Full Body Workout Question?

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buffdaddy110

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I'm currently doing a full body workout routine three days a week, I want to change it up where I do 3x10, 5x5, and 6x6. My question is how often should i change this up. For example: Mon 3x10, Tue 5x5, Fri 6x6 or should I stick with one for the week or what. This is my routine:

Monday
Chest - bench Press
Shoulders - Dumbell Presses
Back - Pull Ups
Biceps - Standing Barbell Curls (optional)
Triceps - Paralell Bar Dips (optional)
Legs - Squats
Calves - Standing Calf Raises

Wednesday
Legs - Angled Leg Press
Calves - Seated Calf Raises
Back - Bent over barbell rows
Shoulders - Upright Rows
Chest - Incline Barbell Press
Biceps - Preacher Curls (optional)
Triceps - Pushdowns (optional)

Friday
Back - Seated Cable Rows
Chest - Dumbell Presses
Legs - Deadlifts
Triceps - Lying Dumbell Extensions (optional)
Biceps - Alternate Dumbell Curls (optional)
Calves - One Legged Calf Raises
Shoulders - Military Presses
 
Buff: Looking at your workout I see a few deficiencies. The order is off. For example, you have biceps curls before legs on day one and triceps before military press on day 3. You need to order your workout, at least generally, from largest to smallest. IE: Legs, Back, Chest, Shoulders, Bi's, Tri's. Some might tell you to drop the biceps/triceps isolation work, but I'll leave that up to you.

Short answer is that you should always be varying your workout to some degree. This can come in the form of Rep variations, set variations, supersets, triple-sets, giant sets, etc. Play with FBW and Upper/Lower split variations. Do some research on static-hold sets and negatives.

While your workout should look generally the same each week, mix it up somehow as often as possible.
 
I was doing it the way you suggested, but then i was reading at Muscletech how I should change it up and do it in this order. I had it where I was starting with legs, chest, back, shoulders, ocassionally biceps and triceps, finishing with calves and then abs.
 
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I don't necessarily disagree with a drastic change in the order as you've discussed. However, thinking physiologically: Your triceps are the secondary movers for overhead presses, chest press etc. If your triceps are pre-exhausted by some sort of isolation movement then your ability to push will be compromised. Same goes for biceps and pulling movements.

I've had good luck with full body workouts that go legs-pull-push-shoulders (I tend to alternate pull and push), as well as full body workouts that follow Leg1-push1-pull1-leg2-push2-pull2. You can also explore running triple sets of leg-push-pull.

What I'm trying to get across is that no one way is the end-all be-all of exercise. Intensity, consistency and variety are the key components to any successful exercise regimen.

Long story short...keep up what you've been doing, if you read or hear something that you think you might like, go for it. Dont switch to that new method exclusively, just add it to your arsenal.
 
Personally I think you could do without the isolation such as curls. Curls really don't help in terms of developing the biceps nearly as much as pullups and rows do. If you do pullups in each FBW (change the grip up for variety) you'll likely see better results than doing curls. Same with triceps. Dips are always good.

Also, I tihnk you need to do some more leg exercises. Instead of a calf (which is worked in any lower body compound move) isolating exercise, you could add a unilateral lower body exercise such as lunges, step ups, bulgarian split squats. I'd also get rid of the leg press and other machines (the only machine I'd use is a cable machine for rows). Leg press machines put you in a fixed range of motion that really does not benefit you (may even cause stress in some parts of the body).
 
iso's

AZN_Dave said:
Personally I think you could do without the isolation such as curls. Curls really don't help in terms of developing the biceps nearly as much as pullups and rows do. If you do pullups in each FBW (change the grip up for variety) you'll likely see better results than doing curls. Same with triceps. Dips are always good.
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How true is this?.. Also, do you say this from experience or research?.. I'm curious because I include isolation work for abs/bi's/tri's/shoulders and particularly with the tri's n bi's, I'm doing them because I think those area's need special work since they're lacking to start with, whereas the rest have a good staring point.. I do a FBW 3x a week and do the iso's each time.. If they're a waste of time and don't encourage any extra development like you say, maybe I should drop them altogether?..

Thnks..
 
shanks911 said:
How true is this?.. Also, do you say this from experience or research?.. I'm curious because I include isolation work for abs/bi's/tri's/shoulders and particularly with the tri's n bi's, I'm doing them because I think those area's need special work since they're lacking to start with, whereas the rest have a good staring point.. I do a FBW 3x a week and do the iso's each time.. If they're a waste of time and don't encourage any extra development like you say, maybe I should drop them altogether?..

Thnks..
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Haha. I'm 15 dude, I don't do "research" except I read the research of others.

