In the fitness world, there seem to be two camps when it comes to the right—or rather, the best—workout. One swears by a full-body workout, while the other camp goes all-in for split training. Both methods will absolutely have a positive effect; there is no doubt about that. But the burning question remains: what is actually better, the split or the full-body workout?
Full-body workout
Let’s start with the fact that there is no such thing as a ‘best’ workout. You should primarily ask yourself what you personally enjoy. You should also consider your time constraints, recovery needs, experience level, and your goals. After all, with a full-body workout, you train your entire body in a single session, and if you do this several times a week, all muscle groups are targeted multiple times. You could argue that if you go to the gym two to three times a week, full-body workouts work perfectly fine for you. It is often seen as a workout for beginners, but natural bodybuilders also pride themselves on it.
The main advantage of a full-body workout is that you target your muscle groups multiple times a week. Because your focus is on your entire body, all muscles are worked. This way, you can still train your whole body in less time. Another advantage is that you burn significantly more calories in a full-body workout than in an isolated split training session. When it comes to functional strength training, you will notice that by training multiple muscle groups, you are essentially forcing them to work together, which also leads to increased strength. Additionally, you train all muscle groups, so skipping a leg day is no longer an option, because if you do skip a leg exercise, you will work that muscle group again in the next training session.
Split training
Also, a split training session is not necessarily better than a full-body workout; here too, you need to determine your goal and how often you can train per week. With a split, you can focus more because you perform multiple sets for that specific muscle group. This allows you to stimulate muscles more extensively, which can be beneficial for muscle growth. An additional benefit is that you automatically have better recovery time. For example, if you train chest and triceps on Monday, those muscle groups often get several days of rest before you stress them again. This can be very pleasant when training heavy.
Many people who do split training particularly enjoy focusing on specific muscle groups. It is easy to do when you train five to six times a week, and when your main goal is hypertrophy. Disadvantages of a split are that if you miss a training day, you do not train one or two muscle groups. Also, you train the muscle groups only once or at most twice a week. For most natural athletes who train 3 to 4 times a week, a good full-body schedule is often just as effective as a classic bodybuilding split for muscle growth. As soon as you train 5 or more days a week, a split usually works better.
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