Fullbody workouts - only for beginners??

Hi All,

Firstly let me say I am not a beginner. Been training around 4 years properly. I would call myself an intermediate (hesitant to call myself expert - I reserve that for those who train for competition etc. ;) ).

I am getting fairly bored and plateauing with 'normal' workouts based on a 4-day split. I have tried other splits, 3 days, 5 days etc. I want a real change as opposed to changing some muscle groupings here and there, alternating exercises or rep ranges etc. I have been thinking more and more of fullbody workouts, or more precisely, full upper/lower body workouts. However whenever I research it on the boards I see it being used by beginners mostly.

Is it effective to use for when at an intermediate level? Current time schedules mean I can get to gym around 4 times a week for an hour or so. What I was thinking is replacing my 4-day split with an upper/lower body split and doing each twice a week (Monday upper, Tuesday Lower, Thursday Upper, Friday Lower). As an honest request, I do not want to delve into HST for the moment so kindly do not recommend that ;)

What you guys think? Anyone doing upper/lower splits? What are your results like?

Thanks,
X

I've had great success with the Poliquin full body workouts 3 days a week. All supersets, super intense. Its a nice break from a 4 day split and I actually got great gains from it. Its good to shake things up once in a while and keep the body guessing. Check out his website or t-mag, where he writes a lot of columns.

LookinToGrow - Sounds good, can you post a link?

I put this together quickly. This makes it around 24 sets per day in total (roughly the same as my current split as I usually do around 14 sets for large muscles and 10 sets for smaller ones). Let me know what you guys think or if there is anything I should change. Also please let me know any info on the ORDER of exercises as I am not sure how to order them in this type of split.

Workout A (Quads, Hams, Calves, Abs, Shoulders)
Squat x 3
Legpress x 2
Leg Extensions x 1
SLDL x 2
Hamstring Curls x 2
Seated calf raises x 2
Donkey raises x 2
Shoulder press x 3
Side laterals x 2 supersetted with rear laterals x 2
Crunches x 2 supersetted with Hanging leg raises x 2

Workout B (Chest, Back, Bis, Tris, Traps)
Flat BB x 3
Incline DB x 2
Flyes x 2
Deadlift x 3
Lat pulldown x 2
BB rows x 2
BB curls x 2
Incline DB Curls x 2
Skullcrushers x 2
Closegrips BP x 2
Shrugs x 3

Thanks,
X

Or do you think it would be better to keep the muscles worked (ie. quads, hams, calves, abs, shoulders in one workout and the others in the other workout) but have different exercises each day. In other words I will in fact have 4 different days (lets say A, B, C, D) but with A & C working the same muscles with different exervises and the same for B & D.

Thanks,
X

This is a rough overview of the workout I followed. Again, I only did this for a few weeks at a time to shake things up. If you want more information on Poliquin, go to www.charlespoliquin.net and www.t-mag.com (hope I'm not going to get in trouble for putting in these addresses!). Anyways, here's the workout. 3 days a week on non-consecutive days. Also, its all supersets with about 60 second rest in between. Hope it works for you.

Monday, Friday

A: Back Squats 2 x 15-20 reps 2010 tempo
A: Lying leg curl 2 x 6-8 reps 4010 tempo

B: Parallel bar dips 2 x 10-12 reps 3010 tempo
B: Close parallel grip chin-ups 2 x 8-10 reps 4010 tempo

C: Incline dumbbell presses 2 x 10-12 reps 3010 tempo
C: Seated cable row 2 x 8-10 reps 4010 tempo

D: Decline triceps e-z bar extension 2 x 10-12 reps 3110 tempo
D: Incline dumbbell curls 2 x 8-10 reps 4010 tempo

E: Standing calf raises 2 x 10-12 reps 2210 tempo
E: Low cable pull-ins 2 x 10-12 reps 2020 tempo

Wednesday:

A: Back barbell lunges 2 x 15-20 reps 2010 tempo
A: Dumbbell deadlifts 2 x 12-15 reps 3010 tempo

B: Back step up 2 x 15-20 reps 1010 tempo
B: Back extentsions 2 x 12-15 reps 2012 tempo

C: Incline barbell presses 2 x 10-12 reps 3010 tempo
C: Supinate chin-up 2 x 8-10 reps 4010 tempo

D: Decline dumbbell presses 2 x 10-12 reps 3010 tempo
D: One arm dumbbell row 2 x 8-10 reps 4010 tempo

E: Seated raises 2 x 15-20 reps 2010 tempo
E: Twisting crunches on Swiss ball 2 x 10-12 reps 2020 tempo

Thanks for the great info. I will most likely adapt since I will be working out 4 days rather than 3. I don't often do supersets but I see they are included quite a lot on these type of A, B, A, B splits. Is there any concern I should have from changing from a regular pyramiding up in weight type approach to this approach? Then again I see that the supersets are focused on opposing muscles eg. chest-back, bis-tris etc. Is there a chance of overtraining if doing this? Is it ok to stick to a more standard approach of doing one exercise and then moving onto the next (I believe the supersets are simply done to save time, correct?)

Thanks,
X