The best muscle-building workout split for most genetically average, drug free, busy guys is no split at all.
Full body workouts are the premier and logical choice for those seeking the fastest gains in size and strength.
This is how all the legends of the Iron Game trained a century ago and some very big, strong men were built on full body workouts.
Gymnasts do full body workouts and they have incredible levels of muscularity and strength. So do Olympic lifters.
The more muscle you can activate during a workout the greater growth stimulation you’ll receive.
It’s just that simple.
A day consisting of snatches, ring dips and squats will always dominate a day consisting of lateral raises, front raises and upright rows.
When you do a full body workout it forces you be very wise with your exercise choices.
Since your time is limited you need to make sure that every exercise has a purpose and every exercise is going to produce results. This usually leads to better exercise selection.
It’s harder to throw in some junk movements for assistance work when you need to work the entire body in one session.
You’ll get a greater anabolic stimulus and burn more calories during the session when your workout consists of squats, pulls and presses than when it consist of the pec dec and leg extension.
How to Design a Full Body Workout Properly
Pick an upper body push, an upper body pull and a compound lower body exercise.
Stick with an average of about 4-6 sets of 5-8 reps with a minute or so rest between sets.
To kick of the workout you could start with some jumps or medicine ball throws to fire up the CNS. Those should be done for 1-3 reps on average.
You could also conclude the workout with some sled pushing or loaded carries. Just get about ten minutes of hard work in and keep each set under twenty seconds in duration.
Upper/ Lower Splits
Eventually, when you have been training properly for more than two years and have made some serious progress you could start to break up your workouts into upper body and lower body days if you really wanted to. But there will always still be some overlap.
In an upper/lower split you’d put throws, chins, rows, presses and dips on the upper body focused days and jumps, squats, deadlifts, cleans, high pulls, ab work and sled work on the lower body focused days.
Snatches and loaded carries could really go on either day.
Sled work and kettlebell swings could on either day as well.
So even though you are technically focusing more on the upper body one day and more on the lower body another day, you’re still basically working the entire body in each session.
Whichever option you choose, be sure to focus on getting stronger. It’s the most important thing you can do to facilitate long term gains.
