Sorry if I misspelled his name. Does anyone know what kind of routine he followed? I remember something like training his whole body on the same day. Which brings me to the next question, does anyone train their whole body on the same day?
i have never worked whole body before, but i know for a fact that there is one out there, my buddy has done it. basically, it is the 4 core exercises into one giant set: A1)squat A2)incline A3)deadlift A4)pull-up, then repeat. im not sure how it is set up, maybe someone here knows.
I do. It’s great. From what i read his workouts were a bit to much, volume wise, for the average person. Didn’t he use the light -medium - heavy approach? What i’m doing is something similar(HST) and the results are quite good.
Most people say they could never put enough effort in all their bodyparts using a whole body workout but that’s just because they’re not fit enough, i’ve been able to increase the poundages on every single lift faster than when i was using a split routine. It’s not easy but it will increase your condicioning enourmously. I recomend it.
I have his book and it leaves a bit to be desired. Total body workouts are just to taxing on the nervous system for anyone who is not a beginner. His workoust in the book take as long as 2.5 hours to complete and he (supposedly) did this three times a week. There is a hundred times better info on this site than in that book. But when the chips fall, he did build an awsome body (espically later in his career) and the book does have quite a few inspiring pictures of him.
I do two full-body workouts a week – Monday and Friday. Nothing wrong with that. I do it more for time management than anything else.
“Total body workouts are just to taxing on the nervous system for anyone who is not a beginner”
Well, it depends. A whole body workout of 45-60 minutes, not going to failure 3 times a week is not to much for most people. I keep mine under 60 sets per week and i’ve been doing fine. But i agree that Steve’s workouts are way too much…
What’s your routine like?
Its like this:
Squats X2
SLDL X1
Bench press X2
Dumbell flyesX1
Bent over barbell rows X2
Chin ups X1
Standing military press X2
Bent over dumbell lateral raisesX1
Smith machine calf raises X2
EZ barbell biceps curl X1
Lying barbell triceps extension X1
16 sets total, reps vary weekly. 3 workouts per week. In the last 3 weeks gained 2.5 kilos, 2 muscle, 0.5 fat mass. If you’re interested go to the HST site for more info.
Forgot to say, i generaly avoid failure and take 9-12 days off every 8 weeks.
Also forgot to say, if going really heavy i might cut squats to one set per workout as it can get too much for your lower back. Some workouts i also replace it with deadlifts especialy when doing low reps.
To restless:
Didn’t Steve Reeves start his workouts with the shoulders and end with the legs ? Just curious!!
Just wondering…how long have you been training this way? Have you gained well (aside from the 2.5kg)…and if so, could you attribute those gains to the program itself? Thanks in advance.
Bucky, i don’t know that much about his workouts, except the volume is to high for us mere mortals. I don’t think it’s a good ideia to do his routine.
Cam Birtwell, i’ve been training like this for two and a half months. I was 79.5 kg when i started, went up 2 kg more to 81.5 in the first five weeks, although i dieted for 2 of them, then i got sick. I took 12 days off and started again but this time varied the intensity so i’m not so close to failure all the time and the results have been better. I now started week four at 84 kg, with an fat increase of 1% since April.
Diet has been the same as before, 4500-4600 cals,40% fat,35% carbs,25% pro. I started creatine two weeks ago so some of this latest weight gain might be water and glycogen.
All in all i’m really satisfied.
Steve used three full body workouts per week. I have used them and it does take about 2hrs per workout. When I did them I used POF style training. For bis’ it woild be curls, incline curls, conc. curls. Steve said three sets each but I did 2,1,1. The reason he started with delts was to move the blood from the upper body to the lower body. He said If you started with quads then went to upper all the blood would be pooled in the lower body and it would be difficult to then work the upper body. His routine is a good change of pace. I didn’t have Surge then so it was a wee bit taxing.