Following on from last week’s fitness post on the benefits to Full Body Training we will today look at the pros of Split Training.

Full-body training is, to some, seen as a dated practice performed only by bodybuilders from an era long gone. In the modern-day perspective this type of training is believed to be reserved for those who just want to “get in shape” with no real aspirations to build the perfect physique.

However there has recently been a resurgence touting the benefits to full body workouts, advantages and pure logic of this type of training. For some people simpler is better; we simply must progress in strength while effectively regulating rest and recovery. I have always believed that there is no “one size fits all” solution to programming and the best program is the one that you will stick to and make progression.

In a split training program workouts are divided up into individual muscle groups. Split-training: Is often considered more advanced and as a modern-day method, split-training has surprisingly been around for just as long.This type of training gives much more focus on each body part trained in order to give full and complete attention to the muscle being trained and to allow more time between sessions for muscle groups to repair and grow.

The main advantage is that we can have a shorter workout and we can do more intensive, focused and efficient

We can also utilize more types of exercises for a particular muscle since we have more energy and time. While a full body workout can take up a lot of time, we can complete a split one in 40-50 minutes which reduces the possibility of overtraining. In addition, shorter time has a positive impact on motivation as well, since most people are less motivated if they know they will have to work out for long hours. Another benefit is that muscles have more recovery time. If we do full body workouts 3 times a week, that means they have maximum 2 days to recover. If your training splits than they will have 3 days or more. This improves muscle growth and with proper nutrition we can achieve better results. Below we have given an example of a typical split training program.

Monday: Upper Body (Chest and Back) Tuesday: Lower Body (Legs) Wednesday: Off or Active Recovery Thursday: Upper Body (Shoulders and Arms) Friday: Lower Body (Legs/Abs) Saturday/Sunday: Off In summary there are advantages to both Full Body Workouts and Split Training, for those of you looking to build muscle I would recommend split training and for those looking to burn fat and increase strength I would recommend full body workouts.

In my opinion, the best approach is for you to test yourself.

We are all different, what works for one, will not work for everyone.