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Whole Body vs Body Part Training

By Dr. Travis Gibson
Published in Fitness
October 21, 2023
7 min read
Whole Body vs Body Part Training

“What I enjoy most about fitness is how objective it is. What you put in is exactly what you get back. Nothing more nothing less.” - AJ Ellison

The benefits of resistance training cannot be understated, it is a key element to living a long and healthy life. The more muscle mass we have will decrease our risks for modifiable diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, depression, anxiety, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, and more.

It increases our metabolism, regulates blood sugar, increases self-esteem, and improves body image. As the decades of our lives increase strength has a direct correlation to life expectancy, studies have shown our mortality risk increases as our hand grip and leg strength decrease.

For young adults and teenagers, the motivation to begin resistance training is likely much different, often they are drawn to the gym to increase their confidence by gaining an attractive physique.

Either way, there’s always the understanding that exercising is the best form of self-care.

If you’re anything like me then you want to know what the most efficient and effective approach to reaching your goals as quickly as possible. I don’t feel as if it’s an impatience but rather from an intention of wanting to do things the best way I can.

Approach fitness like a science project and you are the only subject, try different methods and techniques on yourself and find out what works and what doesn’t. The best part is that it’s meant to take a long time and you’re going to learn a whole lot about yourself along the way.

When you’re planning your exercise routine there are a few important factors I want you to consider.

  • Your schedule; how often can you consistently make it to the gym in a week? This should be answered with confidence so there are no excuses as to why that number was not reached.
  • Stimulus-to-fatigue ratio; meaning whatever you do in the gym is what your body has to recover from. Harder workouts increase stress making proper recovery more necessary than an average workout. This will also affect how many times you work out per week.
  • Current fitness level; less experience means you can get away with much more than the advanced lifter. Progress will be quick and easy in the beginning but will taper off as the months and years accumulate. This means you can keep things as basic as possible and get maximum benefit.

These three variables will play a significant role in determining which schedule will be the most productive for you.

Whole Body Training

I believe following a total body workout is ideal for someone who is just getting started, and while it still remains an effective approach as an individual becomes more advanced, the beginner is perfectly suited for this routine.

The best way to organize a workout would be to incorporate a push, pull, and leg exercise all in one day. Then on the next day just change the angle of movement.

If you did a pull down on Monday then do a row on Wednesday, and if you did a chest press on Monday then do a shoulder press on Wednesday.

Approach your leg exercises with the same framework, Monday can be squats or leg extensions while Wednesday can be a deadlift or hamstring curls.

This allows variation in training while still hitting all the major muscle groups within each session. I would suggest no more than four workouts per week with this approach, three is ideal so that there is adequate rest in between training days.

The ultimate goal is to make sure there are no body parts that are neglected in a week of training

Pros

  1. Maximize how often you can stimulate all major muscle groups throughout the week.
  2. Within the session, the intensity of each exercise can remain higher due to less total work per muscle group. This can result in greater strength gains over the long term.
  3. Can be very time-effective for maintaining your fitness level. Especially for those who can only make it to the gym three days a week.
  4. Maintains an equal balance of upper and lower body movement patterns.

Cons

  1. To increase the amount of work for each muscle group additional sessions need to be added per week, or each individual session will have to increase.
  2. Whole-body workouts may lead to overuse injuries when this approach is adopted for long periods.
  3. While each muscle group will have lower workloads there will be an increase in systemic fatigue which may impair the body’s ability to recover. This is especially true as additional sessions are added per week.

Body Part Training

More commonly referred to as a split routine it entails working out only a few muscle groups per session.

A simple example is chest and triceps on a Monday, back and biceps on Tuesday, and legs and shoulders on Wednesday. Thursday is a rest day and then repeat the same sequence on Friday followed by a rest day.

Traditionally this is the training structure used by bodybuilders or advanced trainees whose primary goals are to increase muscle size and physique development. For those wanting to gain some muscle and lose weight this is still a good routine to follow and is not solely reserved to bodybuilders.

It becomes more ideal for advanced trainees due to the number of rest days in between individual muscle groups. As you become more experienced naturally the strength increases will create more stress locally and as a whole.

Having more rest between sessions will allow those muscle groups to recover more fully before being trained again.

Pros

  1. Provides more of a stimulus to the desired muscle group, especially by increasing the amount of blood flow. Thus increasing local fatigue and muscle pump.
  2. Reduced systemic fatigue when employed with adequate rest days throughout the week.
  3. Longer recovery times per muscle group due to decreased frequency.
  4. Allows for more variation of exercises per workout to address specific weaknesses for different body parts.

