Daily full body -how important is variety?

chris1975

New member
I have found success in utilizing daily full body workout consisting of 1 push,pull, and leg exercise 5-6 times a week (a la K Boges -check him out on YouTube) . Doing these short workouts has greatly improved my consistency - which has been the largest detriment pertaining to my fitness journey.

With my limited knowledge and experience I am not confident in implementing more spontaneous variations of exercises on a daily basis. As such, I was curious if rotating though an "A" "B" day (posted below) would provide enough variety.

To clarify, my main concern with this routine would be developing "over-use" injuries through its repetitiveness.

For example:

Day A:
Dips: 3x8-12
Pull-ups: 3x8-12
Nordic progression: 3x4-8

Day B:
Pushups 3x12-15
Rows 3x12-15
Bulgarian Split Squat 3x12-15
 
@chris1975 Hey @chris1975

I'm K Boges, so I thought I would offer my take.

My general take is this...

How much variety really depends on your training status and preferences. Most of the time, I like a bit less variety for beginners, and a bit more variety for more advanced people. A lot of this is because more variations become accessible as you get stronger, but also because beginners often benefit from a more fixed exercise selection to help ingrain motor patterns efficiently. I think many advanced people benefit more from having variation in loading and intensity across the week as a way of maintaining motivation, managing fatigue, and ensuring broad stimulation of musculature, whereas beginners can make linear progress from week to week, and often session to session. The strength and rapid progress beginners make opens the door for more variation later and usually serves as a good source of motivation.

Now for the nuance.

The research on the topic is somewhat equivocal. In some contexts, a limited exercise selection can yield better gains, probably because constantly introducing novel exercises to beginners presents a "learning" threshold that prevents those unskilled with novel exercises from extracting the most benefit from them. Part of making "gains" is getting good enough with a movement to feel comfortable enough to push it. On the other hand, some research shows more variety resulting in superior gains, and this probably has to do with the fact that more variation, in both load and selection, will expose and challenge more muscle. So generally speaking, some variation is good, but if that variation is too broad or too infrequently revisited, then progress could suffer, particularly in beginners. But, there is more to this picture. There is also research showing that more variety can improve motivation, which could translate to better long term adherence, which is a hugely under appreciated component of any program. Anecdotally, I've worked with some people who do not like variety at all, and find the steady and evident progress that results from doing the same thing each training day very motivating, even if that progress is incredibly slow. There is nothing wrong with this. It works. I also have clients that prefer a "conjugate method" approach, and prefer to cycle through variations daily, only to revisit the same exercises every so often. I've seen some incredible gains made this way. It works. And, for others, I will have them perform and cycle through only a handful of variations. It works too. I've personally done both as well. I've had blocks where I only have three variations per movement pattern, and some blocks where I just feel doing something totally different every day. Both worked. Pretty much all approaches will work provided they are performed with adherence to good fundamentals.

So here's the deal, as I see it...

As long as you are training hard, using the appropriate volume, staying injury free, training movements that are congruent with your goals, using excellent technique, and doing this for a long time (I don't mean 8 weeks, but make it a lifestyle), you are going to be fine. Having these fundamentals in place is what really matters. I have a general approach I like to use with most people, and that is from less variation to more variation over time, but at a certain point, I'm primarily concerned with programming in a way that maximizes an individuals adherence, and this necessitates some personalization, both in terms of preference, but also injury predisposition. If you like variety or find yourself prone to overuse injuries, include more variety. If you prefer a limited exercise selection, then limit your variations to a few key exercises.

Over your life, you should take several different approaches to training. Don't be afraid to experiment with an approach for a few months. Training is also a learning experience. Real progress in training comes not from the details, but more from the constant and persistent adherence to good fundamentals.

Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to clarify.
 
@jimmatt Mate, your channel's class. Cheers for all the free info. As someone who's recently (well, since the beginning of Covid) gotten into bodyweight stuff after years of going through gym phases without the consistency and seem to have finally found some form of training I think I can adhere to, it's appreciated.

