In a bros never ending quest for gains, the question that often comes up is “What’s better for building muscle: total body workouts or split routines?” Each form of training has been used to help people pack on size, but is one way more effective than the other?
While the traditional ‘bro-split’ of training each muscle group once per week has become synonymous with bodybuilding and adding mass, things weren’t always that way. In fact, many old-school bodybuilders utilized total body workouts in order to hit all the major muscle groups multiple times per week.
So they both work…but does one work better? Let’s take a look at the advantages of each:
Advantages of Total Body Workouts
- Faster Gains in Size and Strength
The core of total body workouts are compound exercises like the squat, deadlift, presses, and rows. Because these exercises target multiple muscle groups at once, you’re able to move much more weight than if you were using isolation exercises. This allows you to move more weight, but also leaves each muscle group less fatigued, meaning you can train with a higher intensity more times per week. This leads to a greater increase in strength and faster muscle gains.
- Shorter Workouts
Because you are hitting multiple muscle groups at once, you can cut way down on the amount of time you spend in the gym. Because of the shorter workout, you can also train with much harder, leading to better results.
- More Calories Burned
The more muscle used during an exercise, the more calories you burn. This allows you eat more food without having to worry about gaining fat.
Advantages of Split Workouts
- Less Fatiguing
As great as full body workouts are, they can be very fatiguing and are hard to sustain for long periods of time. Splits on the other hand, only focus on one muscle group per day, which actually leads to less overall fatigue, allowing you to hit the gym 5-6 times per week.
- Greater Loads
Because splits are less fatiguing, you can usually use higher loads on each body part. This increase the stress on the muscle, producing greater damage, leading to potentially larger muscle gains.
Which Should You Use?
While there are distinct advantages to each, recent research has shown that training muscle groups multiple times per week leads to greater gains over time.
This study published in The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research took 19 men and split them randomly into two groups. The first group performed 3 total body training sessions per week, while the second group performed 3 split training sessions per week where 2-3 muscle groups were worked each session. Training volume was the same for both groups.
The study found greater increases in muscular size in the total body group across almost all muscle groups, including a statistically significant increase in bicep size.
It should be noted however that prior to the study, a majority of participants reported using a split routine as their usual training method, so the addition of new stimulus may have played a part in the increase in growth. That just goes to show though that an increase in frequency plays a roll in stimulating new growth.
In the end, total body workouts are going to be more beneficial for a majority of the bro population. Splits are a good tool to use to decrease overall workout stress and fatigue, but don’t appear to be superior for maximizing muscle gains.
If your someone relatively new to resistance training, looking to gain maximum strength and size, don’t have a lot of time to train, or just want to be as fit and healthy as possible, total body workouts are probably going to be your best bet.
Want to know what workout routine may be right for you? Reach out and let’s discuss.