Benefits of Full Body Stength Training Routines

Benefits of Full Body Strength Training Routines

Most adults and athletes don’t need more complexity in their training programs; they need more results on a shorter time frame. We’ve seen that nothing delivers better long term strength, mobility, body composition, and conditioning than a well designed full-body training plan. Body part split routines have their place in purely hypertrophy (muscle growth) and vanity goals when people have a significant chunk of time and focus dedicated to those goals. We all have talked with people who followed the traditional body part routines. They tend to look something like this :

Monday : Chest and Arms

Tuesday : Shoulders and Abs

Thursday : Back 

Friday : Chest and arms because social events on the weekend

This schedule leads to people needing to train up to 6-8 hours on a weekly basis, which many busy adults simply don’t have to factor into their schedule. I remember as my wife, Claire, was going through her doctorate program for Physical Therapy, she said something that made me change my outlook on training. When rehabbing someone back to health and strength, you have to look at how the body works as a whole, because no muscle or joint works independently. Our body doesn’t work in segments, neither should our training. 

Time Efficiency

Training begins to make more sense when we begin to train movement patterns instead of muscles in isolation. 

Movement patterns to consider

Squat

Hinge

Push

Pull

Carry

We can then further break these down into vertical, horizontal, diagonal, single limb, unstable etc. From there you can vary the implements used such as barbell, dumbbells, med balls, bands etc. 

Simply put, if we train these movement patterns a few times a week with a different emphasis each day, then our training will have compounded efforts that will lead to a stronger and more mobile life. In comparison to trying to isolate body parts, these movements recruit more muscle, increase force production, and create better hormone and neurological responses. This works better in real life than body part splits because we have a higher frequency rate of strengthening the muscles and improving the movement pattern. Training is a skill; and when we increase our practice of the skill, it leads to better results. 

Reduces Injury Risk

A common problem with body part splits is overloading one area of the body while neglecting others. Some of this is due to prioritization of training. If people tend to focus on certain muscle groups, lets say the muscles in the front of the body, they will place them earlier in the week in their training routine. As busy adults, as the week goes on and plans get derailed the workouts focused on the opposing muscle groups will be neglected. For adults that have been lifting for years or have previous injuries from sports, a body part split can be problematic due to joint irritation and constant soreness. Full body training routines help balance the workload across the entire body. 

By implementing a full body routine, you’re more likely to include things like posterior chain, core strength and stability, varied planes of movement, and different loading patterns. All of these lead to better results in the real world. Because you’re including variety and higher frequency you can train consistently without feeling the need to take days off or do rehab exercises. 

Full Body Training Supports Recovery

Many adults deal with stress from work, life, and lack of sleep. Adding marathon workouts on top of that can just dig a deeper recovery hole. Full body sessions spread stress evenly. This allows you to train hard and recover which helps to build a consistent routine. We structure our training sessions to be active recovery for the non dominant focus of the workout. This means in an upper body focused workout we can do exercises like glute ham raises as accessory exercise which can be complimentary to the previous training session. Full body training promotes frequency over intensity and it keeps us training in a progressive fashion over a long period of time. 

Final Thoughts

Ditch the bodybuilding split to feel and look your best. For busy adults, full body training checks every box.

Real World Strength

Reduces Injury Risk

Improves Body Composition

Fits within Lifestyle

Builds Consistency 

At Showtime, we focus on smart and sustainable training that helps you live stronger, move better, and feel more confident in your body. 

If you’re ready to change your routine, message us to learn about how you can train differently to get better results. 

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