Why I No Longer Do Full Body Workouts

I happened upon this video while enjoying my post-workout meal, and the first thing I thought of was, "Y U NO post this when I was back in college!?!"  Could have saved me sooo much time, man.  So much time...

Not too long ago in my yester-year I was one of those "intermediate/advanced"(??) people who did full body workouts 5 days a week.  As you can imagine, this was hella time consuming, with most of the workouts lasting in the 2 hr range.  I'd spend about an hour or so doing cardio and the other hour in the weight room.  My friends judged me, and rightfully so.  In retrospect I judge myself, but hindsight is always 20/20, ain't it.  I trained the whole body everyday because I thought if I left a part out I'd be neglecting it and it wouldn't develop  properly...or something like that.  I also just really liked being in the gym, so that whole 2 hr thing didn't really bother me.  The program "worked" in that it kept that college weight off me of (for the most part anyway), but it failed in giving me the physique I wanted.  Personally speaking, I think I look better now than I did back in those days, and heavens knows my cardio game has gone up all the notches.  An hour of stagnant cardio may help burn calories, but it ain't gonna help you run that 1.5 miles in under 15.

The Dangers of Full Body

See all them lines pointing to things?
That's all the stuff that can R.I.P. in the knee joint,
and sometimes multiple things can go at the same damn time....

#1  The biggest reason they're not a good idea is time.  This video is a follow up the guy did that outlines all the exercises you'd need to do to adequately hit the every major muscle group in the body.  Of course you could skip many of the ones he mentioned, but even if you did, you'd still be left with quite a few exercises.  Even if you reduced the number of sets you did to only 2, you'd still be looking at about 2 hrs just to do weights.  Can you really sustain your physical and mental strength for that amount of time?  Prolly not.  Your motivation would start slipping, and you'd start getting sloppy and ineffective.  In essence, the latter half of your workout would be a complete waste of time.

If, by some chance, you have manage to still have adequate energy by the end of your workout, it you weren't working hard enough.  I've read articles and heard people say 40 min for a workout is sufficient.  That's a little low for me even without cardio since I usually aim for around an hour, but it's still very doable if you structure everything properly.  I feel like unless you're a professional bodybuilder, powerlifter, or are potentially doing some rehab work, there's really no reason for you to be pushing the 2 hr mark in a workout.  And this is coming from someone who used to do it.

#2  The next reason full body workouts aren't good for you at that level is if you're doing your workouts correctly, you'll need to give the muscle time to rest and recover.  Unfortunately, I learned this lil' piece of info too late in life, but 'tis much better to be late than never show up for the paaarty.  At one point last year I was squatting heavily several times a week.  I was doing about 85-90% of my one rep max every Monday-Wednesday-Friday, and deadlifting to that same percentage once every 7 days.  I'm not exactly a spring chicken anymore, so you can imagine what essential joint K.O.'ed on me back in November.  Complete devastation.

Anywhos, a quality workout will tear the fibers.  With proper nutrition and rest, these will repair themselves and the muscle will grow.  However, continuously straining joints/muscles in their weakened state will result in overuse injuries that include but are not limited to:

• Swelling of the joints
• Cartilage damage
• Severe muscle tears
• Ligament damage

*SN* Have you seen what a pectoral muscle tear looks like?!?!  Absolutely mortifying.

MORTIFYING.

All of these things can and should be avoided at all costs.  The body part I have specifically in mind:  knees.   Don't let this be you, America.  I've heard fitness people say the heavier the weights, the more rest you need for the muscle.  Judging from what I've personally seen, this is true, for heavy squats + overtraining = patella ligament disaster.

Current Workout Split

I've split my workout several times over the past few years.  At one point it was "upper body" and "lower body".  That wasn't too bad, but I later discovered there are many parts of the "upper body" that needed individual attention that I just didn't have time to devote to all in one day.  Again, the body part I have specifically in mind:  the back.  Admittedly, I neglected it over the years and now I have what appears to be a slight medial rotation of the shoulders.  How do you fix this:  more pulling exercises, less pushing exercises.  Thus, "back day" was born.

I've had this workout split for about 2 months now and I'm seeing pretty good results.  I had an injury that took me out the lower body game for too many moons, so I lost a bit of ground in the gainz department there.  I cleaned up my diet, and by "cleaned up" I mean actively trying to get the recommended amount of protein in per day (grams of protein = lbs of body weight).  I haven't been doing any intermittent fasting because I'm saving that for when I get closer to boot camp.  That'll help me trim the last few pounds.  My muscle definition has increased tremendously.  In fact, my arms have grown an inch over that time period (13").  Might not seem like a lot to you, but that's quite a bit for a 5'0" female.

Monday - Legs

• Stiff leg deadlifts
• Jefferson squats
• Front squats*
• Back squats*
• Calf raises

*One week I do front squats, the next I do back squats.  Keeps things interesting.

Tuesday - Back & Abs

• Dumbbell rows
• Overhand bent over rows*
• Underhand bent over rows*
• Pull-ups**
• T-bar rows
• Ab stuff

*Alternate weeks with these too for the same reason listed above.

**I stopped doing these so frequently do some elbow issues I was having some elbow issues.

Wednesday - Shoulders & Forearms

• Overhead press*
• Shoulder press
• W-Raises
• Lateral raises
• Reverse flyes
• Palms down wrist curls
• Palms up wrist curls

*Overhead press is done with the barbell, so I only do it if I'm not being lazy.  Now I have a dumbbell and do shoulder presses because it's faster (don't have to bust out the rack).

Thursday - Chest & Triceps

• Standard push-ups
• Wide grip push-ups
• Narrow grip push-ups
• Dive bombers
• Butterflies
• One arm tricep extensions
• Tricep pushdowns

Friday - Cardio

Because women usually ride bikes
in dresses and heels.

The cardio I do varies from day-to-day...could be anything from jumping rope for 30 min to running several miles.  Last Friday I went swimming.  When the weather permits, I prefer bike riding.  Mixing up the cardio helps keep things fresh.  Back in my public gym days I used to get bored with the cardio, which effected my intensity.  I've also been experimenting with the placement of the cardio...before or after lifting.  I've read a couple articles that say it's beneficial to do cardio after lifting, so I've been doing that for the past few weeks.  Outcome:  I like post weights cardio better because my body is already nice 'n' warm and I can hop right into it with a good level intensity.  It also allows me to have more energy to devote towards my gainz now that I'm starting fresh.  I like.

Saturday - Rest*

*I deadlift every other Saturday

Sunday - Rest

Conclusions

If you're in a hurry and tryna get quick workout in, I recommend a fully body number.  But if you're a serious lifter going for a standard workout routine, I'd probably stay away from it...unless you have 365 hours to spend in the gym or if you're a some sort of Wolverine-exoskeleton-having mofo who has injury-resistant joints.

Real talk, I wish somebody would have told me about this earlier in life.  I blame you, America - tryna keep a sista out of the fitness loop.  I could have saved so much time and injury energy by spacing everything, and my gainz probably would have been 10x what they are now.   Even though my injury issues set me back quite a bit, and I'm a little behind where I had originally planned to be by this time of year, I still hit that PR on the squat last week and my front squatting has improved exponentially.  In other words, I'm quite pleased with my progress.  The human body is a physiological masterpiece, but like anything, too much of a good thing will still kill that ish.  Keep that in mind, America.