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Whole body training splits for hypertrophy

This is an excerpt from Individualized Training by Tom Sheppard.

The whole-body split is wrongly looked at as best suited for beginners as it is an effective strategy for most lifters. As the name implies, we stimulate the whole body to some degree during every training session. This means that compound-based movements are primarily used, because it would be inefficient to try to perform an exercise for every muscle group within a single session.

This split can be fully used using only 3, or even 2, training sessions a week, making it more approachable for many lifters. Also, let’s say you have a busy week and end up missing a workout; no big deal, you still trained your entire body, to some degree, twice this week. In contrast, if you were using a push/pull/legs split, for example, that would mean an entire segment of your body didn’t get trained that week. This split tends to be a safe option for those who are busy and need to make the most of each training session. The low frequency makes this a promising option for those with poor stress tolerance/recovery ability (Type 3s).

Whole-body splits rely largely on compound-based lifts, because those are the only way to effectively train the full body within a session. This is time efficient, and it can encourage lifters to streamline their training and exercise selection (i.e., do you really need to be doing three different types of incline press each week?). This lower level of exercise variation can make it a good option for those who don’t handle variety well (Types 1A and 3) as well as for those who enjoy these types of more strength-based movements (Type 1s). A whole-body split also gives us opportunity to practice movement patterns more regularly, which can be beneficial for those who are poor motor learners (low acetylcholine, Type 1As) or who prefer to focus more on technical mastery (Type 3s) or just need to practice the main movement patterns more regularly (beginners).

Splitting the workload of each session across the entire body will mean that no individual muscles or areas will be particularly sore or overworked afterward. The fatigue will be evenly spread across the full body. This can benefit anyone who has a physically active job or has other physical endeavors outside of the gym (e.g., sports or other physical hobbies).

Now, if you’re someone who enjoys using a wide variety of exercises (Types 1B, 2A) and/or getting a pump (Type 2Bs), this split will be less favorable for you. There will be fewer exercises used per session and less focus on any individual area/muscle, making it less appealing for those who place importance on the mind–muscle connection part of training (Type 2Bs). This is exaggerated by the lack of room for adding isolation-based work (there may be room for one or two movements at low volume at the end of sessions).

Additionally, the lack of room for isolation work can make it difficult to fully stimulate every muscle group, because, based on the lifter’s levers, there will be some muscle groups that they naturally do not recruit well. Even if exercise selection is done well, it can still be challenging to make meaningful improvements in lagging areas for some.

Advanced lifters may struggle to progress using a whole-body split. The necessity to favor compound movements can make it difficult to accumulate enough MERs for each muscle group in those with higher requirements for growth, especially for muscle groups that they may not naturally favor when performing compound movements. It can be done, but some will find they need to adopt a split with a greater bias toward isolation movements to accumulate enough MERs while still being able to recover. The stronger the lifter is, the more taxing they will find using a whole-body split due to the frequency and volume with which they are performing compound movements. This makes it more likely that they will need to adopt a different split to keep progressing. Tables 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 lay out what a microcycle and individual workout could look like when using a whole-body split.

More Excerpts From Individualized Training

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