There are so many different ways of doing things. This is true in every aspect of life, but especially so in the world of health and fitness. And just like in any walk of life, there are specific tribes who shout loudly about the “best” (they mean the “only”) way of doing whatever they are shouting about, and anyone who disagrees with them is a charlatan and needs to be thrown out of town and ostracised with great haste! But are they right?

The short answer is, “No!”.

The long answer is far more nuanced, but the premise is the same. Whether it is nutrition, which I have touched on before, or how to structure workouts, there will be one camp or another who are adamant that their way is the best, and only way to do things. 

However, everyone is an individual, with their own specific body, goals, time constraints, musculature, training journey, likes and dislikes, injuries and so much more. The list is specific to them. How they respond to diet and exercise is their own. So there is no one right way to do things.

A lot of people have been told, or taught, that they need to split their workouts up into different body parts, and work each body part separately. Whether that is upper and lower body splits, or push days and pull days, or taking it even further and splitting the workouts for specific body parts such as legs, chest and biceps, and back and triceps, core and shoulders, the idea is to maximise the work each particular section of the body can do in one go, and so prompt the best adaptation possible.

This system does work, and has been proven to work for decades by bodybuilders and seasoned lifters. The trouble is it requires a lot of time in the gym. Bodybuilders can spend two hours or more per day in the gym working out and six days a week doing so. Not many of us can afford that amount of time.

A lot of us have the time to spend an hour in the gym a couple of times a week, or maybe even three times if we are lucky. What about if you don’t have time to get to the gym, or don’t want to work out in a gym environment (as many of my clients don’t)? So will the bodybuilder’s split routines work for us? Not really. They won’t create the best adaptations and make you as lean or as strong as you could be, because you will only be working each body once a week if that.

There is another way.

Full body training allows you to work most parts of your body whenever you train. This in turn means that you will work each body part several times a week. Which will prompt a much faster bodily adaptation. These full body sessions can have an emphasis on different body parts, but will allow you to train your whole body each time you work out.

So doing the splits is not the only way of doing things, and may not be the most efficient use of your time. It may be that you want to do things that way. It may be that you’d like to get the best bang for your buck. It is entirely your call.

Which is why I like to talk to my clients about the various options available to them, so they can be informed of the different training modalities we may try. But whatever they do, the words of Maya Angelou at the top of this newsletter are entirely prescient: nothing will work unless they put the work in.

If you’d like a sensible conversation about your health and fitness, and how we might work together to get you achieving your goals, please click this link (or the gold button under this paragraph) and choose a date and time that work best for you.