Build Muscle And Torch Fat: How To Workout Your Full Body

By Yuri Elkaim, BPHE, CK, RHN

Have you every wondered how bodybuilding routines became the gym standard? Most people don’t even realize when they strength train one muscle group at a time, they are performing a specialization program used by bodybuilders to bring up lagging parts. For an average gym-goer, this just won’t cut it. You need to learn how to workout your full body to find out what it truly means to strength train. Sure, the 280-pound trophy-toting heavyweight has a killer lateral spread and tree trunk biceps, but he is playing on an entirely different field.

How to workout your full body
Full body workouts can be used to build muscle and torch fat all at the same time. This doesn’t mean that every time you step onto the gym floor you need to throw around enough weight to have you reaching for the oxygen tank.

Full body workouts require active rest, or supersets. Thus, if you pump out a set of 10 squats, perform an upper body movement while your legs recover.  In turn, you increase your energy turnover and metabolic rate. 

Full body workouts require that you train each muscle group during a given workout. By performing compound movements in supersets, you hit more than one muscle group at a time, eliminating the idea of perform dozens of lifts during your routine.

Your full body workout could be divided into three non-consecutive days:
Day one- strength training
Day two- hypertrophy
Day three- fat burning

Day one you lift as heavy as possible performing 5 sets of 5 reps with each movement. Day two you lower your resistance slightly, performing 3 sets of 9-10 reps for each movement. Day three perform 2 sets of 20 reps.

Why split body part routines don’t work
Split body part workouts require that you train one muscle group at a time. Essentially, you are in the gym 5 days per week lifting an isolated muscle group. Not only that, but a majority of the exercises require you to sit or lie down. Rarely is her heart rate elevated to a fat burning level unless you carry a 100 barbell across your gym floor to place it back on the rack.

When training single muscle groups, your weight threshold is higher, which allows you to lift much heavier. In a sense, this can be a good thing. However, the heavier you lift, the longer your muscles need to recover before you can perform the next set properly. Again, you do not enter the fat torch zone.

Years of muscle maturation on a bodybuilder require him to lift heavy weights in isolation. His muscle ceiling is higher than the average gym enthusiast, thus he must utilize his muscles in a different way. You may also notice that bodybuilders spend countless hours walking, jogging, or riding a recumbent bike. In fact, in the weeks leading up to a show, a bodybuilder requires 2 or more hours of cardio a day. This is the pay off for training in a split routine.

START BURNING FAT LIKE AN ATHLETE TODAY!