Fullbody days vs Split Routine?

omgitsrick

omgitsrick

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For the last 2 months we've been lifting twice a week at wrestling. First day would be Monday and second would be Wednesday, Fridays no practice. Both days were full-body days and had the same exercises. I've made decent gains with it but nothing tremendous.

Until the next school year starts (September) there won't be any more practices, as summer conditioning is over, so I'm having trouble deciding whether or not I should do a full-body day Mon, Wed, and Fri. I'm not sure though because it seems like alot and I don't wanna burn out, but I'm also scared that if I do a 3 Day split I'll lose strength in some of my lifts. This is because I'm not really used to skipping more than 1-2 days inbetween them.

What should I do?
 
I do a 3 day full body split.

Day 1 Heavy, higher volume
Day 2 light
Day 3 Medium-Heavy lower volume.

It's something I made with information from Mark Rippetoe's Practical Programming. The bible on all these periodization
 
Cap'n said:
I do a 3 day full body split.

Day 1 Heavy, higher volume
Day 2 light
Day 3 Medium-Heavy lower volume.

It's something I made with information from Mark Rippetoe's Practical Programming. The bible on all these periodization
Click to expand...

Can you expand please?

Not really sure what to do with medium/heavy/light volume.
 
omgitsrick said:
Can you expand please?

Not really sure what to do with medium/heavy/light volume.
Click to expand...

Off of his max. For example a light squat day would be a 5x5 at like 60% or something. A heavy day would be like a 3x3 at 90%. Those are just general examples. Check out the PPS routine in the faq if you haven't already.
 
zop said:
Off of his max. For example a light squat day would be a 5x5 at like 60% or something. A heavy day would be like a 3x3 at 90%. Those are just general examples. Check out the PPS routine in the faq if you haven't already.
Click to expand...

Thanks.
 
Cap'n said:
I do a 3 day full body split.

Day 1 Heavy, higher volume
Day 2 light
Day 3 Medium-Heavy lower volume.

It's something I made with information from Mark Rippetoe's Practical Programming. The bible on all these periodization
Click to expand...

Not bad advice. The only thing I would add is to do the light days with a speed focus.

I would stick to full body stuff because wrestling is full body.

Why are you lifting on your wrestling days? I would life the day after. Really I would lift on Fridays if you dont have a meet or lift after the meet.
 
megaseth7 said:
Not bad advice. The only thing I would add is to do the light days with a speed focus.

I would stick to full body stuff because wrestling is full body.

Why are you lifting on your wrestling days? I would life the day after. Really I would lift on Fridays if you dont have a meet or lift after the meet.
Click to expand...

We have dual meets every Thursday, and lift as a team twice a week. Other than that you can add in your own if you want. During season we only really lift about once a week for maintenance but right now is conditioning so I guess thats why.
 
I like full body because I feel like I'm cheating myself otherwise. IMO if you can handle it and have naturally good recovery time it's the way to go, but don't burn out.
 
I used to do a fullbody workout 3 times per week.
But going all out with compund lifts for the whole body 3 times per week was just too much for me.
I now do an upper/lower split and so far it fells much better as it doesn't burn me out that much.
NEver tried the approach with some lighter days thrown in though.
 
graedy said:
I used to do a fullbody workout 3 times per week.
But going all out with compund lifts for the whole body 3 times per week was just too much for me.
I now do an upper/lower split and so far it fells much better as it doesn't burn me out that much.
NEver tried the approach with some lighter days thrown in though.
Click to expand...

I'm with you Graedy. I couldn't handle squatting three times a week, deadlifting once a week and pressing/pulling three times a week. However, I don't think I handled the percentages right so when I got up in weight I'm sure I was doing too much on certain days.

The upper/lower split worked wonders for me. It also seems like its a lot more customizable.
 
Either way, figure out what you like. I have used both upper/lower and 3 day full body splits with great sucess. Keep in mind that in a 3-day full body split, even though you are lifting one less day per week, you are getting less recovery for your muscle groups between workouts so it's more demanding in that aspect.
 
Try doing a upper/lower body split and then doing a full body workout at the end of the week. So Monday-Upper, Tuesday-Lower take two days off and do a total body workout friday. I've had some success with this.
 
