Why Full Body Routines Are Superior For Beginners

Most people new to training usually follow a split, so they'll have a chest day, leg day, back day, and shoulder day or something along those lines. The idea being that they don't want to train a muscle group more than once a week otherwise it'll get overtrained. Overtraining for a beginner is bullshit because like I have mentioned before, they are not adapted to heavy workloads. That means they need to build up their ability to recover from workloads. The more advanced you are, the higher the workload you need to make progress. Elite Olympic lifters squat heavy almost everyday.

The Bulgarians didn't believe in overtraining

"If you got a job as a garbage man and had to pick up heavy cans all day long, the first day would probably be very difficult, possibly almost impossible for some to complete. So what do you do, take three days off and possibly lose your job?

No, you'd take your sore, beaten self to work the next day. You'd mope around and be fatigued, much less energetic than the previous day, but you'd make yourself get through it. Then you'd get home, soak in the tub, take aspirin, etc. The next day would be even worse.

But eventually you'd be running down the street tossing cans around and joking with your coworkers. How did this happen? You forced your body to adapt to the job at hand! If you can't' squat and lift heavy every day you're not overtrained, you're undertrained! Could a random person off the street come to the gym with you and do your exact workout? Probably not, because they're undertrained. Same goes with most lifters when compared to elite athletes.

– John Broz 2002"

However, most of us don't plan on competing in the Olympics so we probably won't ever work up to such workloads. Olympic weightlifters also only train the back squat, front squat, clean and jerk, snatch and their power variations (power cleans and power snatches) which can be done on a daily basis. For normal trainees, bench pressing everyday would not a good idea as you'll most likely ruin your shoulders. Deadlifting everyday would also be hell on your lower back. But I was simply proving a point about 'overtraining', it's not all its cracked up to be.

Full body routines that incorporate a squat, press and pull every session (like Stronglifts 5x5 or Starting Strength) are great for beginners, because they train the lifts which give the most bang for their buck, as well as build up their work capacity. Your legs get trained by squatting, instead of doing leg press, leg extension and leg curls. You train your shoulders by overhead pressing, rather than doing front raises, side raises and rear delt raises. Your triceps get trained by benching and overhead pressing, no need for tricep kickbacks. Your back gets trained by barbell rows and deadlifts. This is called training economy. Getting more out of doing less exercises.

What do you think will make your legs grow quicker as a beginner? Squatting once a week or squatting three times a week? When you're a beginner you're undertrained, overtraining is not possible. Full body routines also build mental discipline in trainees. Squats are difficult, but you get them out of the way first. This builds a mentality that doesn't dread 'training legs'. Once you finish 5 sets of squats, other exercises don't seem so bad in comparison. Full body routines teach you to squat often because they are the best exercise for your body. As the name implies, every session you train your entire body.

Which brings me to the limitations of split routines for beginners. What if life interfered and you had to miss one of your sessions? Does that mean that muscle group misses out on getting worked for the week? Most beginners like training their upper body so chances are it'll be the leg day that gets missed. If this happens enough times you'll end up as Captain Upper Body with small chicken legs, which is plain ridiculous looking and you'll be those guys who wear long pants at the gym to hide their skinny legs.

Couldn't find a real photo but you get the idea

So when is it suitable to use a bodypart split for training? When you're lifting heavy enough weights on an exercise to produce a workload that you cannot recover from in time within the same week to lift heavy again, on the same exercise. If you're not even benching at least 1.5xbodyweight, squatting and deadlifting 2xbodyweight and pressing close to your bodyweight then doing those lifts once a week is not enough. Once you hit these guidelines you'll be smart enough about your training to make a decision if its time to do the lifts once a week. And skinny guys if you weigh 60kg don't even bother following these guidelines you need to put on more muscle.

Smarter, more experienced trainees also don't think about splits in terms of chest, legs, back and shoulders but rather bench day (and bench assistance), squat day (and squat assistance), deadlift day (and deadlift assistance) and overhead press day (and shoulder assistance).


In conclusion:

• Full body routines let you hit all your muscles more times in a week than in a bodypart split, which will make you gain muscle quicker
• Full body routines don't neglect muscle groups, but on a bodypart split if you miss a day that muscle group misses out for the week
  
• Full body routines allow beginners to adapt to high workloads

Sources:

http://www.t-nation.com/free_online_article/most_recent/max_out_on_squats_every_day