Is it better to do full-body workouts or target different body parts in each session?
This really depends on what you want to achieve. Let’s look at the pros and cons of each:
Pros of full-body workouts:
- The whole body is stimulated. The more we stimulate, the more effective the workout.
- Greater stimulation frequency. The more we practice, the quicker we will become good at our workouts.
- Eliminate “fluff.” There’s a limited amount of time to workout in so we tend to choose bigger, more compound lifts.
Cons of full-body workouts:
- Some people just can’t bare full-body sessions.
- If all muscles are not targeted evenly, some body parts might lag in development while others grow quicker. This is fine if your main goals are strength and performance.
Pros of targeted workouts:
- Lots of recovery time for individual muscle groups. By just working some body parts to total exhaustion, those parts get to rest for the rest of the week.
- Targeted workouts allow for more volume . You can do more sets, which is great for building muscle.
- There’s more room for variety with targeted workouts, which is important for bodybuilding.
Cons of targeted workouts:
- Sometimes targeted workouts don’t allow for enough frequency, particularly for beginners who need the frequent stimulation if they want to progress quicker.
- Too many people wind up doing loads of isolation exercises and neglect compound lifts.
As you can see, it really does depend on what you’re hoping to achieve as well as how long you can spend working out during a given time.
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