Full body vs. 4 day split?

[gymgurl]

I was just thinking today, strictly speaking from a physical gains perspective, what is the main advantages or comparing factors in doing a full body 3 day a week split as opposed to an upper/lower type of set-up?

With the full body you'd be hitting the muscles at a higher frequency usually but with less variety in exercises right? So, is that preferable for strength gains?

Or is it better to have more variety in exercises per session with slightly decreased frequency?

[Anca]

:popcorn:

[Andy]

I think the 3 total body weight workouts promote a better metabolic effect to the body thus strength gain with substantial boost in metabolism in the next 24-48 hours. Not saying 4 day splits don't because I do both depending on time of year.

I look at it this way:

Bulking, increasing strength - 4 day splits are good.

Leaning out, retain vital lean muscle, increasing strength - 3 total body weight workouts are good.

Both will improve your strength levels...just depends where you want to go with it.

My .02 cents.

[Pleiades]

I'm glad you asked this because I'm debating on moving from FBWO 3x a week to a 4 day split. I look forward to the reponses.

[KellyFL]

I just came off a bulking phase, where I was lifting in a 4 day split. This allowed me to lift more heavily, concentrating on a specific body part and making large strength gains. Currently I am following an upper/ lower split to lean out for a show. My strength has remained steady, but the big gains have stopped. So I think it depends on your goals at the time.

[Audrey]

I am not sure that it makes a whole lot of difference in the long-term. As long as your focus is on increasing load over time and eating in a caloric surplus, both options are viable. They both focus on compound movements (or should) with sufficient training frequency. You have a bit more frequent training frequency with the full body workout, but a slight lower volume per workout. Again, in the long-term, both splits would/should work.

It also depends on what your ideal schedule looks like. Typically, an upper/lower split has you lifting 4 times/week (although you could spread it out a bit more and lift only 3 days/week, hitting everything 3 times over a 2 week period). A full body routine has you lift usually 3 times per week.

[gymgurl]

Thanks for the replies. So, how much additional benefit do you think a few extra isolation exercises (bicep curls, tricep isolation, lateral raises maybe, etc) would make on a four day split? Since you'd be able to do a bit more than if you were doing a full body, which (for the sake of this arguement), you pretty much just struck with compound, would you get a little more ahead with the four day?

[Noel Clark]

Thanks for the replies. So, how much additional benefit do you think a few extra isolation exercises (bicep curls, tricep isolation, lateral raises maybe, etc) would make on a four day split? Since you'd be able to do a bit more than if you were doing a full body, which (for the sake of this arguement), you pretty much just struck with compound, would you get a little more ahead with the four day?

I think on both training types (FBW and 4 day) you can add some isolation work at the end.