A Question that I often get asked is” Should I Do Full-Body Workouts, or just isolate one particular Muscle Group at a time?”

In a full-body workout, you aim to train every major muscle in your body, these would typically include the legs, chest, back, arms, shoulders, and core, in each workout.

They should include exercises that involve many of those muscle groups in one movement, like squats, deadlifts and presses, all of which are also known as compound movements. The huge benefit from compound movements is that they require a lot of energy and therefore burn more calories. However, they are a lot more taxing on the body and will usually require you to rest more between training days for adequate recovery.

The positive here is that when you work out the same muscle groups by doing similar compound exercises each week, the result is a balanced strength increase overall.

In contrast, a common issue which may arise when focusing only on isolation exercises is the creation of a muscular imbalance. The advantages to training in compound exercises are that they involve the most muscle groups to perform. You will burn more calories throughout your workout and in much less time.

To summarise Full body workouts :

• Burn more calories.
• Improve intermuscular coordination.
• Elevate the heart rate and provide a cardiovascular training benefit.
• Improve movement efficiency.
• This is what a typical full-body routine might look
• Monday: Squats, bench press or overhead press, deadlifts

Tuesday: Off

Wednesday: Squats, overhead press/bench press, deadlifts

Thursday: Off

Friday: Squats, overhead press/bench press, deadlifts

Saturday and Sunday: Off

If you are a busy professional, Mum or just short on time then full-body workouts are the most bang for your buck!