Q&A: Full Body Versus Split Routines

Question: Some HIT trainers recommend doing full body workouts and hitting each muscle group two or three times a week, but others recommend splitting the body up and only hitting each muscle group once a week or even less frequently. Which one should I do if my main goal is increasing muscle size? If I should do a split routine how should I split up the muscle groups?

Answer: Like most things related to exercise the answer depends on many factors which can vary between individuals or even between muscle groups for an individual like muscle fiber type (muscles which are predominantly fast twitch recover more slowly, and muscles which are predominantly slow twitch recover more quickly) as well as how you train and structure your workouts. Some people need more time for individual muscle groups to recover between workouts than others, and some might do better training each muscle group more frequently with full-body workouts while others will do better on a split routine. The only way to determine which works best for you is to keep accurate records of your workouts and make changes based on how your body responds, carefully evaluate the results, and repeat.

How hard you train a muscle group and the volume of work you perform with it both influence how effectively you stimulate improvements in its strength and size. However, while exercise effectiveness increases with intensity, as the volume of work increases you very quickly reach a point of diminishing returns. Beyond some point doing more work for a muscle group won’t give you better results but it will increase the amount of time needed for recovery. This is why as you become more advanced and learn to push yourself to train more intensely you’ll eventually find it necessary to reduce the volume of work for each muscle group, increase recovery time, or both to avoid overtraining. Because intensity of effort is more important than the volume of work you perform for a muscle group most people will get better results training each muscle group with fewer exercises more frequently as part of a full body workout than with more exercises less frequently on a body part split.

Full body versus split high intensity training routines

Another factor to consider is the total volume of exercise performed for all muscle groups in a workout. While your body can improve its ability to handle, recover from, and adapt to the stress of exercise somewhat, as you get stronger and learn to train more intensely each exercise makes greater demands, and eventually you will have to reduce the volume of your workouts to avoid overtraining. Since you must perform at least enough exercises to effectively train all the major muscle groups if you want a well balanced physique there is a minimal number of exercises you need to do, so you can only reduce the number of exercises per workout so far before you need to start splitting them up. Fortunately, you only need a few basic compound exercises to effectively train all the major muscle groups, so you can reduce the number of exercises per workout pretty far before having to either reduce your training frequency or switch from a full body to a split routine. For example, this basic full body workout…

  1. Squat
  2. Chin up
  3. Chest Press
  4. Compound Row
  5. Shoulder Press
  6. Stiff-leg Deadlift
  7. Weighted Crunch
  8. Calf Raise
  9. Wrist Flexion
  10. Wrist Extension
  11. Neck Flexion
  12. Neck Extension

…can be divided into these two very low volume basic full body workouts:

Workout A

  1. Squat
  2. Chin up
  3. Shoulder Press
  4. Calf Raise
  5. Wrist Flexion
  6. Wrist Extension

Workout B

  1. Deadlift
  2. Chest Press
  3. Compound Row
  4. Crunch
  5. Neck Flexion
  6. Neck Extension

Very few people would have to reduce their workout volume to lower than this or train less frequently than twice weekly with such low volume, but there are some people who either have such poor recovery ability or train so intensely that they need more time for individual muscle groups to recover. In these cases it is usually better to divide the muscle groups up over two or more workouts than to reduce the overall training frequency so much that metabolic and cardiovascular conditioning are compromised. Doing so may also allow for more variety of exercises to be performed for each muscle group during each workout without overtraining, which can be beneficial for physique development. Depending on how much recovery time is needed either a push/pull or push/pull/legs split is usually enough, and it would be very unusual for someone to need to divide their muscle groups up into more than three workouts.

To determine whether you will get better results on a split routine than a full body routine you would need to switch and compare your strength increases and changes in body composition and circumference measurements over an equal period of time. It is important that you compare over time rather than between workouts, because if you split your body parts up over two or more workouts while maintaining the same training frequency each body part is being worked half or a third as often. When splitting your workouts like this it is possible for you to make better progress from workout to workout while making slower progress overall if the workouts are much further apart, which can be deceiving. For example, it might look like you’re getting better results if your strength on an exercise is improving fifty percent more every time you do it, but if you’re only doing it half as frequently you’re actually progressing more slowly.

