Total Body Strength Training Workout

3/6/2017

My wife and my adult daughter want to get into better condition and asked me to put together a workout for them, so I put together a very flexible program that works all of your muscles in the course of two workouts. This is a beginning to intermediate workout that involves bodyweight and machine-based exercises.

Each workout shouldn't take longer than an hour to complete. Each time you go to the gym, do the alternate workout. So if you choose to do strength training twice a week, you could do Day 1 on Tuesday and Day 2 on Thursday. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday you would just do 30-60 minutes of cardio (walking outdoors, exercise video, exercise video game, gym-based cardio).

You need to strength train at least twice a week. You can work up to strength training 3 times a week, like Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and do cardio on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In that case, just alternate between the Day 1 and Day 2 routines each time you go to the gym for strength training.

If you aren’t familiar with an exercise, just go to Youtube and type the name of the exercise and there will be many videos that will show how to do it.

The way to “progress” is to add weight over time as you get stronger. You can also work up to 3 sets instead of 2. It’s also good to vary between fewer reps of higher weights and more reps of lower weights. Like one time you’ll do 2 sets of an exercise with a slightly higher weight, but only do 4-6 reps. And the next time you do that exercise you can do 2 sets of 8-12 reps with a lower weight.

Don’t get used to doing the exact same exercise from each group every time, try to choose a different one every time even if it seems scary.

Remember to do a warmup for about 5 minutes before you do the workout. It can include activities like walking/jogging, jumping jacks and stretches.

You can download and print the workout by clicking on the link below:

full_body_strength_training_workout.pdf
File Size:	61 kb
File Type:	pdf

Download File

I hope you enjoy the workout, if you do please click on any ad that you see on my web site. That helps generate a little income to keep the site going. Thanks!

20 Comments

eal_birdfeet link

2/27/2016 12:22:09 pm

Hey ShrinkingGuy. Long time no comment (if you even remember me)! I've been following your blog, though.

I wonder why design a routine rather than using a time-tested novice program. In terms of specific critique:

(1) Why so much isolation and machine work? It's less efficient at building strength - working fewer muscles - which should be the novice's first priority, and definitely a priority for a full-body workout.

(2) Why so much attention to lower pushing, and barely any to lower pulling? On day 1, for example, you have two quad movements and cardio. To me, that seems like more volume than a novice is going to need, more than they might even benefit from, and it may lead to recovery issues as well as to simply putting in more work than the benefit you'd receive from just focusing on squats and, maybe, cardio. Yet, despite the focus on quads on day 1 (squats (a major compound movement), some sort of press, and likely quad-dominant cardio), the posterior chain seems neglected on day 2, with just one isolation for hamstrings, and the bit of work the posterior chain gets from cardio.

(3) Overall balance between days: Day 1 just seems like a LOT more work than day 2.

(4) Specificity. The flexibility is nice - it's good to let people decide what feels right for them - but I think once a choice is made, it should be stuck to. For example, if you choose to do overhead press rather than db lateral raise (these are actually fairly different exercises, if I'm correct), you should stick with that for at least a couple of months, and not just switch back and forth. The best way to progress a lift is to perform that lift, and switching back and forth will hinder progress on both, and will limit muscular and CNN development as well as form. There is a tidbit of truth in terms of "muscular confusion," but it's localized to breaking plateaus, imo: If you are having trouble with a lift, progress something else for a while. But, if you are getting better at doing something, keep doing it until you aren't. You mention a couple kinds of progressive overload - which is crucial - but without specificity it is almost meaningless: exactly what is it I'm supposed to progressively overload?

(4) This isn't really a criticism, but just a preference and option. Lots of people warm up in different ways. Walking, jogging, jumping jacks, etc. are all perfectly viable ways to warm up. For me, running is the perfect warm up for rock climbing. However, for me, the best warm up for lifting is lifting light - if I am gonna bench 135 for example, I'd warm up with a bar set, then a set or two at 95. This not only increases blood flow - a main purpose of warming up - but also warms up the specific muscles you'll be using, as well as priming the CNN for what you're about to do. I also throw in stretches for secondary muscle groups to make sure everything will function well. That's just what works best for me, personally. What you suggest is totally legitimate, and I am sure is the better way to go for many people.

