Full body workout

The messenger of hypertrophy

Let's cut the general blah-blah and get straight to the point. For decades, men have built large amounts of muscle mass with simple "three times a week" training programs. You trained your whole body during a short training session and became muscular and strong. Say what you will, but tens of thousands of exercisers can't be wrong.

Well, it's high time we look to the past, learn from what we see and build a new future.

We need to learn from the successes and, just as importantly, the failures. Yes, even if this classic hypertrophy plan worked well, it was not perfect. And today we know what we can do to eliminate some of the disadvantages.

Let's analyze the facts. The majority of non-steroid injecting exercisers who have built respectable bodies have done so with the following indisputable parameters:

1. They train each major muscle group three times a week.
2. They keep the intensity levels high enough without overdoing it.
3. They choose a training program that can be sustained in the presence of the stressors of daily life.
4. They use multi-joint exercises, which have been shown to produce the most hypertrophy.
5. They keep their training sessions as short as possible.
6. They allow themselves at least 48 hours recovery between workouts.

I have worked with exercisers at every imaginable level of the fitness spectrum and the aforementioned elements are ubiquitous in their most successful hypertrophy programs. So I often wonder why they stray from the path in the first place. Why stop doing something that works?

Usually their reasons are based on the following statement I recently heard from a veteran of iron sports: "Heck," he said, "I don't know why I ever stopped doing it. I just assumed there was a better way." Well, my friend, I'm here to tell you that there is no better way!

I have set up numerous exercise programs in the past and all of them work. But often, exercisers don't strive for what I strive for. They simply want to look good naked and that's it. Not only that, they don't care what strength qualities they are training for. All they care about is the most effective and efficient way to get the body they only know from pictures.

It's time for change. I really want each of you to see that body in the mirror - not just in magazines. But as I mentioned earlier, we need to learn from the mistakes of past programs. Burnout and training injuries were not uncommon in old school total body training programs. The reason for this is simple: poor planning.

For this reason, this article is based on past successes combined with my own successes as a trainer. I have learned to properly plan my clients' programs so that results will be unwavering and continuous. Every single time I go to the gym, I perform a full body workout using most of the following guidelines. I doubt that will ever change. In fact, that's the way I've built nearly 100 pounds of muscle. I don't know why I ever strayed from this, and I'm here to keep you from running astray.

The obstacles

By far the biggest mistake exercisers have made in their pursuit of the ultimate body has to do with a periodization of parameters. Simply put, they always use the same damn parameters and hope the body doesn't get used to what they're doing. Big mistake, my friends. Our bodies were created for a single purpose: Adaptation. If you forget that, then you can forget about ever building the body of a Greek god.
Bill Star came damn close to developing one of the best training programs in his classic textThe Strongest Shall Survive. His initial parameters were excellent. Unfortunately, his program was unwilling to adapt, so progress on his "the big three" program eventually stagnated for most exercisers. You can't keep doing the same exercises with the same parameters and expect to keep getting results!

A new generation was born

Now comes the dichotomy. We need to incorporate the variables that have stood the test of time and combine them with a new plan for continued progress. It's time to take the past, the present and the future and combine them into a new hybrid plan!

The how

• Exercises per training session: 6
• Sets per muscle group: 2-4
• Repetitions per exercise: 5-18
• Breaks between sets for the same muscle group: 60 - 120 seconds and 120 - 240 seconds (antagonistic training)

The why

The first thing you probably noticed about the above parameters is the variance. This is the key to your consistent hypertrophy gains. A lack of variance is by far the most common reason that exercisers don't still talk about the consistent progress they've made through the most popular hypertrophy programs. Without consistent change, the results will be anything but consistent.

Exercise selection

Each training session will consist of six exercises? Why? Because my empirical experience has shown that steroid-free exercisers can consistently perform six exercises per training session without burning out.
It is essential to base your exercise selection on basic exercises or multi-joint exercise. Four of the six exercises in each training session must be multi-joint exercises. Six half-hearted isolation exercises will not produce the desired results. But you can use a few of my recommended isolation exercises with two of the six exercises. Here is the list you need to choose from:

Multi-joint exercises

• Chest: Incline bench press, flat bench press or bench press on reverse incline bench with a barbell or dumbbells. Dips with a wide grip.
• Back: Upright or horizontal rowing. Pull-ups or lat pull-ups with an overhand grip, parallel grip or underhand grip.
• Shoulders: shoulder presses standing or sitting with a barbell or dumbbells with palms facing forwards, inwards or backwards.
• Quadriceps: classic squats, Hackenschmidt squats or front squats
• Lower back/hips: traditional deadlifts or sumo deadlifts, good mornings, power snatches or power deadlifts

Isolation exercises

• Biceps: barbell curls, hammer curls or Scott curls
• Triceps: tricep presses with a barbell or dumbbells, tricep presses on a cable with an overhand or underhand grip
• Shoulders: Front raise, side raise or side raise bent forward
• Leg flexors: glute-ham raises or leg curls
• Calves: Standing or seated calf raises or donkey calf raises

Stick to the above list of exercises for optimal results.