Start by switching from a full body routine to either a push/pull or upper/lower split routine, keeping the total volume and frequency the same. After performing the split routine for a period of time compare your results to an equal period of time on the full body routine. If the two-way split produces better results you can then experiment with splitting your workouts up three-ways, using either a push/pull/legs or chest & back/shoulders & arms/legs & trunk split. If the two-way split does not produce better results, go back to the full-body routine.

For examples of different full body and split high intensity training routines including push/pull, upper/lower, push/pull/legs, and chest & back/shoulders & arms/legs & trunk read High Intensity Workouts.

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  • Lifter Jun 9, 2016 @ 7:41

    Great answer, as always. My full-body days are well behind me, nowadays a 3-way split is my staple routine…3 moves per workout. Mike was right about needing less as we advance. I find quads every other week brings about my best progress rate and statistics. As you are well aware, it’s all a matter of tweaking things to suit individual needs.

  • Andy Jun 9, 2016 @ 9:51

    Spot on!! A few basic compound exercises to effectively train all the major muscle groups. So why the need for a few isolation exercises focusing on the calves ,forearms,abs and neck? Isn’t that really overkill?

    • Drew Baye Jun 9, 2016 @ 10:32

      Hey Andy,

      The big compound movements do a great job of effectively training all the bigger muscle groups, but not optimal for calves, forearms, or neck. Since these exercises don’t involve as much muscle mass they don’t have as much of an effect on recovery so including them isn’t overdoing it. For more on this read the sections for each in the Best Exercises chapter of High Intensity Workouts.

  • Eric Ramos Jun 9, 2016 @ 10:40

    Drew, using the divided full body workouts, would a back specialization session work like this?

    Workout A
    Pullover
    Chin up
    Squat
    Shoulder Press
    Calf Raise
    Wrist Flexion
    Wrist Extension

    Workout B
    Rear Delt Fly
    Compound Row
    Deadlift
    Chest Press
    Crunch
    Neck Flexion
    Neck Extension

    It’s only 2 more exercises a week for a limited time so I’m guessing recovery wouldn’t be an issue BUT if it is then perhaps shifting all the back work and cutting it to 3 exercises for the back and doing the pressing the other day may help. Does that sound about right?

    • Drew Baye Jun 11, 2016 @ 22:44

      Hey Eric,

      It’s a step in the right direction, but for specialization workouts it is usually best to cut the exercises for other muscle groups down to the minimum.

  • Karthik Jun 10, 2016 @ 2:16

    The 2 day full body split illustrated above is a great way to optimize volume and recovery. Haven’t tried the split routines yet, but they may definitely have a place in the future.

  • Bradley Jun 13, 2016 @ 13:54

    I remember reading Mike Mentzer who said that he switched to a split routine ( upper body/lower body split) whilst studying in college and trying to hold a job and a relationship at the same time. He believed that this helped to reserve energy better than a full body workout. For example I have a 6 week old child who at the moment along with studying and working part time is very demanding. I am currently very sleep deprived but do manage two 10-15 minute full body workouts within a 10 day period. Would you suggest a split routine for someone who is going through a highly demanding lifestyle like myself, Drew?
    thanks,
    Bradley

    • Drew Baye Jul 28, 2017 @ 14:37

      If you are unable to devote more time to exercise or do not consistently get enough sleep either a consolidation or split routine can help as a short term solution. In the long run I recommend working on better time management and improving your sleep.

  • Mark Jun 13, 2016 @ 17:24

    Drew, Could you please suggest a link of yours if there is one, to the calorie SURPLUS that you would recommend for doing a lean bulk on a program like this . I have used your Get Ripped program to really trim down and would like to try to gain more mass, but still keep the body fat down. I know in Kratos you mention eating at a 15-17 x’s bodyweight for a calorie benchmark and then monitoring progress from there. Thanks!

    • Drew Baye Feb 22, 2018 @ 9:17

      I will be covering this in more detail in the upcoming Q&A books.

  • Steve Jun 16, 2016 @ 21:13

    Hey Drew,

    Regarding the SuperSlow chest press in the picture above, is that the recommended starting position with the hands that far below the chest?

    Steve

    • Drew Baye Jun 17, 2016 @ 13:49

      Hey Steve,

      In the picture I am already partway through the movement. When using the SuperSlow Systems or RenEx chest press the seat should be positioned so the hands are even with the bottom of the chest at the start point.

