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Not seeing the results you want and tired of all the "full body workout routines are the only way to train" hype? Let's try something different.
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Are Bodybuilding Split Routines Legit? Not seeing the results you want and tired of all the "full body workout routines are the only way to train" hype? Let's try something different. The pendulum is swinging. For nearly 3 decades body part splits were seen as the only "real" way to build muscle. These days many prominent fitness celebrities are touting the benefits of training body parts multiple times per week.
Point #1 - Full Body Workouts Typically Take Longer When you perform a full-body workout you have to properly warm up ALL body parts, not just 1-2 per day. This forces you to spend more time in the gym, which can be a negative for many lifters.
In addition, as your strength levels increase, so do the number of required warm ups sets. A lifter that squats 185 for reps needs fewer warm up sets than a lifter who squats 275 or 365 for reps. After you reach a weight that is 50% of your one rep max, warm up sets should only jump up by about 10%. So the more you lift, the more potential warm up sets you need.
As you get stronger you'll need one, two or even in extreme cases three more warm up sets before you attack your first working set. If you are performing several heavy, compound movements per session - such as squats, bench press, and barbell rows - imagine how much longer these sets will prolong your time in the gym. Between changing plates, slapping on knee or wrist wraps, grabbing a sip of BCAAs, etc., each additional warm up set costs me about 2-3 minutes of time.
When using a body part split, or training only 1-2 body parts per day, you will decrease the amount of time spent warming up. For example, when training chest you might lead with the bench press. After your warm-up and working sets, you are pretty much ready for your next chest exercise. You MIGHT need to perform one warm up set to get the feel for this next exercise, but it's unlikely you'll need more than that.
You're also performing fewer compound movements per session, which not only reduces the cumulative number of warm-up sets per session, but also leads to a faster time between sets. It's much more difficult to recover between sets of big hitting compound exercises than it is machine or isolation movements.
Point #2 - "Optimal" Advantages Even Out Over Time On paper full body workouts and upper/lower splits provide a slight muscle protein synthesis advantage. That's great. Advantages are good. But over the course of three, four or even five years this advantage evens out.
A natural bodybuilder can only get so big. The more they gain, the less they have left to gain. This is a reality, even though many in the lifting community choose to ignore it.So let's say a full body workout gives you a 5% muscle protein synthesis advantage out of the gate. This would equate to about an extra 0.5 to 0.75 pounds of muscle during the first year of training, and maybe 0.25 to 0.5 pounds during year two.
While you (might have) gained slightly more muscle during year one using a full body workout, the "bro split" trainee has more potential gains left in the tank. For this reason, despite frequency training providing an advantage, muscle gain rates during year two might actually be equal.
Natural muscle potential is like a full glass of water. We each only get one full cup of gains during our lifetime. For some naturals this might be 32 pounds of muscle, and for others 35 pounds of muscle. You can't change your cup size - or natural potential - though many believe you can with hard work and a will of steel. This is nonsense.
