Full body workouts vs specific body part training

[Guest jumpupandfly]

Hey all, I was wondering if any of you guys know about the difference between the two.

Up till now Ive been doing full body workouts 5-6 times a week, going a hard day followed by an easier day, but working a couple major push and pull excersizes every day.

What about doing something more split up, like say

MON Chest, Triceps

TUE Back, Biceps

WED Core, Shoulders

etc etc

and alternating. Obviously with the excersizes were doing theres going to be some overlap, but in general.

Does anyone know what kind of pros/cons there are to the two methods or could you point me in the right direction?

[Ari]

Bodypart splits have no place in strength training and a controversial place in bodybuilding. I hate bodybuilding.

Splits that do make sense for strength training are Upper/Lower and Push/Pull type splits.

[Guest jumpupandfly]

  Ari said:

Bodypart splits have no place in strength training and a controversial place in bodybuilding. I hate bodybuilding.

Splits that do make sense for strength training are Upper/Lower and Push/Pull type splits.

I'm not sure if I was clear, but I was not talking about isolation exersizes. I guess a better way of putting it would be different muscle group splits.

Anyway, if splits do make sense, what makes them better than a full body workout?

[JoeS]

The idea with splits is that the muscles you trained get more rest than if you do total-body every day. The problem with that is that the exercises we do here require great skill as well as strength, and they all work the core. They require more practice than you would get doing a split.

Splits are ok with simple exercises and exercises you have mastered. I like the following split sometimes:

day 1: upper body push

day 2: rest

day 3: upper body pull

day 4: lower body (squats)

day 5: rest

[Ari]

  jumpupandfly said:

  Ari said:

Bodypart splits have no place in strength training and a controversial place in bodybuilding. I hate bodybuilding.

Splits that do make sense for strength training are Upper/Lower and Push/Pull type splits.

I'm not sure if I was clear, but I was not talking about isolation exersizes. I guess a better way of putting it would be different muscle group splits.

Anyway, if splits do make sense, what makes them better than a full body workout?

It definitely wasn't clear, because I'm not sure how you would train your back and biceps without training your shoulders, unless you use isolation movements. Same for chest and triceps. And basically everything works the core.

Also, in strength training, our aim is to train movement patterns, not muscles, though this does inevitably train muscles. Hence, splitting a routine into different muscle groups rather than movement patterns is a little bizarre and has a distinct bodybuilding influence.

Anyway, as JoeS pointed out, gymnastics skills require tons and tons of practise, something for which splits don't really allow. Coach recommends Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday total body, if I remember correctly.

[Scott Malin]

Aye, 2 days on - 1 off - 2 on - 2 off was the recommendation

[Guest jumpupandfly]

  Ari said:

Also, in strength training, our aim is to train movement patterns, not muscles, though this does inevitably train muscles. Hence, splitting a routine into different muscle groups rather than movement patterns is a little bizarre and has a distinct bodybuilding influence.

Anyway, as JoeS pointed out, gymnastics skills require tons and tons of practise, something for which splits don't really allow. Coach recommends Monday/Tuesday/Thursday/Friday total body, if I remember correctly.

Alright i gotcha. Yeah, I used to read alot of articles about bodybuilding so I guess some of those ideas are still with me to some extent.

Thanks a lot!