Really, why I'm being critical is because I am a person who has designed many of his own routines, and despite putting a lot of thought into them, I have ended up with TONS of imbalances, tons of injuries, and - in the long run - not very much to show for it. On the other hand, whenever I follow a professional routine I see my best progress by far (in terms of strength, muscle, aesthetics, and - once I learned to listen to my body - avoidance of injury).

I think for an absolute beginner, starting strength is the way to go, period. It teaches form on important lifts while training the body in a balanced way. The volume isn't excessive, which is good for strength and recovery - important for the novice - but not so much for size, a con mitigated by (1) noob gains and (2) the necessity of good form, strength, and CNN development for getting the most out of focusing on hypertrophy.

For anyone, but especially for women, I am a big fan of DB bench instead of BB (breasts can get in the way, but I also think DB just teaches better form and it seems like it targets chest and triceps better than BB bench in beginners). I also prefer BB row over power cleans, mostly because of my crazy spine, but I also feel like they are less intimidating for beginners. Beyond those specific qualifications, I think BB squats and deadlifts, some form of bench press, some form of overhead press, and some kind of upper back exercise (for me, rows) are crucial lifts for the training of a novice.

I'm sure on your routine, novices will make progress, but I think they will make more progress on something like SS, not only in terms of muscular and CNN developments, aesthetics, and strength (as I am sure they will get from your routine), but also in terms of learning good form and training the body in a balanced way, building a solid foundation on which to continue their fitness journeys.

2/27/2016 12:24:24 pm

Somehow I messed up the link to my page, but it should work now. Sorry about double comment!

2/27/2016 12:25:52 pm

Nope... it automatically gets rid of ":" after https, for some reason. So.... this time it should work. If not, I give up.

DOUBLE sorry for TRIPLE comment.

Shrinkinguy link

3/28/2016 08:56:59 am

Hey eal_birdfeet! First of all, great to hear from you, an old fellow 52 day challenger!

And THANKS for the well-thought-out reply. Sorry I missed it orginally, but I just saw it.

I do agree with your points, and will offer this reasoning:

1) I agree that compound movements are better than isolation exercises, they are more efficient in exercising multiple muscle groups. I basically mixed a few of these in with some machine and dumb bell exercises because this is totally geared towards beginning to beginning/intermediate strength trainers. I know that for me, when I first started lifting, machines felt more comfortable and less intimidating than barbell exercises. If the novice has a personal trainer than can help them really understand proper form, I say yes - go for more compound (squats, bench, overhead press, deadlift)...I know for me, it took over a year for me to even feel like I could approach those. But mileage can vary.

2) This particular workout regimen is more around the philosophy of hitting every muscle group every other strength training workout - yes, with cardio between. But I don't factor in any specific muscle training due to cardio - that's just an extra benefit which I suppose I could have factored in but didn't. So it's not as much push-pull oriented as ensuring that I'm giving the novice a good choice of exercises that will guarantee that they hit the major muscle groups every other workout day.

3) Good point...day 1 has 5 vs. 3 on day 2. Not sure why I left it that way, when I have time I think I'll shift one over to day 2 to achieve better balance.

4) Great comments, I invite my readers to read and learn from your experiences. You're like I am...I don't claim to be the best at writing routines, but I have enjoyed learning what works and what doesn't. This whole routine is a lightened up version of what I currently do - in the end your body doesn't really care about the specific exercises you do. It does care that you're working out your muscle groups on a regular basis and integrating a measure of improvement (hypertrophy/recovery) over time. What I REALLY like about this routine, and my wife enjoys as well...is the variety. By giving people a choice and telling them to change things up each day they don't get so bored and they begin to enjoy their workouts. Then yeah...they can work up to better more advanced routines over time.

I REALLY appreciate your comments, again, and thank you for your feedback. I'll incorporate some of your suggestions to improve this workout, and continue to learn and improve as I put together workouts in the future. Keep in touch.

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Total Body Strength Training Workout

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