The full body plan

First of all, it's important to mention that proper periodization planning is essential. Without proper set/repetition/load/pause parameters, even the best exercises will not produce results. For this reason, I have developed the following periodization plan for unsurpassed hypertrophy gains:

Week 1

Training session 1:

• Sets: 3
• Repetitions: 5
• Rest: 60 seconds between sets
• Load: Choose a weight that brings you close to muscle failure on the last repetition of the last set *.

* This is the recommended training load for all workouts.

Training session 2:

• Sets: 3
• Repetitions: 8
• Rest: 90 seconds between sets

Training session 3:

• Sets: 2
• Repetitions: 15
• Breaks: 120 seconds between sets

Week 2

Perform your training sessions with the same parameters as in week 1, but use antagonistic training for all six exercises (more on this later).

Week 3

Training session 1:

• Sets: 4
• Repetitions: 5
• Rest: 60 seconds between sets

Training session 2:

• Sets: 4
• Repetitions: 8
• Breaks: 90 seconds between sets

Training session 3:

• Sets: 3
• Repetitions: 15
• Breaks: 120 seconds between sets

Week 4

Perform your training sessions with the same parameters as in week 3, but use antagonistic training for all six exercises.

Week 5

Training session 1:

• Sets: 2
• Repetitions: 18
• Rest: 120 seconds between sets

Training session 2

• Sets: 2
• Repetitions: 8
• Breaks: 60 seconds between sets

Training session 3:

• Sets: 2
• Repetitions: 12
• Breaks: 90 seconds between sets

Week 6

Perform your training sessions with the same parameters as in week 5, but use antagonistic training for all six exercises.

Week 7

Training session 1:

• Sets: 3
• Repetitions: 18
• Rest: 120 seconds between sets

Training session 2:

• Sets: 3
• Repetitions: 8
• Breaks: 60 seconds between sets

Training session 3:

• Sets: 3
• Repetitions: 12
• Breaks: 90 seconds between sets

Week 8

Perform your training sessions with the same parameters as in week 7, but use antagonistic training for all six exercises.

Explanation

1. During weeks 1, 3, 5 and 7 you will perform straight sets. In other words, you perform one set of the first exercise, pause, then perform the second set of your exercise and continue this for all sets of the exercise before moving on to the next exercise.
2. During weeks 2, 4, 6 and 8, antagonistic sets are performed. Each training session consists of six exercises, which makes antagonistic training easy - all you need to do is perform three antagonistic exercise pairings during each training session. For example, use exercises for quadriceps/leg curls, chest/back and biceps/triceps as exercise pairings for the specified sets and repetitions.

Example: Perform a set for the chest, then a set for the back and then another set for the chest, etc. Then move on to the next exercise pairing such as quadriceps/leg curl or biceps/triceps.

1. Choose four exercises from the multi-joint exercise list and two exercises from the isolation exercise list. Do not leave out any of the major muscle groups.
2. Continuously rotate exercises from each category. In other words, you should not always start your training session with a chest/back exercise pairing. You need to rotate the muscle groups and exercises you start each session with.
3. Do not perform the same exercises for more than 2 weeks in a row. For example, if you used barbell flat bench press as your chest exercise during weeks 1 and 2, then you need to switch to incline bench press, reverse incline bench press or dumbbell bench press for the next two weeks before switching exercises again.
4. Increase the training weights by 1.25 to 2.5% for each subsequent training session. 7. perform all three workouts within a 7 day window with 48 to 72 hours rest between workouts.
5. Be creative. I'm giving you endless amounts of options. However, make sure you choose four multi-joint exercises and two isolation exercises for each training session. You can rotate the exercises as many times as you want. All you have to do is stick to the parameters provided.

The future of training is here. Take charge and use these guidelines for lifelong hypertrophy gains!

By Chad Waterbury
Source: https://www.t-nation.com/workouts/total-body-training