Gym advice

Starting going to the gym recently but I wanted to know should I do arms, chest, back and legs on the same day. Or do arms and legs one day and chest and back another day? I legit have no idea what I’m doing lol

Reply 1

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by Brad765

The former is basically full body, the other is a fairly standard split. Which would you rather do?

Reply 2

Brad765

Original post by Smack

The former is basically full body, the other is a fairly standard split. Which would you rather do?

The split, I don’t think I can handle a full body. But I just assumed you had to do a full body each session

Reply 3

NonIndigenous

If you've never done gym/worked out before, I'd recommend a full body workout with lighter weights initially, so that you get an all-round workout, build your endurance slightly and for your body to get used to the movements. Once you've reached a level where you find it hard to get a good quality focused workout by doing a 'bit of everything', then I think it makes more sense to split and focus on individual muscle groups then.

But there are different techniques. Depending on your endurance & general fitness levels, you could cram an intense full-body workout that totally burns out most of your muscle groups, into just 30 minutes (in contrast to how you see some people in the gym for 2 hours, but taking 5 minute breaks in between exercises). It's worth trying different things to work out what suits you best. It depends how much time you've got in a day, how many days per week you're prepared to work out, and how many recovery days you want to have.

People that are new to working out can often get 'obsessed' with a very narrow range of exercises that fall within their comfort zone. They will focus on very specific muscle groups over an over, superficially appearing far stronger than they actually are. For instance, being able to curl 50kg with a barbell doesn't mean you're 'strong', if you can't even do it standing up because your lower back buckles under the weight. And it's not even good for you. That's why I'd recommend a full-body workout initially.

(edited 10 months ago)

Reply 4

Smack

Volunteer Team

Original post by Brad765

The split, I don’t think I can handle a full body. But I just assumed you had to do a full body each session

You probably can handle a full body. If you do that option you'll do less exercises per body part per session, but the overall number of exercises per week, and sets and reps, should be approximately the same.