Can you guys give me an example Upper/Lower split with the days? Bosley yours sounds interesting but I was looking to go on wed because i have a commitment to a training partner.
 
A nice way to have both is to concentrate on upper body and performing a light work out for lower body and vice verca the next time.

Or

day 1
"3x3" upper body (ie. Bench) + Assistance
"5x5" lower body (ie. Squat)


day 2
"3x3" lower body (ie. Deadlift) + Assistance
"5x5" upper body (ie. Rows)

day 3

If you feel like you need this, you could make this a light whole body session, barbell "complexes", or an explosive lift day or olympic day. Depending on your goals and needs. One might even do a bit of bodybuilding.

You can also add an explosive/olympic lift in the begining of day 1 and 2. Ie Jerk on day 1 and cleans on day 2.
 
I have found that the best way to do a full body routine is to work the full body on one day, but set it up to where one "area" of the body gets 60% of the focused effort and that is done with compound moves, then as you move to the rest of the body, you perform adjunct/assistant type moves that work the rest of the body, but are not quite as taxing, then you just rotate the workouts. For example

WORKOUT ONE
(UPPER BODY PUSH EMPHASIS)
Bench Press or Incline Press
Narrow Grip Bench Press
Overhead Press
Bar Dips
-------------
Overhead Squats
Step Ups
Cable pull thrus ( for hamstrings)
--------------
Seated Cable Rows
Kelso Shrugs (with bb or db)

Ab work

WORKOUT TWO
(LOWER BODY EMPHASIS)
Full Squats
Quarter Squats
Front Squats
--------------
Hise Shrug
Lat Pulldowns
reverse hyperextensions
--------------
one arm dumbell press
Lateral Raises/Cajin Rows
Tricep Pushdown

ab work


WORKOUT THREE
(UPPER BODY PULL EMPHASIS)
Barbell Row
Snatch High Pulls
Deadlifts/Bent Leg Deadlifts
Power Shrugs
--------------
Steep db Incline Press
db press
Cajin Rows
-------------
Walking Lunges

Ab work


So the idea is you are breaking up the body into three area ( you could break it up into push/pull as I have often done as well ( see reverse push-pull routine ) and then you are working the heck out of that one area, almost a workout in itself, when you are done, you should not be totally exhausted, but certainly done with heavy, compound type lifting, as you move down the list, your exercises become somewhat easier--both mentally and physically, but that does not mean they are worthless, often you are just doing them to bring blood into the area to help them recover from their previous compound workout a few days earlier) or you are strenghtening a weak area, by doing an adjunct move.

Hope that helps

Keith
 
The best gains I got were from a full body routine. but it I would only do it 3 or 4 times a year because mixing things up is the best.

sunday
squat 1set to failure
bench 1set to failure
deadlift 1set to failure
BOR 1 set to failure
Lunges 1set to failure

then other lifts but light

tuesday
squat 1set 5reps
bench 1set 5reps
deadlift 1set 5reps
BOR 1 set 5reps
Lunges 1set 5reps

Thursday
squat 1set to failure
bench 1set to failure
deadlift 1set to failure
BOR 1 set to failure
Lunges 1set to failure



This worked really well for me. I got my deadlift from 113kg to 140kg in 4 months.



On a Tuesday now I am going to take 10kg off all the lifts so I can perform more reps with better form and do a sort of endurance day,
 
The best gains I got were from a full body routine. but it I would only do it 3 or 4 times a year because mixing things up is the best.

sunday
squat 1set to failure
bench 1set to failure
deadlift 1set to failure
BOR 1 set to failure
Lunges 1set to failure

then other lifts but light

tuesday
squat 1set 5reps
bench 1set 5reps
deadlift 1set 5reps
BOR 1 set 5reps
Lunges 1set 5reps

Thursday
squat 1set to failure
bench 1set to failure
deadlift 1set to failure
BOR 1 set to failure
Lunges 1set to failure



This worked really well for me. I got my deadlift from 113kg to 140kg in 4 months.



On a Tuesday now I am going to take 10kg off all the lifts so I can perform more reps with better form and do a sort of endurance day.
 
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