People often ask what’s the best full body workout to use, if you are to train in this way. The mistaken view is that there is such a thing as the best workout. The truth is there is no best full body workout. A full body workout is a full body workout. All that really matters is that the fitness goals relating to all the muscles of the body are addressed.
The best full body workout is the one which you can use to achieve your fitness goals.
The basics of a full body workout would be to strengthen every muscle and optimise its endurance – for most people. but many people just want the biggest muscles possible or a specific body shape or a body able to perform to a certain standard.
The best way to determine the best full body worklout FOR YOU is to have a specific set of goals. The exercises best suited to meeting those goals will form the best full body routine.
In casse you wanted a few tips I’d suggest the following generic ideas:
*Do just a few exercises per muscle group and ensure they are effective ones. 2-3 exercises per muscle group are adequate.
*Aim for one set per exercise or 2-3 sets of just one exercise.
*Train to failure, or just a rep or two short of failure – depending on your goals. If you are bodybuilding, then training to failure (for a 6 week cycle, followed by 6 weeks of training to within a rep of faiulure). If your goals relate to a sport then avoid training to failure and stop a rep or two short of failure (this makes a massive difference to your recovery and allows you to be able to adapt better to the other sports-related training you do).
*Depending on how active you are outside th gym and on how much you sleep, do full body workouts twice or three times weekly. Doing them more often is not necessary and if you feel the need to do more than three full body sessions it suggests you are not training properly.
If you are exerting your muscles correctly you should struggle to do more than two full body workouts each week. If you can comfortably do three full body sessions it means you are exercising within your ultimate capacity – but that is not necessarily a bad thing – it just means you are maintaining a set level of fitness and are using exercise to gain mental and relaxation benefits as well. Only do this if you have developed your body to a level you are content with.
If you still want to develop further then you must intensify training in order to develop. Intensify to the extent that you cannot manage more than two sessions each week – then you know the intensity is high enough to cause your body to actually change. Recovery is essential if your body is to develop – but so is stress.
*If time pressures are high you can do just one full body session each week. If you do this you must go for maximum intensity and maximum stress but specific rules must be observed. One such rule is that workouts must be short, try to restrict to 45 minutes if possible (this allows recovery and prevents illness developing due to failure to recover from exercise stress). You should also use a training intensity such that you cannot do more than 8-10 reps of each exercise. Do fewer exercises per body part at this intensity to ensure your form remains correct (this obviously calls for compound exercises to develop as much of the muscle group as possible, rather than isolation movements). Try to do some light aerobics on the non training days, such as walking, etc, to keep the immune system primed and to keep the blood oxygen capacity from falling between workouts.
I hope this information is of use.
Idai Makaya
www.idaimakaya.com
