Total Body Training and Why It Works for Everyone!

When most people think of total body training, they are going to think of maybe a circuit room, an easy workout, or something that is not for them.  Let me start by saying this, if you are not doing a total body training routine, you are wasting your time working out.  It does NOT matter what your goal is, you must do total body training.  If you are trying to lose weight, become stronger, become more muscular, become a better athlete, or any other goal you may have, you have to do total body training or you will waste your time.  Having tried every type of split training known to man, split training does not work and is scientifically not an intelligent choice. Ok, so now that I have that cleared up, I need to explain what exactly total body training really is and the variations of total body training.  Total body training is simply not splitting up body parts throughout the week and training them on separate days.  These split routines usually involve performing close to 20 sets per body part, training that body part once a week, and lifting 4-6 times a week.  I will later get into the detail of a total body training routine for weight loss and muscle mass gain. First off, for weight loss, this method is superior because you are recruiting as much muscle mass as you possibly can, which in return will burn the most calories you possibly can.  So concerning weight loss, that is that, that is all you need to know to make you motivated enough to start performing total body resistance training (I will get to how to perform a total body training routine later). Now for the bodybuilding type that seem to think splitting up body parts is the way to go.  48 hours after you lift weights, protein synthesis stops, meaning your body stops buliding up the muscle tissue that was broken down.  Training a body part once a week means you are only going to be building muscle in that area 2 of the total 7 days a week.  What a waste!  Also many guys trying to gain a large amount of muscle mass will perform many different exercises for one body part in the same session.  How often are you able to perform the second, third, or forth exercise as well as the first one? I am going to have to bet not very often.  Then quit wasting your time and do one exercise a body part, which brings me to my next point.  Do not train body parts, train movements! When you look at the basic functional movements your body performs, there is only 6, and if you want to get even more basic you could consider there to be only 4.  The 6 are: knee dominant or lower body push (squating), hip dominant or lower body pull (any movement bending at the hips, ex: deadlifts, good mornings, supine bridges), vertical pull (pull-ups), horizontal push (push-ups), horizontal pull (rows), and vertical push (shoulder press).  You see you could consider horizontal and vertical push as one category and vertical and horizontal pull as one category because there is a push and a pull.  So you can look at it either way, 4 or 6 major movements. Now that we know the basic recovery process of muscles and the basic categories of movement that need to be trained.  It would only make sense to train the 4 to 6 movements on a schedule of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  This way you are getting the most out of your workout week.  Although for muscle mass and how heavy bodybuilders must go to achieve large amounts of muscle mass, there are many other variables to consider, the most important one is the nervous system.  If you are a beginner weight lifter and looking to start gaining some muscular size, than the three day a week total body training routine of all 6 movements will absolutely put on more size than you could imagine.  A seasoned verteran on the other hand will have to perform a more customized total body training routine, which is out of the scope of this article, although I would recommend checking out the "No Nonsense" series on muscle building to truly maximize your results in the shortest time possible for the more intermediate to advanced lifters. Ok, so now I hope I have convinced you, or at least made you think of switching to a routine like the one I have been describing.  If the above concepts seem kind of confusing, do not worry, below I will give you a sample total body workout to clear things up.  Thanks for reading and I will be talking to you again soon. Signing off, Chris Little

Monday/Wednesday/ Friday:

Knee Dominant- Squats: 2 x 12

Vertical Pull- Pull-ups: 2 x 12

Hip Dominant- Supine Bridges: 2 x 12

Horizontal Push- Push-ups: 2 x 12

Horizontal Pull- Dumbbell Row: 2 x 12

Vertical Push- Dumbbell Shoulder Press: 2 x 12