As OP says, this guy's worth subscribing to.
 
@minyen94 Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. I'm happy to hear the approach resonates with you!

If you ever have any questions, just let me know. I'm happy to help.
 
@jimmatt Yeah this clears a lot up, thanks for the feedback. Personally I am a beginner and have not experienced over use injuries or pain. So with that in mind is this a reasonable routine and exercise selection? Or would you narrow the scope of exercises further for a beginner?
 
@chris1975 Cool! You are in a great position and I think your selection is very reasonable. Just stay with it and focus on performing these movements with as good of form as you can.

Let me know if you have any more questions.
 
@chris1975 Not the guy who answered before but I switched from a full body routine 3 times a week to a push day/ pull day instead (Pull on monday, push on tuesday, etc.).

I don't stick to a single exercice but the fact that I split my routine this way allows me to do more exercices and stress them harder
 
@chris1975 I am the guy who answered before.

My routine dropped off sometime in spring, but I was doing Push/Pull/Rest/Push/Pull/Rest/Rest, derived from Overcoming Gravity 2.

Push looked like this:

15min skip rope,
15m HS work,
RTO Lsit hold,
WallStrPressEcc,

p-lett box HesPu,
rev. hyperEx,

Full RTO PU,
Full ring ab wheel,

Pull was:

skip rope,
Handstand work,
Adv. Tuck Back Lever,
archer pullups,
Single leg RDL,
Horiz. Rows,
Bulgarian split squats,
face pulls,
L-sits,

It was super long and tiring. And pull days were the worst.
When I have time for a good routine again, I think I'd actually go back to full body, every other day. You just get in more reps per week, and after 6 weeks do a deload, and revise your routine if need be.

Good luck!
 
@chris1975 I would say variety is important to an extent. Your working a lot of the same major muscle groups with any push/pull/leg exercise. However, stress on connective tissue and emphasis on the same body part with the same repeated movements could lead to overuse injuries. Implementing new exercises doesn't have to be spontaneous. Do research and experiment with easier exercises at first and then progress. I also wanted to ask you a question, since consistency has been an issue of mine as well. What kind of results are you seeing with these small workouts (ie: muscle growth, improved strength, etc)?
 
@fantomas318 Just started a month ago, and i haven't seen much in terms of weight gain- that's more a diet issue. But I have been able to increase my reps and work capacity pretty steadily.
I just find having a daily schedule and doing this for 20-30 min almost everyday is really manageable.
Previously I did a ppl and liked it but if I missed one day, I was much more to skip a few more because I convinced myself that it would be more balanced that way (i.e. miss a push day so then I would be more likely to skip my pull and leg day to "keep it even".
With the full body if I miss 1 day I think of it as a good rest day and I didn't miss anything since im just gonna do full body again.
 
@fantomas318 Does this apply to 30 minutes of HIIT on an elliptical everyday?
Should I bring in variety to avoid these overuse injuries (my knees are mildly sore sometimes)?
My sole aim is to lose weight amid a packed schedule daily.
 
@massico Most people wouldn’t recommend HIIT everyday. It might be beneficial to incorporate some weight lifting and steady state cardio in your schedule as well. I would definitely vary the workout you do not only due to physiological stress but also mental burnout. Remember though diet is always the most important factor in weight loss
 
@massico Avoid elliptical. It's bad for knees for two reasons. One, it forces foot-knee alignment through entire range of motion that may not be you natural alignment. Walking and running for example are done on ball of the foot allowing heel to rotate to maintain natural joint alignment. As well, in running or walking the movement of the foot forward during the recovery phase is done free of any contact. Not with the elliptical.

Second, our cartilage lubrication depends on small pumping action so small repetitive load-unload cycles are necessary to maintain fluid pressure in the cartilage to reduce wear due to friction. On the other hand elliptical is purposely made to minimize any impact so it forces you to load knee, ankle and hip joints once and keeps you going through repetitive motion without sufficient load-unload cycles to facilitate fluid retention in the cartilage.
 
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