Taking on whole body workouts 2-3x a week, THATS IT!

Ok I have my foundation in place after working out for over 17 years. When I got serious in the gym, all I ever did was single body parts per day. So that means I would do at least 4 days a week, if I wasn't missing workouts here and there. This, over time, has caused me some joint problems. I've had a shoulder pain in the past, but now it's my elbows and knees that have taken a hit. Doing a whole hour of back or arms would make my elbows feel very stiff and sore for days after the workout.

After my last cycle I decided to take a month off (the whole of December), but I got lazy and that turned into almost 2 months. Finally I started back in the gym a couple of weeks ago, and I decided to do full body so I wouldn't get too sore. I felt great after these workouts. My whole body feels tighter and I'm getting leaner. I'm beginning to think this will be the secret to getting leaner and maintaining muscle for me.

I figure 2-3x a week of whole body is sufficient to maintain and develop a good physique. The off days can be moderate/light cardio. For those of you who are still doing bodybuilder split routine but aren't seeing the results you want, try whole body. For those who do it, what have your experiences been?

I don't do whole body but I never do just one or two muscle groups in a workout as I think that's a major waste of time. So much more work can be done in the same period of time. I personally like hitting upper body together 2-3 times a week focusing on different muscle groups each session but hitting all of them, and then I'll do the same with legs 1-2 times a week and this has worked well for me.

*The trick to training is IMHO is going heavy enough to where you can't do more than 10 reps, but going light enough to where you can do at least 6 clean reps. Every rep should be felt directly in the target muscle and the weight should be pushed/pulled through a full range of motion (full stretch at the bottom and full squeeze and contraction at the top of the movement).

The first two sets are not going to be as intense as the last 1-2 sets (sometimes you need that 4th set, other times you can feel the muscle is done after 3)....you still go to failure but to "natural" failure so when you can't push the weight with good form anymore you're done. THEN, the last working set you go balls to the wall, and push the weight with every last ounce of strength you can muster up. That's what makes you grow! If you feel like you didn't quite activate everything then do a drop set. That last set where you activate all the fibers is where the magic happens and once you've been doing it for a while you'll be able to "feel" when you've sufficiently stimulated a muscle and can move onto the next exercise.

I think the approach you're taking can be a great tool so long as you continue to hit your compound movements and train with the proper intensity. The advantage to only training 3 days a week is that you won't over train as you have more time to recover. The downside is to stimulate every muscle sufficiently it'll require A LOT of work to do in one session, so take extra care to make sure you're hitting everything the same amount of times per week with the same intensity so you maintain symmetry.