Aug 11
11

Which is better… Full Body or Split?

4 Comments

This is a training blog post by Grant Lofthouse

Question from a Cardio Hater: Hey, I’ve been looking on your blog a bit trying to get a few of your tips…pn Which is better… Full Body or Split?

I have a few questions in you don’t mind helping me out…

I’ve been to a few gyms and both personal trainers there have given me different programs. One being a split and the other full body.

What are the pros and cons of each? And what would you recommend is the best?

I don’t want to get massive, just lean muscle and a little bit of bulk.

Cheers,

Luke

Just so everyone is on track. Full body workouts are usually the ‘go to’ programs for cutting body fat and staying lean.

Splits… were you train one body part one day and another the next, are usually used for putting on slabs of meat.

With that being said… can you still lose body fat and stay lean on a bodybuilding split..? Absolutely.

And can you still gain size on a full body workout..? Absolutely.

Obviously volume and training frequency is going to play a big part in which path you will take.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter what program you go with. It comes down to your diet.

If you want to burn fat and stay lean you need medium to low calories, high protein and you need to cycle your carbs. So on training days you have some carbs and on non-training days you have little to none.

If you want to put on size you need to eat big with a ton of carbs.

Both diets are complete 180 to one another.

Which program to go with comes down to many other factors such as…

  • Recovery levels
  • How many times a week you can hit the gym
  • How much training experience you have, etc.

For beginners, regardless of whether they want to put on size or strip body fat, the answer will always be full body. Why? Because beginners need more training frequency. Training one muscle group a week is a waste a time. At least for the first few years.

When your get your squat, bench and deadlift around 1.5-2 times your body weight then you can start thinking about different splits.

You can’t go full body all the time when your squat, bench and deadlift numbers are nothing to laugh at because you need more recovery between training days, otherwise you will either get injured or burnt out.

Training eBook Cover131 Which is better… Full Body or Split?

However, if you love full body training and wana get around this, then I highly recommend you download the RWC program that I provide on this blog. This program is designed so that you can still complete full body training even if you pull big numbers.

If you’re not a big fan of full body workouts then here’s a couple splits you can use if you can only hit the gym 3 times a week…

M – Upper

W – Lower

F – Full body

This program works great if you don’t want to put on a ton of size because the overall volume for the week isn’t that high due to the full body day. Another good option is…

Week 1

M – Upper

W – Lower

F – Upper

Week 2

M – Lower

W – Upper

F – Lower

Repeat.

This is a 4 day split spread across 3 days, so you pretty much train each muscle group every 5 days. This one works great for putting on size even if you can’t hit the gym all the time.

And here are 2 other splits if you can train 4 times a week…

M- Upper

Tu- Lower

Th – Full body

Sa – Full body

Again another great program if you don’t want to put on a lot of size due to the 2 full body days.

M – Upper

Tu – Lower

Th – Upper

F – Lower

This one is really effective for putting on size due to the high frequency and volume. Personally, this is the kind of split that I’m on at the moment.

So to summarize…

  • Diet is going to be you main issue for which goal you want to attack (fat loss or muscle building).
  • Full body workouts work best for beginners wanting to lose fat or gain weight.
  • Once you start pushing decent numbers you need to go to a split.
  • The type of split will be determined by how many times a week you can train and how far you want to take your muscle building goals.

I hope this helped.

I would love to know your thoughts on full body vs. splits. Which one(s) have you tried and worked for you? Let me know in the comment section below…

-

sneaky showlove Which is better… Full Body or Split?

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Posted in Training by Grant 4 Comments

4 Responses to "Which is better… Full Body or Split?"

  • Samantha says:
    August 12, 2011 at 3:37 pm
    Reply

    Hi Grant, great post.

    I typicall do a full body workout.

    Do you ever train your females with upper / lower splits?

    Thanks

    • Grant says:
      August 12, 2011 at 3:48 pm
      Reply

      Hi Samantha,

      thank you.

      Nah not really. Females respond better to full body (something I didnt address in the post).

  • Andrew Read says:
    August 11, 2011 at 9:48 pm
    Reply

    You’ll never get to a double BW squat training on a non-split program. DL is achievable training daily.

    However your view is over simplified. Split doesn’t just have to be body parts or halves of the body. Olympic lifters and power lifters train full body every session yet also train on a split. The less often you train a movement the weaker you will be at it. If you want useless “slabs of muscle” then infrequent training may be a decent idea. However if you want go to match your show you will need near daily training and full body daily.

    • Grant says:
      August 12, 2011 at 3:59 pm
      Reply

      Andrew – That’s right. When I was working on my shoulder press I was doing H, L, M 3 x a week.

      Doing it once a week did jack.

      However after about 12 weeks I found I was burning out pretty quick from pressing 3 a week even if I did vary the loads.

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