Experience with full-body routines?

[trucelt]

Im coming off a pretty substantial lay-off, and am considering using for lack of a better term an old-school full body routine as advocated by the trainers in the '40s and '50s......when i did a little research I was amazed at the results (obvious great genetics) acheived by guys like Marvin Eder, REg Park, Clancy Ross etc.

Anybody (BB'ers/PL'ers/SM) here have any experience using these types of routines?

i would like to use it as an initiall phase but also for as long as its productive

[LG1]

How about a typical 5X5 program?

[trucelt]

I thought most 5x5's were usually 2-day splits?

[JohnCaesar]

Peruse this sight, has a lot of great info about the old time strongmen.

Chad Waterbury has written some full body stuff before which I found interesting.

From a personal standpoint, I greatly prefer training in this type of manner. It is more about having fun than anything.

[LG1]

I thought most 5x5's were usually 2-day splits?

Some are, I personally did Stronglifts 5X5 and got great gains on it.

But these may be of interest to you:

http://ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20480

http://ironaddicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=19385

[trucelt]

awesome links guys....

[JohnCaesar]

Celt,
If you really want to have fun and think outside the box, go check out the Chaos & Pain Blog. It is more an anti-routine.

[darkhorizon]

I've been experimenting with my split \ and what i've found is that my current upper/lower routine has given me better strength gains and made me able to retain even slightly increase strength on some exercises while dieting, than a regular bodybuilding split.It also keeps me fuller during the week.

[c-dawg]

I deadlift 3 times one week and squat 2 and then vice versa squat 3 times and dead 2 ..... after that I fill in the blanks with whatever I feel I want to work on. With all the bases hit with squatting and deadlifting I get to work on what I want. My squat has never been stronger and my deadlift is progressing nicely as well.

[LandryP]

I don't think I'll train any other way again.

Full body.

[titanium_spine]

The majority of the time I train on a full body routine, 3 x per week... Because I use the lowest volume possible (one set to failure per exercise), this gives me the FASTEST strength gains, as apposed to doing it high volume / once per week...

I only do the rack pulls once per week...

After trying everything (and I train for almost 20 years) I have never found anything that packs on strength faster...

I firmly believe that for the fastest strength gains to occur, the best route is high intensitiy, high frequency, low volume...

[Daniel7908]

I deadlift 3 times one week and squat 2 and then vice versa squat 3 times and dead 2 ..... after that I fill in the blanks with whatever I feel I want to work on. With all the bases hit with squatting and deadlifting I get to work on what I want. My squat has never been stronger and my deadlift is progressing nicely as well.

Dude, can you tell us your number of sets and rep ranges, plus days of rest between workouts, for that split on the two big lifts? It'd be great to learn about it and possibly try out such a routine as well.

[Ajweins]

Celt,
If you really want to have fun and think outside the box, go check out the Chaos & Pain Blog. It is more an anti-routine.

I have to agree here. Its a fun way to train.

[DCBliever]

Tcelt,

Check out C.S. Sloans Full body routines on that website

[jmhester1956]

I go to Hector's gym in Tampa. Hector goes back to the Steve Reeves days! He was a friend of Arthur Jones and help him come up with some of his ideas.
Everybody from the old days trained at Hector's when they were in town.

Here's the routine he puts all his customers on:

Hector's Full Body Routine
______________________
Do 3 days per week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday for example)
1 set to failure only

Leg extension
Leg curls
Leg press
DB shrugs
Upright rows
Lat pulldowns to the front
Cable rows
DB Incline press
Cable crossovers
Tricep pushdowns
Barbell curls
Knee raises

Some instructions from Hector:
1. Warm up should be brief with each rep done slowly.
2. Rest as little as possible between exercises (1-2 minutes at most)
3. Perform each exercise with strict form.