Two day full body strength training routine

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.

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.

Bumpity bumper bump

You're welcome.

My pleasure! Let me know if you have any questions.

Oh my gosh. I just spent the last 10 minutes trying to find this post, haha. Finally getting around to developing my own routine, now that I've met with a PT & learned technique on a few lifts Thanks again for the post.

You're welcome! You can always email me if you're looking for something in particular. But glad you found it and good luck! Hopefully your trainer had a clue about exercise form!