Two day full body strength training routine

beaner1st

Great info. Thanks.

rachmaree

Thanks for posting, Steve. I always look forward to your posts.

mullichicken25

bump

NiciS72

Thanks for sharing!

mrsmorris13

Wow, this is great! Thanks for the post!

HappyathomeMN

As always, great information! Thanks for your time, it's greatly appreciated.

stroutman81

My pleasure.

chanstriste13

thanks for this! i feel familiar with a lot of the moves, but it's great to see it all broken down into a proper routine. dig it.

stroutman81

thanks for this! i feel familiar with a lot of the moves, but it's great to see it all broken down into a proper routine. dig it.

I find many people get hung up on the exercise selection. They always seem to be looking for the one best movement for each muscle. In reality though, exercise selection is secondary to many other more important variables. Especially in the context of fat loss and physique enhancement.

MoonMyst3

Thanks for the post Steve! Your knowledge and advice is always appreciated.

miss_amy

thanks! i already do some strength training, but it's nice to be able to do different exercises!

treesap84

Thanks for the post! Great information.

Sidesteal

exercise selection is secondary to many other more important variables. Especially in the context of fat loss and physique enhancement.

^ Word, and bump.

Rae6503

I'm following the New Rules program and stage 1 is pretty much identical to this.

Workout A:
squats,
rows
push-ups
steps-ups
prone jack knifes (core)

Workout B:
deadlifts
lat-pull downs
shoulder press
lunges
swiss-ball crunch

stroutman81

Yea, when you look at it from the standpoint of squatting, hinging at the hips, pushing, and pulling... everything starts to look pretty similar. I've not looked at the NROL setup in a long time... from what I remember though it was decent. Not a big fan of the author... but that is what it is.

goodthings

Hi Steve,
I love your posts and website! I've been incorporating a lot of your nutrition advice, and now am trying to figure out what direction I'm going with exercise. Currently I just run and do Insanity workout, but am going to rejoin the gym for some strength training. Last time I tried to start lifting, I would spend half the time walking around the gym in a daze, debating whether to use a bar, a dumbell, a machine, etc...so this time I am trying to put together a very specific plan beforehand, and wanted to clarify a few things with you. I know you recommend 2-3 full body workouts a week, with general large movements such as squats and bench presses. I was looking at several programs online, such as Jamie Eason's Livefit program, where she breaks up the body parts for different days and does many different exercises for each part. I really like how clearly everything is laid out, with instruction videos for each exercise, but the workout style seems to be the opposite of what you recommend.

My question is: what are pros and cons of these two types of training? Do you think there's a major difference in how your body would look in the end? As for my goals, I want to build more muscle eventually, but for now I'm focusing more on maintaining my muscle while losing a few pounds of body fat.

Thank you so much for all the time you put into these forums! Whenever I find myself getting overwhelmed with diet 'secrets' and plans, I come back on here and reread your posts to set myself straight=)

stroutman81

Hi Steve,
I love your posts and website! I've been incorporating a lot of your nutrition advice, and now am trying to figure out what direction I'm going with exercise. Currently I just run and do Insanity workout, but am going to rejoin the gym for some strength training. Last time I tried to start lifting, I would spend half the time walking around the gym in a daze, debating whether to use a bar, a dumbell, a machine, etc...so this time I am trying to put together a very specific plan beforehand, and wanted to clarify a few things with you. I know you recommend 2-3 full body workouts a week, with general large movements such as squats and bench presses. I was looking at several programs online, such as Jamie Eason's Livefit program, where she breaks up the body parts for different days and does many different exercises for each part. I really like how clearly everything is laid out, with instruction videos for each exercise, but the workout style seems to be the opposite of what you recommend.

My question is: what are pros and cons of these two types of training? Do you think there's a major difference in how your body would look in the end? As for my goals, I want to build more muscle eventually, but for now I'm focusing more on maintaining my muscle while losing a few pounds of body fat.

Thank you so much for all the time you put into these forums! Whenever I find myself getting overwhelmed with diet 'secrets' and plans, I come back on here and reread your posts to set myself straight=)

This is a great question and I have a feeling I'm going to blab a bit. So if I confuse you more than I help you, just say so and I'll try to explain things differently.

Let me start by saying that I don't have a clue how Jamie sets up her program. That said, what you're essentially asking is, "Is it better to do full body training or split training?"

In truth, there's no right or wrong answer when it comes to that question... as is this case with most questions like this. You'll find debates about this very question all over the internet and they involve a lot of generalizations. For example, there are endless ways of setting up a split routine. When most people think of splits though, they're thinking of the traditional bodybuilding bodypart split. This is where the program is divvied up by bodypart and each muscle is trained once per week using an exotic and voluminous list of exercises.

In general, if I had to choose between that sort of split and a full body routine for the novice lifter who's interested in maximizing muscle mass while dieting... I'd opt for the latter pretty much every single time. So if Jamie's program is that sort of split, there's my answer. Just remember that there's is no "one right way" to lift weights that is right or wrong without context. One program might be great for one goal and terrible for yet another.

It's also very important to keep in mind that most fitness models, figure competitors, and bodybuilders use training and dieting tactics that are not at all in the best interest of your average exerciser. These folks are not the average and their bodies tend to give them a platform and limelight to espouse their training theories. More often than not though, they're doing a disservice to the masses who don't have gifted genetic profiles, aren't using supportive drugs, and aren't training and dieting for a living. Nothing against Jamie, though... I do like her a lot. I'm speaking very generally here regarding the information that tends to come out of this camp.