  • Kamen Stranchevski Jun 19, 2016 @ 16:17

    Hey Drew, great article! It is very important that all factors like systemic and local, individual muscle fatigue be taken into account when training program is designed. As long as I think about it, for the purposes of an experienced trainee – one that knows what intensity means and how to apply it, the classical Mike Mentzer split: upper – 4 -7 days – lower – 4-7 days – upper, seems to be one of the best compromises. My only personal tweak being, that I don’t think shoulders and arms need a day on their own, as prescribed in the original, but rather preffer the use of A – B upper body routines instead, consisting of 5-7 exercises each. Using such a split seems to me almost all win situation. Both systemic and individual muscle recovery should be well addressed with up to 7 days between workouts and up to two weeks between muscle groups. In the same time, what I consider an important aspect – deconditioning e.g. being more responsive to each exercise should be addressed fine as well with this pattern due to extensive rest periods. I believe several scientific studies also found out that completion of all recovery processes within a dmaged muscle would normally take between 7 and 14 days. With that split, legs get an all fresh full attention every time and it seems to me that training legs is a challenge for a lot of people. What is downside, if at all, one, erring on the safe side may slow down pace of progress, although for a limited cases in my opinion. And of course, such pattern will not be very useful for beginners as well due to other factors. So it is sulrely not a coincidence that the dreat Mike suggested that split as a backbone to his latest books and had lots of success with it. Thank you for all the precious and serious information, that you always feed your readers with!

  • Steve Jun 25, 2016 @ 20:41

    Drew,

    Would it mess up the synergy if the chin-ups in Workout A were switched with the rows in Workout B? and visa versa?

    I workout at 2 gyms and there equipped differently.

    Thanks

    • Drew Baye Jul 28, 2017 @ 14:27

      No, you could switch them in these two workouts.

  • dan Oct 17, 2016 @ 14:37

    Drew,

    if i remember correctly, it is has been written in the nautilus principal books to rest at least 48 hours and no longer than 96 hours for each body part. what is your opinion or experience in this philosophy, especially when it comes to training each body part only once per week via split routine.
    i am considering a 3 way split, however, i enjoy full body two or three times per week.

    thx, dan

    • Drew Baye Jul 28, 2017 @ 13:49

      Two or three full-body workouts per week is a good starting point for most people, however there are some people who have muscle groups requiring a longer recovery time who might benefit from alternating between upper and lower body workouts or a pull, push, legs split.

  • mario Apr 29, 2017 @ 13:45

    Hello Drew!
    I work out at home, and since I don’t have squat rack, I needed to find alternative for barbell back squats. (They don’t work for me anyway. Never was able to find a groove that I find comfortable. Even light weights irritate some part of my body – low back, hips, or knees, no matter where I put the bar, low or high.)
    Finally I find a great exercise, semi-sumo deadlift (or squat stance deadlift). Legs go outside of the hand grip, but not wide like in typical sumo. Hips are low, thighs almost parallel to the ground. It feels very natural, and I can feel it everywhere, quads, hams, glutes, perfect balance. The only problem is that its very hard on the system. When i do set of slow controlled reps for about 80 – 90 seconds till positive failure, man, the whole world is spinning around me. I’m so dizzy I need to sit down. Feels like someone had just hit me in the back of my head with blunt object.
    Is this normal, or reason to worry? Do you have any clients doing deadlift HIT style? Do they have similar simptoms?
    The thing is, I’m still pretty week, I lift only 65kg (about 150 lbs), and what’s even more puzzling is that I’m actually making progress (doing one set a week). But I’m also getting symptoms of over-training, like bad sleep, sometimes even chest pains.
    My whole program is like this:
    Sunday: Semi-sumo deadlift, Heel raises
    Thursday: Dumbbell rows, Dumbbell military press, Dumbbell floor press
    That’s it, every exercise, one set to failure. No other exercise causes me dizziness.
    It seems to me that’s much less total week load than you usually recommend.
    I’m happy with the changes on my body, and how I’m physically more capable in doing manual labor, I just don’t understand this symptoms.
    I wonder if deadlift (or at least this type) is to much (at least to me) to be done in HIT style.
    Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!

    • Drew Baye Jul 1, 2017 @ 10:39

      Hey Mario,

      You may just need some form modifications to be able to squat well. Proper squatting form can vary a lot between individuals due to differences in body shapes and proportions, hip joint structure and flexibility, and other factors.

      Feeling a little light headed or dizzy after very intense compound exercises like the deadlift is not unusual, but this may be because you are not breathing correctly. If you are experiencing chest pains during or after exercise I recommend you stop until you are able to see your doctor about it.