A couple weeks ago, the idea of full body training versus body split training was proposed as food for thought for most of us to achieve our health and wellness goals. If muscles change the more they are challenged, why are a lot of us spending 4-6 days in the gym only training a few muscles at a time? Which then equates to each muscle group only being targeted a few 4-8 times per month? Why not get more bang for your time spent by challenging every muscle, every time with more time to recover and rest in between - both for the sake of our bodies and also for our mental and emotional health so we don’t feel like we have to be a slave to the gym every day?
I cannot say that this was one of my own personal light bulb moments, although I’d love to claim it! I’m also not the scientist, researcher type that wants to dig deep into the biology and mechanics of strength training. I trust this to the professionals. So, I do follow people in the industry that I feel have a like-minded approach to what I think seems sensible. Bret Contreras is one of my favorites and this has been how he has been training his clients. His girls have some amazing success stories so I decided it was worth a shot.
As a new mom, my days of getting to the gym 6 times a week were over and I was lucky to be able to set aside 2-3 days. For the majority of us that are interested in overall health, wellness, maintaining a healthy body composition and trying to be the best versions of ourselves for any given day, the idea of training less frequently really stuck with me. For the last year, I have committed to it and I honestly plan to stick with it until there becomes a more convincing argument otherwise. I feel accomplished knowing that I have completed all of my “required” workouts (versus before when I would feel guilty if I missed a day and then my entire schedule was off), I feel stronger, I feel more rested, I see changes in my shape, and all of this makes me really happy!
For any body part that I want to grow faster than the others, I throw in an extra exercise or two, or just one more set of that group to challenge it even more. Over the next few weeks, I’ll share some of my favorite full body routines! It is always fun to give something new a try!