Full-body workouts are awesome. Not only does hitting every muscle group in a single session promote better muscle-protein synthesis because you’re activating your entire body, but you can also get twice as much done in half the time, if you stick to circuits and supersets.
So forget about your traditional gym bro splits, and give the overly hyped-up chest day a break, it’s time to hit your body from every angle multiple times per week and watch as you slowly transform into a Marvel superhero. Here are the five best full-body workouts you should be doing if you’re a beginner.
Improving cardiovascular endurance
Fitness can mean many things. It can be your ability to lift heavy weights, it can mean sculpting a physique worthy of a Greek god, and it can definitely mean improving your cardiovascular endurance and becoming a true powerhouse of energy and stamina. To be fair, fitness should mean achieving all of these things.
But let’s stick with cardio for now. Seeing as how HIIT cardio is not only infinitely more effective and efficient than steady-state cardio, you’re going to make it a staple in your routine. Simply grab your running gear and head out to your local park or stadium. You’re going to spend the next 20 minutes doing sprints, broad jumps, squats, burpees and mountain climbers, all in a circuit. You’re going to do four minutes of work follower by a minute’s rest – now do it four times.
Building some lean muscle
Building lean muscle is not only important for your overall health, but it can do wonders for your psychological well-being too. Muscle not only looks good, but it serves a functional purpose as well, and that is to keep your body safe, able, and healthy.
With that in mind, pack your workout bag and go on a tour around the gym, making sure you hit every muscle group with at least one exercise for at least four sets. In order to avoid wasting three hours in the gym, make sure you incorporate back-to-back exercises and supersets. And don’t skip calves.
Emphasizing strength and raw power
Raw strength and power is by far the most neglected aspect of health and fitness in the modern world for men and women alike. In a yoga-and-chai-latte universe, too much emphasis is given to pseudo sports such as aerial yoga and CrossFit, so you want to go back to the basics.
Remember that strength training demands of you to stay safe at all times, which is why wearing a compression shirt for men and even compression leggings will be crucial. Now, in order to build functional strength fast and improve your overall health and badassery, you want to stick to compound movements such as deadlifts, squats and various barbell presses. Execute these movements at least twice a week and don’t forget to supplement them with an occasional bicep curl and triceps extension to bring up those noodle arms.
Combining the three
As we’ve mentioned earlier, in an ideal world, you would strive to create a powerful synergy of all of these fitness types, and create an all-around amazing physique that is strong, aesthetic, and able to run like Forest Gump himself. Fortunately, this is absolutely doable.
You can try to combine all of these aspects of training in every session, or you can divide your days during the week into strength, bodybuilding, and cardio sessions. Either way, it’s going to be brutal. For instance, on Mondays you can work on strength because you’re well-rested, and on Wednesdays you can supplement your training with bodybuilding work. On Fridays concentrate on explosiveness and stamina. This type of routine will help you become a great all-around athlete, and all of that by sticking to full-body training every day.
Blasting your core for a chiseled six-pack
Everyone loves visible abs, men probably even more than women. There is nothing that represents hard work and dedication than a chiseled six-pack framed by carved out obliques and those sexy muscles below your pecs that nobody knows the name of (serratus anterior). So if you want washboard abs, you better devote a day in the gym or at home to bodyweight ab exercises.
There are a myriad of ways to approach ab training: supersets, straight sets, ramping sets, pyramid sets, circuit training, giant sets, you name it. And it all works. However, if you want to be as efficient and effective as possible, you want to stick to circuit training here as well, going from ab exercise to oblique exercise, to serratus, and then repeating everything for a number of sets. You can also go as many reps as possible in a given timeframe.
Full-body workouts are not just great for beginners – many professional athletes from every sport use this methodology to take their training to the next level and reach higher goals. If you want to kick-start your fitness journey the right way, be sure to use these essential workouts to build the body of your dreams.
Scarlet is a passionate writer, interested in fashion, lifestyle, and health. She loves traveling, you could say that she is a real travel addict, especially when she has a chance to visit some exotic destinations. She would tell you that inspiration can be found in the most unexpected places.