A very simplified way of looking at it is like this:

Let's say that you are doing a standard "bodybuilder" split, where you perform 4 chest exercises in a given workout and then wait an entire week before doing them again. Now, let's say that I am doing a full body workout 3x per week, with 1 chest exercise each time. At the end of the week, you will have performed 4 exercises to my 3, which is very similar. However, by waiting an entire week, you have lost adaptations where I have not. Further, in a full year (we'll take that as 50 weeks for simplicity), you have worked out 50 times to my 150.

So to put it more simply... the traditional bodypart split way of training consolidates the exposure to stress too much for most goals.

The truth of the matter is that a training program (as long as it's not super-stupid) is only part of the equation; consistency, motivation, and hard work are a lot more important. And any program that has you getting stronger over time with sane levels of volume (not too little and not too much) is going to drive progress.

And a lot can get lost in translation too. For example...

My training is generally a in the upper/lower split set up where I'm training upper body twice per week and lower body twice per week.

Monday - Push emphasis
Tuesday - Squats emphasis
Thursday - Pull emphasis
Friday or Saturday - Deadlift or hip hinge emphasis

But let's look at something.

Monday I do OHP and Bench as my heavy work, with assistance done for lats, chest, and triceps.

Tuesday is Squats, with assistance for quads/hams/calves.

Thursday I do heavy rowing or pullups but I also do assistance stuff for bench, overhead press, back, and arms.

Friday/Saturday I do DL and heavy assistance for hamstring and quads.

So let's think about this in different terms then:

Monday - Chest/Shoulders/Back/Arms
Tuesday - Quads/Hamstrings
Thursday - Back/Chest/Shoulder/Arms
Friday or Saturday - Hamstrings/Quads

Whoa! I'm doing a body part split!

Except it's not.

If I had to sum it up and put it in terms that will likely resonate with you... what's going to provide the average exerciser with the most mileage towards their goals is going to be a handful of sets for each major muscle group done pretty heavily relative to their maximum ability where these muscles are trained more than once per week and an emphasis is placed on getting stronger over time.






As long as she's focusing on a few core tenets that matter when it comes to any setup, than I'm sure it's fine. By and large though, most traditional fitness models, figure competitors, and bodybuilders train with ridiculous volumes. They believe that you have to pump and tone and hit the muscle from every angle in order to make progress. And that way of training can "work" if you have the genetics, support from drugs, and you're eating sufficient energy. MInd you, I'm not suggesting that Jamie uses drugs as I don't believe that she does. But the point is, the splits that most of the folks in this category use are not appropriate for the average trainee who's looking to "tone up", get stronger, and maintain muscle while losing fat.





But again, that's generalizing quite a bit as you can make splits work quite well for many goals.

goodthings

Thanks so much for the detailed info. I think I understand...the difference is not so much regarding the split days or the exercises themselves, as it is with the volume of sets per muscle group. And unless you're very advanced and have low body fat already, it's probably overkill to try to sculpt muscle from every angle with so many exercises. This makes a lot of sense (hope I'm interpreting correctly). I think I will use her guide for some ideas on movements, but will stick to only 1 or 2 exercises per muscle group and train each group twice a week.

I like the idea of how you set up those splits. Last time I tried full body strength training, I was completely drained the next day. I did this about 3 times and the same thing happened each time. I did 3-4 sets each of squats, bench presses, rows, and back extensions, maybe some other little things thrown in, and I wasn't exhausted leaving the gym at all, but for the next couple of days I'd have really low energy. So I'm thinking I will try your general plan that you laid out below and see if it will help to spread the work over more days.

Thanks again Steve, you're awesome!!

lglg11

Great stuff ! Thank you

stroutman81

Thanks so much for the detailed info. I think I understand...the difference is not so much regarding the split days or the exercises themselves, as it is with the volume of sets per muscle group. And unless you're very advanced and have low body fat already, it's probably overkill to try to sculpt muscle from every angle with so many exercises. This makes a lot of sense (hope I'm interpreting correctly).

Yup, you're interpreting me correctly.

I like the idea of how you set up those splits. Last time I tried full body strength training, I was completely drained the next day. I did this about 3 times and the same thing happened each time. I did 3-4 sets each of squats, bench presses, rows, and back extensions, maybe some other little things thrown in, and I wasn't exhausted leaving the gym at all, but for the next couple of days I'd have really low energy. So I'm thinking I will try your general plan that you laid out below and see if it will help to spread the work over more days.

That would be fine.

Here are two other alternatives:

1) You could do an upper/lower split in with an upper day emphasizing horizontal work, an upper day emphasizing vertical work, a lower day emphasizing squatting, and a lower day emphasizing hip hinge work. Could look something like this:

Day 1: Upper - horizontal heavy, vertical light

A1 - BB Row 3x4-6
A2 - BB Bench Press 3x4-6
B1 - Cable Pulldown - 2x10-12
B2 - DB Single Arm Push Press - 2x10-12
Throw some direct arm work at the end

Day 2: Lower - squat emphasis

A1 - BB Squats 3x4-6
B1 - BB Romanian Deadlift - 3x8-10
B2 - DB Reverse Lunge - 3x8-10
C1 - Planks 3x30-60 seconds

Day 3: Upper - heavy vertical, light horizontal

A1 - Pullups 3x4-6 (if you can't do pullups, use bands for assistance or resort to heavy pulldowns)
A2 - Standing BB Overhead Press 3x4-6
B1 - Head Supported DB Rows 2x10-12
B2 - Single Arm DB Press 2x10-12
Throw in some arms at the end if you want

Day 4: Lower - hip hinge emphasis

A1 - Trap Bar Deadlift 3x4-6
B1 - DB Goblet Squat - 3x12-15
B2 - Pallof Press - 3x10-12
C1 - Single Leg Hip Thrust - 3x8-10

Nothing is written in stone there... but just one way of going about things. You could also shoot for an upper day, a lower day, and then one full body day. That way everything's getting trained twice yet you're only lifting 3 days per week. I like this setup too.