Splits or full Body workouts
 

Anyone care to share what has been most successful in the gym for them? Split routines or full body workouts?
Mainly curious what do most of you do?
I am currently doing:

3 Sets 10-12 reps Circuit style
lat pulls Sit Ups incline
Squats Bench Press
Calf Raises Cable pull Downs
Cable Curls overhead dumbells
I do this circuit style and go around 3 times in about an hour

Every other day with cardio on off days and Sun rest.

I rotate order and change excercises weekly. but sets and reps stay the same. I try to go as heavy as possible for each set. Up to this point I have been doing this on a calorie deficiet and have been dropping fat. I have reached a point where I want to graduate a little so I was thinking about doing a split routine any suggestions? Do you think from experience that at my age this is smart or should I just keep going like this for a few more months?
Just wanting opinions at this point.

I prefer heavy compound exercises. They simulate natural movements and build functional strength, targeting multiple muscle groups with one exercise.

Personally I will never do a set of shrugs again when my traps get great work doing deadlifts and stiff leg deadlifts or even rack dead lifts.

If you are still trying to build up your strength stick with the full body workouts.

Stronglifts 5x5 is a great program. Its similar to your workout, and you lift 3 times a week.

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I'm not really a fan of split routines, many of them have a lot of useless isolation exercises that build little muscle, burn little calories, and call for lifting 5-6 times a week. You can get better results working out less, while lifting more weight when you do heavy compound lifts. Most people don't squat when they go to the gym because its hard, and they are wimps, but it is the most beneficial lift for your body. Its good to see that you were squatting so stick with it!

Jason, I noticed my traps are getting bigger too and I haven't done shrugs in a long time, must be the deadlifts.

My traps are even getting work doing dumbbell step ups, and those give you glutes of steel. Who needs shrugs? Who needs bicep curls when you can do pull ups or chins?

Its funny how many times I do a full body workout and see some beer gut middle aged guy busting out set after set of different variations of bicep curls. Will his body ever change with this misguided routine? Yes in fact it will just keep growing sideways! LOL.

I agree. I'm getting much stronger now. Now I wear a back pack with 40#'s of weight stuffed in it for chinups. I can see the change in my arms, back, everything.

Right now I'm in the middle of a full-body EliteFTS powerlifting program, four days a week, two days upper, two days lower. For each upper/lower, one day's main lifts are max effort (all-out) and one day's are dynamic effort (lighter but explosive). It looks something like this:

Day 1
Bench press 8 x 3
Rack lockout to 3RM
DB bench 5 x 10
Chins 5 x 10

Day 2
Dead/squat/rack pull to 5RM
3 x 8 good morning
posterior chain 5 x 10
abs 5 x 10

Day 4
Floor press to 3RM
triceps 5 x 10
Chins 5 x 10
Face-pulls 5 x 10

Day 6
Box squats 6 x 4
Deadlifts 6 x 1
posterior chain 5 x 10
abs 5 x 10


Interspersing days are rest. Reps change slightly depending on mood/schedule, and I try to move up a little on all my lifts from week to week. I'm gaining good strength as well as some muscle, and dropping body fat, slowly but surely. Best part is I'll finish up around the new year, so I'll be ready for a change.

Push ups, squats and sit ups. I have to add these to every workout I do.

Every female should do squats. I am addicted! Ladies, your thighs and butt will thank you! :D

Every guy will thank you too! :p

Thanks for the info I am going to give these compound movements a go fo a couple months. I will rotate the excercises, lifting heavy using a variation of the avice you all gave.
I think I will give myself 2 days off between sessions with HIIT cardio on one of the off days for a few weeks and see how it goes.

I will continue to eat clean on a slight calorie deficiet.

Will check back in here in a couple weeks to let you guys know how its going.

How do you do your HIIT? I have found it most effective on a stationary cycle.

To increase intensity I increase the resistance, and keep my revolutions the same (80-100.)

Rest intervals are like 60-75 watts, and working intervals are about 400-500.

The bike has the lowest impact and can switch between resistances almost instantly. Many people use treadmills but they have the delay in change of speeds, and also most treadmills cannot go as fast as your "max" intensity. Most go to about 9 mph and most men can sprint faster than that.

Once they freeze the rinks here, I won't even use the bike I'll just play hockey!

Im doing it on the treadmill. I can sprint at 7-9 mph and get my heartrate up to like 140 bpm for 1 min sprints after warmup. Then I will walk jog at 4-4.8 for a cooldown to about 120-122 bpm. Then blast off again for a minute or so, then slower for aminute or so and so on for 25-30 min.

Ill do that until i cant get my heartrate up to the 80-85% max. I got burned out on the bike so I can tolorate this for now.

Man am I glad I found this thread. I was about to give up on the forums here because it seemed everyone was starving themselves and doing curls! lol I wondered if anyone did deads or squats, etc.

Myself I need to lose about 20 lbs. My strength isn't the problem, it's the eating of glorious, wonderful, sweet carbs that gets me, especially lateer in the day. :) I'm a recent convert of Joe Defranco's style of training and it's nice to not do high volume stuff, but still concentrate on chin ups, deads, bench, sled pulling, and other fun stuff.

I must say though, doing chins with a weighted backpack, now thats hardcore man.

Do any of you here use a rowing machine? I'm rather new to it but the no impact aspect of it along with how hard it is seems to make it a good option.

I don't have acess to any other cardio equipment as we only have weights and that at work.

I was getting stares Monday when I was doing chins w/ 70#'s hanging from a chain. The funny thing is that the chain itself weights ~3 pounds.:D

I do 30 minutes of strength work in the morning and 30 to 45 minutes of HIIT work at night. my routine looks something like this.
day 1
am pull ups, 3x20 body weight or 5x5 with added weight
pushups on rings, 3x20 with added weight or 5x5 archer pushups
step ups, 3x20 or 5x5 max weight
pm 30 min of sprints on my rollers
day 2
am overhead press 3x20 or 5x5 handstand pushups
ring rows 3x20 or 5x5 with added weight
goodmornings 3x20 or 5x5 goodmornings with max weight pm 30 min of sprints on my rollers
day 3
ring dips 3x20 or 5x5 bulgarian ring dips
high pulls 3x20 or 5x5 inverted ring rows
step ups, 3x20 or 5x5 max weight
pm 30 min of sprints on my rollers
day 4
long bike ride 2 to 3 hours
I don't have access to a squat rack other wise I'd be doing squats and deadlifts. I'm also preparing to do some centuries and half centuries this summer.

I prefer full body workouts, 3 days a week. All compound movements. You'll notice that Squats and Bench are essential. I just completed my first week of a new 5x5 routine I discovered.

You find your 5 rep max (5RM) for each exercise, then subtract 20 lbs. for day 1 (as well as for Dead Lifts in day 2 and overhead press in day 3).

Day two is light (85% less than your 5RM, and day 3 is medium at 60% less than your 5RM). Add 5 lbs. each week and by week 5 you should reach your 5RM for a full 5x5.

I have mapped out my current routine for anyone who is interested:

Day 1 - Heavy
Squat
Bench
Row

Day 2 - Light
Squat
Bench
Dead Lift

Day 3 - Medium
Squat
Bench
Overhead Press