Benefits of Full Body Workouts

In the bodybuilding world, some would gasp reading the heading of my article. Believe it or not, there are more ways to train instead of arm day and chest day. For the most part, not everyone has time to spend at the gym six days per week for a split routine.

Full body workouts can be performed over the course of just two or three days a week. These types of workouts prevent plateaus because it is important to manipulate your workouts, and also if you like training at home, full body workouts make a good option.

Each type of program has its own pros and cons, so figuring out what each one has to offer you will help your training be that much better. Maybe you should be throwing in full body workouts here and there? Here are a few of my reasons why full body workouts may be beneficial to your training.

Lower Time Commitment
Using a full body workout program is a much lower time requirement. If you are someone who has something on the go every night of the week, or you are finding it hard to commit to the gym more than three times per week, than a full body program is for you.

Since full body workouts can be performed over the course of just two or three days a week, this allows more time for other obligations in your life.

Increased Muscular Recovery Rates
Another benefit of full body workouts is the increased muscular recovery rates. One main reason why some people do not get progress on their workout program is simply because they aren't recovering from session to session.

Some people cannot handle back-to-back workouts even though they aren't working the same muscle, so for those individuals, full body workouts are perfect. You will get at least one day off between each full body workout, so they will give your muscles maximum recovery time.

More Time for Additional Sports or Activities
Since full body workouts only require for you to be in the gym two to three times per week, this also frees more time for other activities.

If you are also doing cardio training either for health purposes or training for a specific event, using a full body approach will give you extra time during the week in which you can complete those activities.

Larger Weekly Testosterone Boosts
Men are you ready for this? When it comes to influencing testosterone release through your resistance training workouts, exercises that utilize full body movements and work as many muscle fibers as possible are going to release the greatest amount of testosterone. My recommendation is to use compound exercises like pull ups and squats to get the most of your full body routine.

Ideal for Fat Loss
If you are looking for fat loss, then the perfect choice is to add full body workouts. When you are on a fat loss diet you are taking in fewer calories than the body would ideally like, which means a lower level of recovery reserves.

Despite this fact, you still must be stimulating the muscle tissues at least twice per week in order to prevent fat loss on a diet, so cutting back on workouts entirely is not going to be an option.

Full body workouts make for the ideal fat loss workout set-up because they will get you working each muscle group at least twice a week, but won't ask too much from the body in terms of recovery.

This is an important combination because the risk of muscle loss on a calorie restrictive diet is high from not working out enough or working out too much, so keeping on top of lifting weights is crucial.

Less Boredom
Finally, the last benefit to full body workouts is less boredom. The more often you repeat the same activity over and over again, the greater the chances that you will find boredom settling in. Since full body workouts require lower levels of frequency, they already have an advantage.

Since there are so many different ways you can set up and design full body workouts, when you do become bored, it won't take much effort on your part to renew your interest in the program.

Angelique Kronebusch Fitness