5 Benefits of Full Body Training

A Mezzo Member recently asked this gem of a question in our Team Chat:

“I’ve been strength training for a few years now and have always been one to stick to “legs days” and “back and bis” and “chest and tris” so it has been very different to work multiple areas of the body every single workout. Can one of the coaches explain the “why” behind the makeup of Mezzo's workouts and what the benefits are of this different style?”

I have heard a variation of this question many times across my last decade of coaching. To counter it with another question:

If you were studying for a test, do you think you would perform better on that test if you:

A. Crammed all of your studying into the one night before the test, or

B. Studied a little bit everyday for the few weeks leading up to the test?

While we've probably done Choice A many a time,
Choice B is definitely the better move.

Applying this premise to training:
Body part routines are cramming.
Full body routines are studying with increased frequency.

Benefit #1

Full body workouts are beneficial because they increase the frequency with which you work a certain muscle group or movement pattern.

Using a body part split, you will probably work your chest and tris once a week, legs once a week, back once a week, everything once a week. With a full body training program, you will work all of the major movement patterns and muscle groups multiple times per week.

Benefit #2

Full body training doesn't beat you up and leave you overly sore and wrecked. Because you increase the frequency with which you work a certain muscle group, you can stimulate that muscle group with less volume in each workout. You CAN build strong legs without doing leg day workouts that make it impossible to get off of the toilet the following day.

 

Benefit #3

When you aren’t wrecked by your previous workout, you can train harder in your subsequent workouts, plus those workouts will be of a higher quality. Consistent high quality workouts = more results.

Benefit #4

With increased frequency comes improved skill. Training and lifting are skills.

In 3 months of body part split training, you’d typically squat 12 times (1x per week).
In 3 months of full body training, you’d typically squat 36 times (3x per week).

 If you squat more frequently, you will get better at it. If you get better at it, you'll lift more weight. If you lift more weight, you'll build more muscle.

Benefit #5

Total body workouts burn more calories on average than body part splits.

The point of our training at Mezzo is not to burn calories and lose weight, so this benefit isn’t something that drives Mezzo’s programming choices. But for many people who work desk jobs and for whom most of their movement occurs at the gym, this could be a potential benefit.

That's a lot of info, but the main point can be boiled down to this fact: total body workouts increase the frequency with which you work muscles and movements compared to body part splits.

Increased frequency > cramming in volume.