Cons

  1. Higher degrees of fatigue and increased risk of delayed onset muscle soreness to isolated muscle groups.
  2. Will be less effective if the goals are to improve maximal strength.
  3. Individual sessions will require greater amounts of total work due to a decreased training frequency per week.

Final Thoughts

The best approach you can take is the one that fits your schedule and lifestyle.

If the total amount of work is the same by the end of the week then your results will be pretty similar overall. The main driver for muscle growth is the total amount of work performed, we refer to this as “volume.”

To calculate how much volume you’ve accumulated in a given workout just multiply the amount of reps x sets x weight. For example, doing curls with 10 pounds for 3 sets of 10 reps equals 300 pounds lifted for that given exercise (10x3x10=300).

By the end of a given work out it’s easy to have accumulated over one thousand pounds of work. If the same amount of work is performed by the end of the week then it doesn’t matter much if it’s in the form of isolated muscle groups or whole body workouts.

Although it’s more time-effective to isolate muscle groups and break them up throughout the week if your main goal is to improve muscularity and physique development.

There likely will be a slight advantage to whole body part training due to the increase in frequency but the advantage will be minimal.

It would be best to try both out for two to three months and see how you like one vs. the other. A big factor contributing to maximal gains is going to be your dedication and enthusiasm towards your workouts on a daily basis.

If you don’t like doing the routine you’ve set for yourself then change it, working out isn’t easy but it doesn’t have to be hard either.

Individualize everything with the intention of making the best choices possible, meaning there should also be some evidence behind your reasoning. In this case, the evidence is in favor of each approach, so it’s up to you to decide which one to follow.

  • Summary of main points

    1. The positive effects resistance training provides are endless, no matter what your goals are having a stronger body will increase your lifespan.
    2. Treat your fitness journey like your own research project where you are the subject. Change some variables from time to time and see how you respond.
    3. Your fitness level will cater to certain workout schedules better than others, beginners can get away with less while more advanced trainees need to do more.
    4. Consider your current lifestyle and how you can adopt a routine that will fit in well, rather than changing your life entirely.
    5. As long as there is some evidence to support your decisions, do whatever you want and enjoy the process.
  • Call to action

Whether you are a beginner or advanced trainee it’s good to vary your routines over time as doing the same exercises and rep ranges will eventually plateau your progress.

Take some time to consider what kinds of changes would be beneficial to implement in your current routine.

Maybe you need to add or subtract a workout from your weekly schedule, lower or raise the rep ranges, or even reduce everything to allow for a recovery week and start fresh.

Don’t get stuck doing the same thing for over six weeks at a time, if you have been then change something now.

Resources:

Bartolomei S, Nigro F, Malagoli Lanzoni I, Masina F, Di Michele R, Hoffman JR. A Comparison Between Total Body and Split Routine Resistance Training Programs in Trained Men. J Strength Cond Res. 2021 Jun 1;35(6):1520-1526. doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000003573. PMID: 32168178.

Evangelista AL, Braz TV, La Scala Teixeira CV, Rica RL, Alonso AC, Barbosa WA, Reis VM, Baker JS, Schoenfeld BJ, Bocalini DS, Greve JMD. Split or full-body workout routine: which is best to increase muscle strength and hypertrophy? Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2021 Aug 30;19:eAO5781. doi: 10.31744/einstein_journal/2021AO5781. PMID: 34468591; PMCID: PMC8372753.

García-Hermoso A, Cavero-Redondo I, Ramírez-Vélez R, Ruiz JR, Ortega FB, Lee DC, Martínez-Vizcaíno V. Muscular Strength as a Predictor of All-Cause Mortality in an Apparently Healthy Population: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Data From Approximately 2 Million Men and Women. Arch Phys Med Rehabil. 2018 Oct;99(10):2100-2113.e5. doi: 10.1016/j.apmr.2018.01.008. Epub 2018 Feb 7. PMID: 29425700.

Israetel, M. (2021). Scientific principles of hypertrophy training. Renaissance Periodization.

Schoenfeld, Brad J. The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and Their Application to Resistance Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research 24(10):p 2857-2872, October 2010. | DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0b013e3181e840f3

Westcott WL. Resistance training is medicine: effects of strength training on health. Curr Sports Med Rep. 2012 Jul-Aug;11(4):209-16. doi: 10.1249/JSR.0b013e31825dabb8. PMID: 22777332.


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Dr. Travis Gibson

Dr. Travis Gibson

PT, DPT. CSCS

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