I know from experience.

I didn't mean that you should drop Isolation of those and just leave a lank in your routine. I meant that if instead of doing curls each FBW he did pullups, or instead of doing lying tricep extension,s he did dips, he'd see much more improvement.

The real life function of the bicep is to assist the shoulders and back in pulling motions, the body has no need to have HUGE biceps because normally when you pick something up, you wouldn't isolate your biceps in the action. Your biceps will grow as your shoulder and back grow.

I dind't say they didn't encourage extra developement, it's just that they encourage far less developement than a compound exercise involving Bi's and Tri's

I used to curl 25s, it took me 6 months to be able to start curling 30s (I'd already been lifting a while). After 1.5 months of FBW upper lower split with NO CURLS and just compound exercises, I can almost do the same amount of curls with 35s. (I only tried because I dind't have a pullup bar at my house)

Also, I feel that the abs (a relatively small muscle group) does not need isolation because they work to keep the upper body stable in every exercise in which you are not lying down. Squats, Deads... Even in shoulder press, your abs help keep your back against the chair.
 
personally ive noticed more gains since dropping the iso's.. but that could also be due to the cal surplus at the same time.

i still throw one set of bicep curls every now and then just because i like the burn.. but i only do that once every couple of weeks or so.
 
I hear what you're all saying, I'm just new to doing full body workouts. i used to workout for years, but a split routine. I've recently changed to FBW because i need to incorporate more cardio (military), so all advice is great. Tonight I skipped biceps and plan to stick with pull ups and dips. When I first started doing full body workouts 2 months ago I could barely bench press 200lbs, tonight I got up 315, so full bodies definitely work. This is what i did tonight:

Legs - Squats
Chest - bench Press
Shoulders - Dumbell Presses
Back - Pull Ups
Triceps - Paralell Bar Dips (optional)
Calves - Standing Calf Raise
 
interesting!.. thanks for the replies.. esp dave!,, u sound pretty knowledgable abt this for a 15yr old!.. shudnt u b hangin on street corners intimidatin old ppl?! lol
i think i may try dropping the isos for a while.. i'm just embarking on a bulk so i think one possible method would be to focus on the big exercises (dl,squat,bench,rows,pullups) and mayb jus have one or two iso's in there as a variation tool.. so focuz on the big ones cuz theyr the mass-builders really..
oh well, il xperiment n see what works!!..
 
drop the isos for now,once you have built a good foundation if you have parts that are lagging then you can add in exercises to bring that part up.

as far as rep schemes go you can change the reps every session or every week its up to you,but if you are going to do these 3x10, 6x6 5x5, do them in this order that way you can increase the weight every session because the reps are dropping.
 
just a quick response that no matter wether I do 3x10, 5x5 or 6x6, I add weight after every set. I never lift the same amount of weight twice.
 
buffdaddy110 said:
just a quick response that no matter wether I do 3x10, 5x5 or 6x6, I add weight after every set. I never lift the same amount of weight twice.
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I used to do this, and I don't think adding weight every set is a good idea unless you are lowering reps every set (i.e. 3 sets, 10 8 6 reps.)

see, the thing is, when you are doing 6x6 on say, bench press, you are starting at a weight far lower than what you could be doing. Lets say you start at 135 (you may be stronger/weaker, but that isn't the point of the example) the lowest amount of weight you can increase at a time is 5 pounds (you put 2.5s on the side) so by the time you get to your last set, you'll be doing 165 instead of 135. 30 pounds is alot of weight. If you can still do 165 at the end of 5 sets of 6 you should've started with 155 to be able to do all 6 sets at a heavy weight or 165 and lower the weight by 5 pounds if you have to. No point increasing the weight as you start losing energy. If you are able to increase weight and still finish 6 reps, then your beginning weight is too light for you.
 
shanks911 said:
interesting!.. thanks for the replies.. esp dave!,, u sound pretty knowledgable abt this for a 15yr old!.. shudnt u b hangin on street corners intimidatin old ppl?! lol
i think i may try dropping the isos for a while.. i'm just embarking on a bulk so i think one possible method would be to focus on the big exercises (dl,squat,bench,rows,pullups) and mayb jus have one or two iso's in there as a variation tool.. so focuz on the big ones cuz theyr the mass-builders really..
oh well, il xperiment n see what works!!..
Click to expand...

yeah, like nae said, maybe throw in some curls every couple weeks just for a twist, and because you get a pump and your biceps look bigger :)

Hahaha, intimidating old people. Yeah I'll just go stand on the street corner and growl at every senior citizen I c. lol. Man that'd be really mean...
 
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