If you’re already spending hours at the gym, slaving away over rusty iron day in day out, you might want to know how to increase the effectiveness of your training so that you can see better progress in less weeks. Whether your goal is to build a chiseled chest, mountain-peaks for bi’s or a giant-sized horseshoe tri’s, you have to put in the hard work required, and not only that, but make sure your training protocol is as smart as it can be, enabling you to maximize the effects caused by your sessions of pain.
Now, in hope to reap those perks, some people use a training split system, believing that it provides with the best chance to train each body part with all the attention it requires to grow. Others prefer full-body workouts, which are easier to fit into your schedule and are easier to stick to. Even though they’ve gotten terribly stereotyped during the last few years, full-body routines can be of invaluable use for any athlete who knows what he/she wants out of their training. And it might be the right time for you to try a real full-body muscle-building workout yourself!
Benefits of Full-Body Training
Working your entire body in one powerful session can help you achieve maximum muscle contraction while lifting heavy weights, prevents burnout and allows for faster full recovery. Also, with full-body training your gym frequency will decrease to 2-3 one-hour workouts every seven days. Between two full-body workouts, you can perform a couple of cardio sessions to keep your metabolism up to the game and torch some extra fat.
If you’ve only trained using splits so far, this would be a great opportunity to shock your muscles by forcing them to work differently than the norm. Worried you can’t build all that lean muscle mass you want with only 3-4 hours in the gym per week?
Well, don’t be, because if you train the way we’ve explained below, you will become better able to build the body of a beast with minimum gym time logged.
Total-Body Exercises
We assume you know the basics, but do you know which exercises are the best ones for a full-body workout? Following the rules of logic, any exercise that targets multiple muscle groups and doesn’t require fancy, expensive equipment would fit the description. Still, there are some moves which are the best of the best when it comes to an optimally effective full-body workout.
Check out the exercises bellow and follow the training plan every other day for 4 weeks for best gains.
1. Shoulders
- Lateral Raise: Nothing makes shoulders become wider than lateral raises, both standing and seated variants.
- Arnold Press: A crucial exercise for building powerful shoulders like those of the bodybuilding veteran Arnold Schwarzenegger by allowing you to hit all three heads of the delt.
2. Back
- Neutral Grip Pulldown: Pulling is one of the two most important moves for developing a complete upper back. The neutral grip will allow you to brutalize your lats while keeping the bi’s and shoulders out of the picture.
- T-bar Row: The second most important move is rowing, of course, and the best way to make use of it is by performing relatively heavy T-bar rows.
3. Chest
- Incline Dumbbell Press: This press variant is great because it enables you to train each side independently and develop greatly-proportioned, fuller arms.
- Cable Crossover: Works better than any fly version because it helps you really isolate and target every working pec fiber. Focus on mind-muscle connection on each rep.
4. Biceps
- Barbell Curl: The classics never die. But this time, you’re going to focus on each second on the movement and aim for maximum muscle contraction and stretch.
- Hammer Curl: Hammer curls allow you to hit both your brachialis muscle and your forearm muscles at almost the same time, and that makes them a winner’s exercise in our book.
5. Triceps
- Overhead Extensions: You can do these either with a heavy dumbbell or a barbell, as both variants produce excellent results.
- Rope Pushdowns: To suck all remaining life from the long heads of the tri’s, you’ll do rope pushdowns with flawless form.
6. Core
- Crunches: Crunches are basic and have gotten a bad rap lately, but they’re as effective as they can be for working the entire midsection, as long as you make sure to keep your abs contracted all through the movement.
- Hyperextensions: Do them in a slow and controlled manner for full benefits.
7. Quads
- Leg Press: Yes, the squat is the king of lower body exercises, and we would happily suggest them for any other workout plan except for this one. Here we’ll stick to the machines for lower body training, so naturally you’ll begin with leg presses and focus on completing a full range of motion.
- Leg Extension: Squeeze the quads as much as possible at the top, then pause for a second before returning the weight down.
8. Hamstrings
- Stiff-Legged Deadlift: Stand on a plate or a step to get extra range of motion. No pain, no gain!
- Leg Curl: Choose any version you want, but make sure to include negatives.
9. Calves
- Standing Calf Raises: To build impressive calves, you need to work both portions of the calf muscle, and that’s best done with raises. Standing calf raises, in particular, will help you focus on your gastrocnemius.
- Seated Calf Raises: These will better isolate your soleus.
Here we have two sample workouts. The first one, Workout A is the basic program with pyramided sets that should take you around one hour to complete. The Workout B, on the other hand, is where the heat goes up. This high-intense workout is comprised of supersets and is more challenging so you should pay attention to weights you choose – adjust them according to your level of strength and endurance.
That being said, the best way to blast your entire body with an undisputable command to grow, you should start with Workout A and do it for 4 weeks, then move on to Workout B and stick to it another 4 weeks. This the part where you’ll need a deloading week to take the pressure off and allow your body a chance for proper rest and full recovery.
WORKOUT A
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| Lateral Raise | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Arnold press | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| T-Bar Row | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Incline Dumbbell Press | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Cable Crossover | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Barbell Curl | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Hammer Curl | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Two-Arm Overhead Extension | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Rope Pushdown | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Crunches | 3 | 20 |
| Hyperextensions | 3 | 20 |
| Leg Press | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Leg Extension | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Stiff-Legged Deadlift | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Leg curl | 3 | 20, 15, 10 |
| Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 20 |
| Seated Calf Raise | 3 | 20 |
WORKOUT B – SUPERSETS
| EXERCISE | SETS | REPS |
| 1a. Lateral Raise | 3 | 12 |
| 1b. Arnold press | 3 | 12 |
| 2a. Neutral Grip Lat Pulldown | 3 | 12 |
| 2b. T-Bar Row | 3 | 12 |
| 3a. Incline Dumbbell Press | 3 | 12 |
| 3b. Cable Crossover | 3 | 12 |
| 4a. Barbell Curl | 3 | 15 |
| 4b. Hammer Curl | 3 | 15 |
| 5a. Two-Arm Overhead Extension | 3 | 15 |
| 5b. Rope Pushdown | 3 | 15 |
| 6a. Crunches | 3 | 20 |
| 6b. Hyperextensions | 3 | 20 |
| 7a. Leg Press | 3 | 15 |
| 7b. Leg Extension | 3 | 15 |
| 8a. Stiff-Legged Deadlift | 3 | 15 |
| 8b. Leg curl | 3 | 15 |
| 9a. Standing Calf Raise | 3 | 20 |
| 9b. Seated Calf Raise | 3 | 20 |
Now that you have the best workout in the world to accomplish your goals, time to start slaving to the gym again. Good luck and keep it tight!