best just doing two primary exercises per workout using multiple sets (like ten) - T NATION | Question of Strength: Vol 36

T NATION | Question of Strength: Vol 36

I've always found that when you get to
the elite level, most athletes do best just doing two primary
exercises per workout using multiple sets (like ten), and then
training again six hours later. 

Total Body vs. Body Part Splits... Again

Q:
Some T-Nation coaches advocate training the whole body in one
session; others usually use a body part split of some sort. The
debate is endless, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it!

A:
I'm the first one to want to improve on any training system, but I
do not know anyone successful in the strength coaching business who
uses full body routines exclusively.



I've trained Olympic
medalists in sixteen different sports, from energy system sports such
as swimming to short-term explosive power sports such as shot put.
For almost every single one of them, 70% of the time, I've used split
routines and switched to whole body routines as their competition
was nearing. Whether it's Adam Nelson who won the World Championship
in the shot put or Dwight Phillips who won it in the long jump, they
all trained with split routines.





Workouts
have to be short and effective, and when you train for relative
strength you have to do a lot of sets. If you do a lot of sets, you
can't do a lot of exercises. Athletes need split training to get
adequate recovery.



Adam Nelson's split looked like this:

Day 1: Chest/back

Day 2: Legs

Day 3: Off

Day 4: Rotator cuff and arms

Day 5: Off

Adam, by the way, incline benches 525 pounds using a fat, three inch bar.

In
bodybuilding, I don't think Ronnie Coleman trains whole body three
days a week. I've never known a successful bodybuilder, even the low
set guys like Dorian Yates, to do whole body training.



The key
is to recruit as many motor units as possible, and you have to think
about the law of exercise order. There have been a few good studies
done on this, but here's the Reader's Digest version:



If
you have a group of lifters who do exercises A, B, C, and D in a
workout, and you have a group do the same exercises in the reverse
order (D, C, B, and A), what you find is that the first group makes
the most progress on exercise A and the second group makes the most
progress on exercise D. Basically, you'll make the most progress on
whatever you do first.



I've always found that when you get to
the elite level, most athletes do best just doing two primary
exercises per workout using multiple sets (like ten), and then
training again six hours later.



Every single Olympian I've
trained used split routines. I've been in this profession for 26
years and no one has ever convinced me, by their results, that full body routines are the only way to go.



Having
coached at three different Olympics, I've had the opportunity to
talk shop with many successful colleagues. Whether they were from
Norway, Germany, or Finland, they all came to the conclusion that
split routines were far more advantageous than total body routines.