Full body 3x a week enough to gain?

moya_rargh

Yep, you eat the same every day. If your workouts are really inconsistent week to week then maybe TDEE isn't the best approach for you. But if you're pretty consistent it can work well. Like others, I like having the exact same intake goal no matter what, even on rest days. It's easier.

If you log your exercise on MFP and are doing the TDEE method, manually enter "1" in "calories burned": your exercise is already factored into the TDEE intake value and you don't want to muck around with that number (MFP won't let you put "0", "1" is the lowest entry you can do).

Excellent! Many thanks. Far simpler doing it that way, my exercise is pretty regimented.

NRBreit

Yep, you eat the same every day. If your workouts are really inconsistent week to week then maybe TDEE isn't the best approach for you. But if you're pretty consistent it can work well. Like others, I like having the exact same intake goal no matter what, even on rest days. It's easier.

If you log your exercise on MFP and are doing the TDEE method, manually enter "1" in "calories burned": your exercise is already factored into the TDEE intake value and you don't want to muck around with that number (MFP won't let you put "0", "1" is the lowest entry you can do).

Excellent! Many thanks. Far simpler doing it that way, my exercise is pretty regimented.

Yep, exactly. I've tried it both ways and it is MUCH easier to use TDEE and set exercise cals to 1.

Huffdogg

Three times a week full body will probably get you better results than a bro split.
In a typical bro split you are only really hitting each muscle group hard once per week, which means for the other six days it's not really getting much encouragement to grow. Full body three times a week, on the other hand, means that as soon as a muscle is recovered you are hitting it again (if your workout is good).
If you aren't gaining muscle it is probably down to your calories. Your body may burn off around 2200 calories per day without exercise, but if you are working out 5 times per week then you'll be burning off a few hundred more than that per day, and then you'll need 200-300 more on top of that to build muscle.
Weigh yourself regularly, and if you're gaining about 0.5lbs every couple of weeks then you are all good. If not, increase your caloric intake by 100, and keep doing so every week or two until you start to see the weight increase that you want.

/thread

AntWrig

Three times a week full body will probably get you better results than a bro split.
In a typical bro split you are only really hitting each muscle group hard once per week, which means for the other six days it's not really getting much encouragement to grow. Full body three times a week, on the other hand, means that as soon as a muscle is recovered you are hitting it again (if your workout is good).
If you aren't gaining muscle it is probably down to your calories. Your body may burn off around 2200 calories per day without exercise, but if you are working out 5 times per week then you'll be burning off a few hundred more than that per day, and then you'll need 200-300 more on top of that to build muscle.
Weigh yourself regularly, and if you're gaining about 0.5lbs every couple of weeks then you are all good. If not, increase your caloric intake by 100, and keep doing so every week or two until you start to see the weight increase that you want.

Bro splits are perfectly fine.

stt43

Three times a week full body will probably get you better results than a bro split.
In a typical bro split you are only really hitting each muscle group hard once per week, which means for the other six days it's not really getting much encouragement to grow. Full body three times a week, on the other hand, means that as soon as a muscle is recovered you are hitting it again (if your workout is good).
If you aren't gaining muscle it is probably down to your calories. Your body may burn off around 2200 calories per day without exercise, but if you are working out 5 times per week then you'll be burning off a few hundred more than that per day, and then you'll need 200-300 more on top of that to build muscle.
Weigh yourself regularly, and if you're gaining about 0.5lbs every couple of weeks then you are all good. If not, increase your caloric intake by 100, and keep doing so every week or two until you start to see the weight increase that you want.

Bro splits are perfectly fine.

I didn't say they weren't.

RECowgill

This thread just reinforces what I believe, which is both can work. It all just depends on what you respond to and what motivates you to show up. It is possible that compounds are more effective for building mass and strength overall, but it's also possible that a bro split will prioritize aesthetics giving you that peaked look faster.

devodev44

The argument about what works can go on forever, but if 1,6, 12 months from now, can you quantify whatever you thought "worked" or didn't work? In other words, make sure that whatever exercises you're doing, you know exactly whether they are safe (at 39, comes with the territory) and effective. If you're adding weight and the tape measure is moving in the right direction, stick with what's working. If something needs to be tweaked, make one small but measurable change so you don't get caught trying to determine whether you're now growing/not growing from the 5 new exercises, the extra training day, the bro-split, etc.