Which is better for muscle growth (hypertrophy), full body workouts or split routines? As a personal trainer in London with many clients who have wanted to gain muscle, this is a question I get asked a lot.
Full Body Workouts
I would recommend full body workouts for people who are new to training or who are returning to training after having not exercised for several months. An hour spent working all the muscle groups will give you a nice rounded development. If you only train for muscle growth once or twice a week, a full body workout is the best option.
Split Routines
However, if you have a solid foundation of muscular development, split routines will take you to the next level, adding intensity to the development of a couple of muscle groups in a single workout. This puts greater load on a smaller number of muscle groups, challenges the central nervous system to a greater extent, enables you to introduce more variation of exercises per muscle group, and accelerates hypertrophy.
Exercise Selection for a Full Body Workout
I recommend you prioritise the multi-joint exercises which give you the best return for your efforts in the shortest time:
Squats for legs and glutes (you can either use a barbell or squat machine)
Deadlifts for legs and back (this is technically the most complex exercise, so get a personal trainer or your gym’s fitness instructor to demonstrate and supervise this until you’ve mastered it.
Pullups for lats (the large muscles which run down the sides of your back and give you that V shape)
Chest Press for chest and front delts (shoulder muscles), using either dumbbells or barbell or machine.
Pushups for the whole upper body (they target chest, back, shoulders and arms)
Split Routines for a Week’s Training
For example, you can split your training week into the following:
Monday: chest, shoulders, triceps
Wednesday: Legs, glutes, core
Friday: Back, biceps
You can mix up your split routines in a whole range of variations. One popular but very demanding split routine for more advanced muscle-builders is the ‘push/pull’ routine where you spend the hour alternating chest and back across a range of exercises.
Whichever routine you choose, keep a record of your workouts and aim to beat your previous workout by incremental progress in the weights used, the number of reps/sets, and the exercises selected.
(Dominic Londesborough is a personal trainer in London and an online nutrition coach)
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