Full-body and split routines in the gym
Full-body routines sound simple at first: you train the whole body in one workout and you’re done. The real question is whether this approach gives you results for strength and muscle growth that are as good as split routines, where the body is divided across different days.
Why are full-body routines causing debate again?
This debate comes back in the gym year after year. One coach says you should train the whole body at once. Another says chest, back, legs, shoulders and arms should each have their own days. Both sides have their own logic, but Poliquin’s position was quite clear: he didn’t know of a successful strength or bodybuilding coach who used only full-body routines and declared them the best option in every case.
He pointed to his work with Olympic medalists in 16 different sports, from swimmers to shot putters. According to him, the athletes spent at least 70% of their gym time on split routines. Only as competitions approached did they switch more often to whole-body workouts, because the goal was then different: to maintain form, keep the body fresh and manage training load better.
Adam Nelson, a world champion in the shot put, and Dwight Phillips, a world champion in the long jump, trained mostly on split routines. The same idea carries over to bodybuilding. Ronnie didn’t build his physique by training the whole body three times a week. Even Dorian Yates, who was considered a man of few sets, wasn’t a classic full-body trainee.
Full-body routines and exercise order
The start of a workout matters more than many people think. If the goal is to recruit as many muscle fibers as possible, exercise order is not a minor detail. Whatever you do first gets the most attention, a fresh nervous system and your best effort.
A simple example. If one group consistently does 4 exercises in the order A, B, C and D, and another group does the same exercises in the order D, C, B and A, the first group will improve most in exercise A. The second group will improve most in exercise D. So what is actually happening? The exercise done first gets the best energy, and it shows the greatest progress.
This is exactly where full-body routines are weak. If you have to get the whole body done in one workout, the first exercises get the best share. Muscle groups trained later have to make do with fatigue, less focus and often lighter weights. When the goal is to increase relative strength, athletes often do many sets of just a few exercises. In that case, split routines are an easier way to keep the workout short, intense and sensible from a recovery standpoint.
Adam Nelson’s sample split
- Day 1: Chest/back
- Day 2: Legs
- Day 3: Rest
- Day 4: Shoulders and arms
- Day 5: Rest
A split like this is not random. The heavy muscle groups get their own day, rest days fall in between, and the athlete doesn’t have to solve everything in a single workout.
Split routines, recovery and natural training
The translator’s note in the original was honest and quite practical. If a workout has 8–10 exercises, how do you give maximum effort in every one of them? If you start with a press and do a lat exercise second, you can’t go straight to a working-set weight and start all-out. Warm-up sets take time. The total duration of such a workout can get very long.
That is why a full-body workout suits a recovery period, a transition from one training plan to another, or circuit-style work to raise work capacity. When an athlete is already at elite level, a workout may include only two exercises, 10–12 working sets in total, with a second workout already coming 6 hours later. That is a completely different world from a recreational lifter’s relaxed evening session in the gym.
Poliquin said he had worked in his field for 26 years and that, judging by results, nobody had shown him that a full-body routine was the only or the better way to train. If anything, the opposite. He had talked with successful coaches from Norway, Germany, Finland and elsewhere, and the conclusion was similar: in many cases split routines were more effective and produced better results.
Full-body routines and the effect of chemical assistance
Another question concerned the natural bodybuilder versus the chemically assisted bodybuilder. According to Poliquin, there are two main differences here. He didn’t believe that steroids always allow you to train much more often, but they can speed up progress. His example was simple: a chemically assisted trainee may improve by 5% in a workout, while a natural trainee moves forward in steps of 1–2%.
At the same time, the stronger you get, the harder each workout is to recover from. Every hard workout causes more breakdown in the body, even when chemical assistance is used. Poliquin even came to agree with the idea that a trainee on steroids should sometimes train less often than has become the norm in practice.
Mauro DiPaquale has said that the body is forgiving when chemical help is involved. A natural bodybuilder has to keep much closer track of meals, portions, sleep and rest. A chemically assisted bodybuilder can sometimes train inefficiently, eat worse and recover sloppily, and the muscle still grows. That doesn’t make natural training pointless. On the contrary: a natural lifter who trains well, watches their eating and recovers properly can achieve a very strong result in the long run.
FAQ: full-body routines and split routines
Are full-body routines suitable for beginners?
Yes, they can work well at the start, because learning technique and building general work capacity matter more than fine-tuning each muscle group separately. Once the weights go up and your goal becomes more specific, it’s worth giving split routines serious consideration.
When are split routines the better choice?
Split routines are the better choice when you want to give one muscle group more quality sets, keep the workout shorter and recover more sensibly. This applies especially when you’re deliberately building strength and muscle mass.
Should a natural lifter train differently?
Yes. A natural lifter has to pay more attention to recovery, sleep and food. They can’t count on the body forgiving a poor plan and poor recovery so easily.
The questions are answered by Charles Poliquin. The piece comes from T-Nation’s section “Q & A with one of the world’s premier strength coaches!!!”
Translated by: Janar Rückenberg
Come and train! ArtGym
