How Often Should You Do Full-Body Workouts?

A full-body workout helps you train every major muscle group in your body. It involves movements that target your chest, abs, arms, hamstrings, and back. Most full-body workout plans will include squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and other exercises that involve the entire body.

These workouts are extremely popular among beginners as well as those who prefer comprehensive workouts over targeted ones. Moreover, it is the most practical way to get some exercise, especially when you can’t make it to the gym every day.

Most workouts focus on different body parts on different days. A full-body workout, on the other hand, targets most of the muscle groups in the body at the same time. As a result, your body needs time for recovery and can’t be put under stress every day. That’s why many gym-goers have questions regarding the frequency of these workouts.

Schedules You Can Follow

To ensure that your muscles have time to recover, you will need at least one 24-hour rest period between two full-body workout sessions. If you plan to do a full-body routine twice a week, this is what your schedule would look like:

• Monday: Workout Session 1
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Rest/Cardio
• Thursday: Workout Session 2
• Friday: Rest
• Saturday: Rest/Cardio
• Sunday: Rest

And if you want to do three routines,

• Monday: Workout Session 1
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Workout Session 2
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Workout Session 3
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest/Cardio

With the three routines variant, you can decrease the intensity of each session. Similarly, for two routines the intensity must be increased. Make sure that you don’t do more than 3 full-body workouts in a week as that would result in injury and be counterproductive.

Exercises You Can Do

Now that you know how often you should work out, it is important to do the right exercises to maximize each session. You don’t want to push your body too hard or go too easy either. Getting down to basics, a full-body workout needs at least three types of exercises – push, pull, and leg.

Now, you can either pick two groups of three different exercises and alternate between them. Or do the same group of exercises in each session. The former is the more popular method and it also adds some variation to your workouts. But, this is a matter of preference and you can pick whatever works best for you.

For the first group, you can include at least three of the following exercises:

• Squats
• Seated Cable Rows
• Calf Raises
• Triceps Press-downs
• Bench Press

For the second group, do a minimum of these three exercises:

• Leg Press
• Calf Raises
• Bench Press
• Shoulder Press
• Triceps Press-downs
• Pull Ups
• Lat Pull-downs
• Seated Cable Rows

If you go with two alternative groups of exercises, here’s what your 2-week schedule will look like:

Week 1:

• Monday: Group 1
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Group 2
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Group 1
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest/Cardio

Week 2:

• Monday: Group 2
• Tuesday: Rest
• Wednesday: Group 1
• Thursday: Rest
• Friday: Group 2
• Saturday: Rest
• Sunday: Rest/Cardio

For many beginners, this workout works like a charm and helps them achieve their fitness  goals. If used correctly, full-body workouts can even help more advanced fitness  enthusiasts to increase their muscle mass. So, regardless of your fitness levels, you can begin a full-body workout today!