Transcription
If you're trying to build as much muscle as possible as a natural athlete, should you be doing full body workouts or should you be using a split? Well, I have a bit of a perspective on it. As someone who started up at 125 lb at 6 feet tall and was able to realize my goal of becoming a successful natural bodybuilder with a system of high-intensity workouts called Naturally Intense High-Intensity Training, whereby I train only three times a week with workouts for the last 10, 15, max 20 minutes, and a method that allows me to look like this at 50 years old.
And this particular system of high-intensity training has worked not just for me, but for the hundreds of men and women who have trained over the past three decades plus of my career. Now, the whole aim behind these videos is me sharing as much as I can because I live by the precept: "To whom much is given, much is expected." And as a natural bodybuilder and trainer with high-intensity training for the past three decades, and who's trained so many people while also taking meticulous notes of every single workout that I do and the results of my clients for years on end, I have quite a lot of observational data.
This year, and in this video, I'm going to talk about exactly why I would not recommend a full body workout for someone doing high-intensity training, and also offer up the training split that I have seen work time and time again as a best practice for natural athletes doing this type of training. So, stay tuned. We'll talk more about [Music] that.
So, in this video, we're talking about why it is that I don't recommend full body training for those doing high-intensity training. But before I go any further, I'd like to thank everyone for tuning in, especially those who are here for the number one place for all those people interested in training naturally without drugs or supplements. Thanks so much for tuning in. And do be sure to like, subscribe, and hit that bell so you're the first to get new content as it comes out.
So, full body training. Some high-intensity training protocols out there that are popular do talk about employing full body workouts. But before I go any further, I'd like to clarify that there are many ways and many paths up any mountain. And full body workouts may have a place. But within the context of the type of high-intensity training that I do, that I call Naturally Intense, full body workouts simply do not work. And for most people, I don't see them as being particularly effective. And here's why.
The first problem is intensity. There is a direct correlation between the intensity of your workout and the results you're going to get. And I cannot understand how very important that is. Back in the day, if someone was getting results that they wanted, my old coaches would say, "They're either not training hard enough, or eating well enough, or a combination of the two." Because intensity does matter. And in my own experience as well, the difference between someone really going all out and kind of sort of almost going all out does make a difference over years in terms of overall development and maximizing your potential as a natural athlete.
Remember, if you're not using drugs, you need to really be in sync with the idea that muscles are only going to get bigger and stronger if you overload them with an unaccustomed stimulus. And that that overload has to be significant. If not, you're not going to get maximum gains. There's a fundamental problem with a full body workout because we have limited reserves. It is physically impossible to train whatever muscle group that you start off with with the same intensity as the last muscle groups. It's simply common sense. Number one, physically and mentally, you are going to be fatigued as the workout goes on. And those auxiliary muscles are also going to be fatigued, making it even more difficult to train larger muscle groups at maximal intensity because you're training all the muscle groups in your body on one single day with one single workout.
And this is something very apparent to me in the beginning when I first started developing Naturally Intense High-Intensity Training. And that I did just about every split possible. Nothing I talk about is based on conjecture. It's based instead on trial and error, an analysis of copious notes of my own training, and also seeing how it works with other people as well. Now, it's important to bear in mind that when I first started doing this type of training, I did actually believe that doing a full body workout might be the best way to do it. And I was honestly truly surprised by just how much my intensity dropped, regardless of how I should do those muscle groups around. So, even if I did all upper body exercises first, by the time I got to my legs, because the intensity of my training was just absolutely so blistering, I simply could not bring the same degree of intensity when I trained my legs. And when I put legs at the beginning of the workout, because the intensity of my leg training is almost always to the point where I'm just about to throw up, there simply was not enough gas in the tank for the upper body exercises afterwards to be as intense as they would be had they been trained on separate days. And just like any controlled experiment, this wasn't something I did once or twice. I really gave it a college try and recorded my results. And bear in mind as well, with my particular form of high-intensity training, there is almost no rest whatsoever between sets. And so, for this particular form of high-intensity training, I have never seen anyone do well at all intensity-wise towards the end of a full body workout.
The other problem is recovery. And recovery, as a natural athlete, is everything. See, here's the problem. Many high-intensity training protocols that involve full body workouts are done multiple times per week. As a natural bodybuilder, or someone trying to maximize their muscle mass without using drugs, that's a problem. It's a problem because muscles do not get bigger and stronger while you're training. They get bigger and stronger while you rest. And so, it makes sense that you are resting more than you are training. Which is why I only train three times a week with this particular split: legs on one day, back and shoulders on one day, and chest and arms on the final day, with abdominals serving for less advanced trainees.
And now, that split didn't happen by accident. It was painstakingly put together through trial and error. And what it does is that it allows for maximum training intensity within your workout, while also allowing for adequate recovery time between your workouts. As I said before, this particular split was something that I first developed for myself through trial and error. But I didn't stop there. Using a very science-based approach, I tried to see if it would also work best for everyone else who I trained. And over the years, I saw that it did. And so, over the years, it became the standard by which I trained every single client, and the way that I've trained as well for the past 30 plus years. And given the fact that over the years, I also have some really important data about those who would go against my instructions and put an extra day in there, and the fact that they always experienced less overall muscle mass increase and muscle strength increases training with even one extra day, four times a week, compared to my standard recommendation of three times a week, highlights and underlines the importance of recovery time for maximum gains.
Now, the other reason why I wouldn't recommend full body workouts multiple times per week is the fact you're putting too much wear and tear on your joints. I sound like a broken record when I say this, but natural bodybuilding requires a lot of time, years and years of training to really reach your potential. And quite often, most people are never able to train all out for those years because they're sidelined by chronic injuries. And there's a pretty convincing amount of research that shows that the more you train, the more likely you are to have an overuse injury. And consider this: as someone who is 50 years old and able to train as heavy and intensely as I do, the only reason why I'm able to do that is because I don't have any major underlying injuries holding me back. Which is a direct result of the fact that I only train, again, three times a week, with workouts that don't last any longer than 20 minutes. So, we're talking about an hour or less per week. That's more workout time than most conventional trainees will do in one workout, and they'll train four, five, seven, even six days a week. [Music]
And importantly, training more works really well if you're enhanced and using drugs because, learn, the primary benefits of steroid use is increased recovery. But as a natural athlete, regardless of all the things that you may have heard about the importance of training more to get better results, all I've seen with natural athletes over the years is less results and more injuries. And so, one of the big problems is the fact that there really aren't that many truly lifetime natural bodybuilders out there sharing their experiences. And there are even less people across the board in the bodybuilding world who take a scientific and evidence-based approach. And I remember how hard it was to get solid information from really natural athletes growing up, as everything came from those who are using drugs, and almost all the time they're trying to sell you something. And so, it's my hope to try and change that so you can take my 30 plus years of observations and use it to help you along your path. Thanks so much for tuning in. Know truly that I believe in you. And as always, I'll see you.