Advanced Full Body Workout
As a beginner, you start out with full body workout routines and then later are advised to do splits, which in general is sound advice. But even an advanced bodybuilder can benefit from full body routines, if he does them right.
The Concept
An advanced full body workout can be a nice break from your usual routine and engage you on a very high level of intensity.
But you can’t do them by just cramping what you normally do as a 3-day-split into one workout session and then do that three times per week. The key to an advanced full body workout is doing no isolations and concentrating on different compounds or variations of the same compounds:
This Is Not For Beginners!
Below you find an example for an advanced full body workout schedule, but before we get to it, let me make sure this is really well understood: Although this is a full body workout, it is not meant for beginners!
Some of these exercises require a good bit of body control, as well as knowledge on how they are performed and feel when done correctly. The deadlifts and squats, for example, can lead to serious injuries when done wrong and you might not even notice it, while the Spiderman push-ups will do nothing for someone who has trouble doing just regular push-ups correctly.
The Plan
This example plan is modeled after what suits me, so you may not find it entirely appropriate for you. Use it as a basis for designing your own:
| Day | Body Part | Exercise | Sets | Repetitions |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monday | ||||
| Chest | Dumbbell Chest Presses | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Triceps Dips | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Back | Pull-Ups | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Dumbbell Rows | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Legs | Lunges | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Straight-Leg Deadlifts | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Abs | Crunches | 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Tuesday | Cardio, 30 – 60 minutes | |||
| Wednesday | ||||
| Chest | Inclined Chest Presses | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Wide Push-Ups | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Back | Chin-Ups | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Pullovers | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Legs | Squats | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Hamstring Raises | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Abs | Lying Leg Raises | 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Thursday | Cardio, 30 – 60 minutes | |||
| Friday | ||||
| Chest | Hammer Grip Presses | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Spiderman Push-Ups | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Back | Towel Pull-Ups | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Lying Rows | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Legs | Step-Ups | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Romanian Deadlifts | 2 – 3 | 6 – 12 | ||
| Abs | Bicycles | 3 | 6 – 12 | |
| Saturday | Rest or Cardio, 30 – 60 Minutes | |||
| Sunday | Rest | |||
Rest time between sets is 1 minute.
About The Number Of Sets
The recommended sets are 2 – 3, because you will have to keep an eye on how your body reacts to this regime. It may very well be that already 2 sets per exercise are enough for you, as the total weekly workout volume per body part even then equals 12 sets. This is plenty, as I explained in the video about volume and intensity.
Notes On The ExRx Examples
You will notice that many of the ExRx examples are done on benches, but you can do these exercises on the floor as well. This may limit your range of motion a bit, but not to the point that the exercise becomes useless.
Also, ExRx classifies the dumbbell pullover as more chest-centric than the barbell version, which in my opinion isn’t really the case, while the pullovers and the hamstring raises are listed under isolations. This too is debatable, as both involve quite a number of synergists.
How Often To Do This?
As said above and in the video, advanced full body workouts are rather intense and in my opinion you may want to do them for only one or two months per year, in January and July, for example. Training this way can be quite taxing on the body, and doing it too often may wear you out. Treat it as nice change from your usual splits and then give your body enough time to recuperate from it.
Post Your Qestions And Comments!
Did you come up with an advanced full body routine of your own, do you have questions about this one or do you think these full body schedules suck in general? Go ahead and post your thoughts!
Picture courtesy of “midiman“.
17 Comments
I use to do mainly 3 full body workouts a week, and just cardio on other days. I had to switch that up and do splits, cause I was getting overtrained. My eye wouldn’t stop twitching, so I knew I needed to incorporate a split.
Your eye wouldn’t stop twitching? Wow, that is some side effect!
Eye twitching = too much caffeine .
Not necessarily. Eye twitching can have a number of causes.
Hi, I like the idea of the workout. However what is the likely hood of over-training on this. I realise you say only do this for a month
Would there be any point in alternating heavy and light days etc?
I hope do try this plan over the next few months. Thank Again.
I’d say yes, you may just get some more mileage out of it that way, but remember that the toll on your musculoskeletal system will still be considerable.
i wanted to know what type of full body circuit i could do to get me ready for the Spartan Race in May. your feed back would be so helpful to me. i need to build strength and endurance!
It depends on your level of fitness. If you haven’t worked out before your best bet in my opinion is to start with my beginner workout, do that Mo – We – Fr and simultaneously work yourself up to 60 minutes running each on Tu – Th – Sa.
You can of course do the workout as a circuit: do each exercise for one set and move on to the next exercise. After four to five rounds you should be spent.
This is not an advanced full body workout, which is why natural trainees shy away from them, besides, the arms won’t get worked to a significant degree, simply because a compund movement for 8-10 reps is insuficient, for the secondary muscles to get worked.An advanced full body would consist of about 3-4 exercises for muscle group, 2 for biceps and triceps, calves, and about 4 sets each, and as the reps performed increase so do the sets and exercises.Old school stuff.This is a workout for those who go out with an umbrella on a sunny day, very cautious people.Stop beeing afraid.
Nope, that wouldn’t work because you wouldn’t be able to keep the intensity up, as in total you would do around 30 sets involving the biceps and triceps per week.
lol. YOU might not be able to keep it up, but those who eat big, rest big and are advanced shouldn’t have a problem with what Alex suggests.
Interestingly, comments like these almost always come from the people who believe in bulking. You might not like my opinion on that either:
https://evilcyber.com/nutrition/bulking-and-cutting/
about the wednesday workout squats are done after chest and back..now for an advanced bodybuilder(who sqauts some impressive weight) dnt u think they should be done first up :)..also an advanced trainee needs some sort of direct arm work to make his arms grow..ur thoughts? 🙂
Heah shrenik, when you do advanced full body workouts like these multiple times per week, you can’t go all out on each session. The volume for each muscle group is higher, and therefore the intensity a bit lower.
I think it’s quite stupid that calfs and shoulders gets neglected
In a plan like this you can’t devote exercises to smaller muscles – them being involved as synergists is enough.
Not nearly enough. . .in the beginning maybe yes, but as you progress, as one hopefully does, it would probably need to be more. I had great results with full body workouts, but it can be hard to get a high volume compared to split programs. . .but I love the overall workload the full body workouts provide, and definitely more shoulders. . .I could in the end also handle 3 exercises pr body part.