Switching things up

[Will2BLean]

I haven't been to the gym since Thursday, so I figured this would be a good time to switch things up. For the past month and a half I've been doing a 4 or 5 day split (depending on if I missed a workout), and I was thinking about doing full body workouts several times a week. Are there any pros/cons to doing full body workouts instead of one or two body parts a day? Of course, I want to do which ever will lead to the most results. Thanks!

 

[Sassy69]

I agree that every 4-6 weeks is a good time to switch up your routine. I would argue that there is one 'better' way tho. Shadow likes to do a bodypart / day. I've done pretty much every combination possible over the years but have focused on muscle groups. Now I'm doing more of a 3 day split of full body workouts of squat / push / pull. Its just different.

I'd say switch it up & give the one body part per day approach a try & see how it works for you. To determine what works 'best' for you, you have to see what 'feels' the best / what you are comfortable with, what you 'get', etc. Also remembr that whatever you happened to be tryign at the time may work great for you at that point in your life, i.e. your current physical state, your age, the progression of what you've done in the past, etc. Its a very dyanamic thing so its really hard to say "this" works best for me and have it be an absolute, regardless of time, place, person, age, etc.

Go for it! You'll never know what works best for you until you try it.

 

[Will2BLean]

Thanks, Sassy! I think I'll give it a try!

 

[Sassy69]

Thanks, Sassy! I think I'll give it a try!

The worst that happens is you learned something new!

 

[Will2BLean]

The worst that happens is you learned something new!

Oooh! What a great way to put it.

Now, I have a new question.. (just trying to plan things out mentally). Do you think two exercises per body part would be a good place to start?

 

[Sassy69]

If you are doign 1 body part / day - depending on the volume, I would expect more like 3 exercises. I'd take a look at The Shadow Project description and see what a typical day looks like on there.

 

[Will2BLean]

I'm going to try full body workouts, 3 or 4 times a week, since I am already doing 1-2 body parts a day. I spent some time searching for workouts today. Thanks for all your help, Sassy!!

 

[Sassy69]

You'll enjoy those - definitely make sure to give yourself a day between each workout to recovery - that's my recommendation anyway. I tend to do cardio & abs on my 'off' days but occassionally throw in some isolation work on my arms or somethign that hasn't been worked in a while. I notice a huge difference in my strength after doing a regular 6 days on schedule.

 

[Will2BLean]

Great! That sounds perfect, since I tend to slack on abwork. I'm excited!

Thanks, again!

 

[*Bunny*]

will2, I have a generic full body program I tweaked from an HST program layout.

This is the orignal w/o take from http://www.hypertrophy-specific.com/hst_II.html