY WORKOUTS VERSUS BODY PART SPLITS

As you go about setting up a resistance training workout to follow, the very first thing that you'll want to be doing is thinking about how you will divide up the body as you go about your workout week.

There are many factors that will come into play when making this decision, such as how well you recover between workout sessions, how many other activities you're doing throughout the week, your current fitness level, as well as how much time you have available to devote to the workouts themselves.

That said, there are two main types of effective strength training workout protocols that you should consider—the full body workout as well as the body part split workout.

Let's go over what you need to know about each of these so that you can form a complete picture in your mind in terms of which will be best for you.

Full Body Workout

The very first type of workout program is the full body workout. Generally speaking, regardless of who you are, you can't go wrong with this one. There are far more advantages to doing it than disadvantages, and often the only reason why you'd choose against it is because you want to be strength training more than three days per week as that is the maximum frequency a full body workout would allow.

With the full body workout, you'll hit every single muscle group in every workout you do, performing primarily compound exercises. You'll take at least one day off between workouts, sometimes two if you need more time for recovery, hitting each muscle group two to three days per week.

The great thing about this workout is that it will help you work the muscles at a high frequency level while still having plenty of time for rest and recovery.

In addition to that, because you work so many muscle fibers in this workout session, you'll get a higher calorie burn as well as a metabolic boost from doing it as well.

Finally, it's lower on the time commitment things, so for those who lead a busy lifestyle, it can be really ideal.

Body Part Split

The second variation of workout is the body part split. This is where you divide the body up, only working certain areas of the body on certain days.

Most commonly an upper/lower body part split is used, where you work half the body on each day; however, in other cases, you may divide it up to a larger degree, doing chest on one day, back on another, legs on another, and so on.

Generally, that is not an effective way to go about things as you won't have the right frequency for success that you need. You want to work a muscle group a minimum of twice per week, and that won't allow you to do so.

So choose an upper/lower over everything else. That way you can still hit each muscle group twice and have enough days off for rest as well.

The benefit to the upper/lower body split is the fact that you can perform slightly more exercises overall for each muscle group because you have fewer muscles to work in each session you do.

So keep these tips in mind when selecting your weight lifting program. When in doubt, go with a full body approach. It will yield great results.