Full body heavy workout programs are a great way to stimulate muscle growth without a lot of exercises or spending all day in the gym. By using compound exercises along with isolation exercises for details, and controlling both your intensity and rest periods, you can get a lot done in a little bit of time. Consult your physician before beginning a diet or exercise program.
Compound Lifts
Your routine should be based around the compound lifts: the squat, deadlift, bench press, military press, chin-up and row work the largest muscles in the body, and many of the smaller ones at the same time. They strengthen smaller muscles, known as "stabilizers," which help protect the integrity of your joints, and build power while increasing bone density. The squat, deadlift and military press, assuming you press standing up, all heavily recruit your core and improve stability as well as balance.
Exercise Programming and Prescription
Not only do you need to plan your workouts, you need to plan your weekly schedule to get the most out of each workout. Perform the most skilled movements first, such as squatting. Never deadlift before squatting as you do not wish to fatigue your lower back before balancing a loaded barbell on top of it. On a weekly basis, ensure that you are not wearing out a smaller muscle the day before it is going to be worked in a compound exercise. For example, do not wear out your triceps the day before a heavy bench workout.
Use Isolation Exercises Wisely
Isolation exercises, or those which attempt to recruit only a single muscle, have their place in a routine, but need to be used appropriately. Do not spend hour upon hour doing dumbbell concentration curls and no time squatting; use isolation exercises to specifically target a weak muscle group or lagging body part. By way of example, if your bench is weak at lockout, or the last third of the bench press, you may wish to spend additional time doing barbell and dumbbell triceps extensions to specifically strengthen the triceps.
Sample Workouts
On Monday, you might squat for three sets of five reps, bench press for three sets of five reps, do three sets of eight reps each of chin-ups and rows, and if you needed any isolation work, throw it in at the end. On Wednesday, you might squat for three sets of 10 reps, military press for three sets of six to eight reps, and do three sets each of chin-ups and rows, six to eight reps each. On Friday, you could squat for three sets of eight reps, deadlift for one set of five reps, bench press for three sets of eight reps, do chins-ups and rows three sets of five reps each, and finish with any isolation work you felt necessary. Rest on off days, as your muscles grow outside of the gym, not while you are in it.
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