Lucharilla

When people think about how to program full body training, sometimes a great way to program it is to do the OPPOSITE of what your first instincts would tell you. Everyone knows I program most of my routines around supersets as they have always produced killer results both for me and my trainees. After all these years I don’t know if I’d be able to stop myself after one exercise anymore lol. And that’s really the point of this thread. To pair exercises that you wouldn’t normally think to include. For example, when most people start off with squats, they are almost always followed by either hamstrings (antagonistic pairings), another quad dominant exercise (pre/post fatigue), or abs. All options can work, but one of my favorite ways to program full body is to pair an upper body exercise with a lower one (opposite of conventional wisdom). Remember, when programming full body training, it comes at the sacrifice of exercises and volume. Instead of picking 2-3 exercises to work different muscles, you need to rely on a compound lift to knock all of them out of the ballpark, sufficiently. That’s the keyword that should stick to the back of your minds when constructing a full body program – Sufficient exercises, sufficient volume, and sufficient load (intensity). For some people that means scaling back on the volume whereas others can quite easily hit 4 full body sessions per week and progress. There is no one size fits all.. Just similar starting points to which each individual branches off in their own direction.

I know I’ve heard many people and quite a few trainers mention that FB is only good for rank beginners. I disagree IF programmed around that keyword sufficient. There’s quite a few different programs out there that work well for a lot of people. We’ve got all the 5×5′s from Starting Strength on up to the Bill Starr models to the Texas Method and beyond. There’s a lot I like about them, but overall it’s not my kind of program because like I mentioned in the beginning, I prefer utilizing supersets in order to fit in the most amount of work (volume) in the least amount of time.

Every full body program at its core is extremely simple. You’ve got a squat, press, and pull. Deceptively simple, yet extremely effective. Overall I think people understand the basics, but get lost in the sauce with the rest (sets x reps at ??? intensity). One program I ran successfully years back was the old school Bill Starr routine that uses the heavy, light, medium days. In that model, I’m only training 100% on the heavy day, then just fitting in the work with a light day (80% of that heavy day top set) and medium day (90%). So we’re looking at reduced work weights which enabled me to essentially squat in the mid 300′s to low 400′s every other day for months on end. But what about supersets?

Here’s yet another way to go about this that IMO is a great way of doing things. The key is variety meaning each day has different exercises. That way you don’t necessarily have to hold back each day. If going with this style of template, you could push yourselves for 3-4 weeks at a time quite easily before potentially needing a deload week. As my trainees know, I like to construct 2 way splits predominantly upper/lower. With full body, I look at it through the same pair of glasses – While every day is full body, I’ll prioritize/shift the emphasis through exercise selection on half the body each day (even though it works the entire body). Now my full body template gets split into a 2 day FB:

Workout A – Full Body – Quads / back width / horizontal press

Workout B – Full Body – Hamstrings / back thickness /vertical press

How is this full body? Simply put, I’m looking solely at compound exercises instead of body parts. In doing so, the entire body gets sufficient work without flying off the handle adding in front, side, and rear delt raises LOL. For example, my quads exercises would include front squats / full squats whereas the hamstrings would have platform and snatch grip deadlifts. Both groups takes care of your lower requirements by week’s end. As with most programs, you can take this concept and run in any number of directions. You could do an undulating program where each day sees a different set x rep scheme (example day 1 would be 4 x 5, day 2 is 2 x 15, ect) or you could go linear like HST and just keep everything static for two week microcycles before cycling down (two weeks 2 x 15, next two week 2 x 10, next 3 x 5, and so on). I like to keep things simple and just rotate between three different workouts all with the same overall programming. The first superset is low rep and heavy w/ longer rest periods and the second supersets are slightly higher in reps with a bit more volume and lowered rest.

Day One:

a1) Front Squat – 3 x 4-6 (4-0-1) (or squat variation)
a2) Dead-hang Pull-ups – 3 x 4-6 (4-0-1) (or vertical pull variant)

* The rest periods would depend on your level of conditioning. You could either choose to rest after each exercise (example – front squat, rest 90, pull-ups, rest 120) (or) just move from front squats immediately to pull-ups, rest 2-3 minutes and repeat.

b1) Neutral Grip DB Press – 4 x 6-10 (3-0-1)
b2) Elevated Reverse Lunges – 4 x 6-10 (3-0-1)

* This superset would require less rest so you’d be looking at something like either DB press, rest 30-60 seconds, reverse lunges, rest 60-90 (or) my preference doing the press immediately followed by the lunges, rest 60-90 seconds, and repeat.

Day Two:

a1) Deadlifts – 3 x 4-6 (4-0-1) (or goodmorning variation)
a2) Weighted Dips – 3 x 4-6 (4-0-1) (or press variation)

* The rest periods would depend on your level of conditioning. With the way most gym’s are set up I would just do exercise A, walk over to the dip station taking roughly 60 seconds to set up, exercise B, ect.

b1) High Incline DB Press – 4 x 6-10 (3-0-1)
b2) Bulgarian Split Squat – 4 x 6-10 (3-0-1)

* This superset would require less rest so you’d be looking at something like either shoulder press, rest 30-60 seconds, unilateral exercise, rest 60-90 (or) my preference doing the press immediately followed by the uni, rest 60-90 seconds, and repeat.