Full Body Workouts for REAL RESULTS!

So you want to get back in the gym after a long layoff or you been training for a while and getting no results. Your clueless on what to eat, and when to eat. You don't have the time, patience, or desire for the 6 meals a day of egg whites and oatmeal, chicken and brown rice, and steak and veggies. You don't have the time to get to the gym 6 days a week nor do you want to dedicate all that time to the gym. You want to have a life besides the gym, but you want to be strong and fit. What if there was a better way? Well, guess what, there is!

There is a saying, the simplest solution works best. As a species, humans have a way of complicating things. We love fixing things that aren't broken. Lol then we break them and wonder where we went wrong. The mistake most people make when trying to build muscle and strength is training too often, and not doing the most effective exercises. People waste time on training chest one day, then arms another day, then legs another day. Pure horseshit! Do those routines work? Sure they do! But you risk overtraining which will bring your results to a screeching halt. You'll start feeling tired all the time and start missing workouts. Who wants a system that is doomed for failure?

Now that we got that out of the way I would like for you to start thinking of your body as a single functioning unit. When you exercise, you want to exercise your WHOLE BODY, not just a single muscle. By working out your entire body as a single unit, you activate more motor units, burn more calories, and excrete more muscle building hormones each workout! How does that sound! Don't believe you can get phenomenal results on full body training? Look up the iconic Steve Reeves. Hell all the greats from his era trained 3 days a week on non consecutive days. They ate 3 solid meals a day. They didn't worry about carbs, fat, and protein. They just made sure they ate enough food and they were strong and looked amazing. So why did we get away from that? Well the steroid era of the 70's changed everything and guys where in the gym more often because they drugs helped their bodies recover better.

In order to get results you need proper nutrition, proper stimulus (weight training), and adequate rest. Forget going to the gym 6 days a week. 3 days a week is all you need on non consecutive days. You will train your whole body each workout. You will use proper form and train until failure. Compound movements is the way to go. Don't waste your time on chest flyes, concentration curls, or shoulder laterals. Those are useless at stimulating any real muscle growth. You will do exercises like presses, squats, and deadliest. And forget about 20 sets of chest and 16 sets of arms. That is like OCD training. The only sets that matter are the ones your activating the most muscle fibers which is the heavy sets you go until failure. All the lighter warm up sets don't count. On this routine you do one heavy set until failure for each exercise. Yes you read right. ONE SET. Don't believe me? I been training like this for 6 months after a 5 year lay off and I am squatting and deadlifting over 400lbs. I don't do barbell bench presses because of shoulder injuries, not to mention that barbell bench is a terrible exercise for shoulders which will be a whole different post, but I can dumbbell bench 120-130lbs dumbbells for couple of reps.

Below I will post a sample full body workout to follow 3 days a week. You will do 2 sets per exercise. One moderate set for 10 reps as a warm up not to failure. One heavy set where you reach failure between 8-10 reps. Try and alternate free weights and machines each workout so they don't become repetitive and you give your body different stimulus. Form must be perfect, no cheating or swinging. Control your movements, nice slow negative and explode on the contraction. For example, when doing dumbbell bench, lower weight slowly to chest then explode as you push weight up. For squats , squat down slowly then explode when going up. Take about 1 minute in between sets. Workout must be completed in under an hour. Weight training over an hour puts your body in a catabolic state which is a muscle wasting state which is definitely not what we want. We want to build muscle here. After training to failure for 4 weeks, then do a 2 week less intense period where you use 80% of your normal poundages training not to failure for one week and raising reps to 12, and then 90% of normal poundages going to failure at 12 reps also each set. Then cycle back to 4 weeks heavy at 8-10 reps failure each set.

Sample Workout

Incline Dumbbell Bench Press OR Flat Dumbbell Bench Press

Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press OR Standing Shoulder Barbell Press

Seated Tricep Extension OR Skull Crushers

Pulldowns in Front OR Assisted Chinups on Gravity Machine

Barbell Rows OR Deadlifts OR Dumbbell Rows

Barbell Curls OR Seated Dumbbell Curls

Barbell Squats OR Leg Press

Leg Extensions

Leg Curls OR Stiff Leg Deadlifts

Calf Raises ( 1st set lighter 20 reps , 2nd set heavier to failure 20 reps)

Cruches (1 set 20 reps)

Full Body Crunch (1 set 30 reps )

Leg Raises (1 set 15-20 reps )

As you get stronger I recommend more warmup sets for certain muscles like chest, back, and quads. Lets say for example you know you can reach 8-10 reps with 100 lbs dumbbells on chest, a warm up sequence would be 40's x 15 reps, 60's X 8 , 80's x 4, 90's x2 and then 100's for 8-10 reps. You will know when it's time to make the change to more warm ups as your poundages increase. In the beginning though you will do 1 lighter set 10 reps and then one heavy set to failure for 8-10 reps for each exercise. As your strength doubles or triples you will use more warm up sets on your heavier movements! Next topic we will cover is benefits of fasting and debunking the 6 meal a day myth!