Good idea to do full body workouts?

Question

like i workout 3xa week now i decided should i do

chest tris traps

rest

back biceps

rest

rest

legs shoulders traps

OR

full upper body

rest

legs lower body

rest

full upper body

rest

if i did this would it be a good idea how long should my workouts being how many reps and exercises

rest

Answer 1

Even though most people are going to say go with the first plan just because you shouldn't work out all your upper-body muscle groups, I'm going to say the 2nd plan would be better. It would give your whole upper body a long time to rest which is good. It's really just going to depend on how you are feeling like how sore you are from your w/o. If you do decide to do the 2nd plan, be sure to get a reallllly good w/o the day of your upper body and lower body because if you only half do it (like those days you don't feel like doing anything) then its going to be another few days before you're supposed to w/o that body party again. Right now, I do

Monday:chest area

Tuesday:rest

Wednesday:biceps/back/whatever else i feel like doing

Thursday:legs/some cardio

Friday:chest area(training day--i go ALL OUT)

Saturday:rest

Sunday:legs/some cardio

Answer 2

good idea i do the 3 day full body to and do about 1-2 hours worth of hard training and heavy weight (hurts like a B**ch in the morning) you may want to get whey protein if you havent already  

Answer 3

Run a railroad handcar for a couple hours!

I do this several times a year...a very thorough workout from the ankles to the neck.  Wears out even the biggest jocks.  Best of all, it's outside and less damaging than running, biking, you name it.

Answer 4

I strongly suggest u do not do the full body workouts.  U said u want to gain mass and this will not suffice to that.  the thing about full body workouts is that by the time u get halfway through ur workout, ur gonna be fatigued and will not have the energy to stress the following muscles adequately enough.  so what people do is decrease the sets being done.  Which counteracts hypertrophy.  The exercising definition of hypertrophy is this:  hypertrophy= total sets + total reps + total weight. So as u can see, decrease the sets will have a significant impact on muscle gain.  Split routines (the first routine u stated) r the best for hypertrophy.  And this is not my opinion, it is documented in scientific studies that i have researched throughout the years.  What i would recommend u doing is splitting up ur legs, shoulder, traps day.  Simply because legs workouts take an enormous amount of energy to complete (that is only if ur working them hard, which should be done); this goes back to my previous stated me about fatigued coming in and decreasing the total workload.  Of course if u do not have the time for this its ok.  Also, on ur back and chest days, i would not recommend doing triceps with chest and biceps with back.  Because the biceps r incorporated into back routines and triceps with chest.  Since the chest and biceps r large and strong muscles, u have to use a significant amount of weight to stimulate muscle growth.  This will lead the biceps and triceps fatigued and unable to perform at their best.  I would recommend doing chest and biceps; back and triceps.  I have done this and it works well, although i prefer to do arms on a separate day altogether to maximize growth b/c i can concentrate on them and not have to worry about working large muscle groups first.  And u do not need to work traps 2 times a week.  They get plenty of simulation on back day, and they also get stimulated on shoulder day.  So i would suggest u do them only once per week.  The exception to this would be if ur traps were much weaker than ur shoulders and it is causing problems with scapula elevation.  Most people just like to do them several times per week b/c a large trap muscle looks good.  However, u can obtain this by working back very hard and traps very hard only once per week.  I have seem many people work traps 2 or 3 or more times per week and they get very large and strong, but then they overpower the medial deltoid during raises, which leads to the medial delt doing less work, and less mass/strength.  And this will lead to injury if not properly assessed.

good luck

Answer 5

Full body workouts would be all full body works, not 1 and an upper and a lower.

If your gonna go upper and lower id do a split.

day 1- lower

day 2 upper

day 3 off

day 4 lower

day 5 upper

day 6 and 7 off

Either way id really suggest betting in 4 workouts instead of 3.  Its really hard to hit all your muscles hard with only 3 workouts.

example:

day 1 - Quads

day 2 - Chest and biceps

day 3 - off

day 4 - Back and Hamstrings

day 5 - Shoulders and triceps

day 6 and 7 off

for sets and reps its usually good to pick a main exercise first.  Obviously one that works the most muscles.  For Your Quads your main exercise would obviously be Squats or a variation of it. 5x5 is very good rep scheme for strength and size gains.

so quads day would look something like this:

Squats 5x5

Front Squats 2x7

Leg Press 2x10

then maybe some abs and calves or something to finish up.

all your days would have a similar set up:

Bench 5x5

Incline Bench 2x8

Decline Flys 2x10

If you do decide to go full bodyworkouts though 3 times a week a workout may look something like this:

Squat 3x6

Decline Bench 3x8

Barbell Rows 3x8

dumbell curl 3x10

obviously a different day the exercises would have to chance:

Incline Bench 3x6

Stiff leg deadlifts 3x8

Pull ups 3x10

Dips 3x10

Remember the first exercise of the day is the most important so you want to go heavier as you can on it. hope that helped some. send me an email if you need me to go more in depth with something