Too many people looking to get in shape are under the notion that you have to train several hours a day everyday to build a great physique.   Truth be told an exercise program does not have to be complicated or take up tons of your valuable time to be effective. A simple full body workout done 3 days a week has been show to be incredibly effective for gaining muscle size and/or losing body fat.

By just working your entire body in one session instead of focusing on a single body parts strength and muscle gains can come faster since you’ll be working each muscle group more often  as opposed to once a week thereby having more opportunities to beat your previous best performance. Not only that but you will also burn more calories because you’re using more muscles since a full body routine is based more around the compound movements.

Structuring a Workout

Structuring a full body workout we just need to focus on a few key exercise motions to be complete.  For example each workout can include a knee dominant exercise like a squat or lunge, a hip dominant movement like a stiff legged dead lift or hyper extentions, an upper body push such as the bench press or Military press and an upper body pull that can include a row or Pulldowns.   For good measure you can also include a core focused exercise  like planks, rollouts, leg raises, etc. if you need work in that area.  That simple.

1. Knee Dominant
2. Hip Dominant
3. Upper Body Push
4. Upper Body Pull
5. Abdominal Work (Optional)

Building Your Workout

Workout 1

Squats (Barbell or Front)  3-5 x 6-12

Deadlifts (stiff or bent leg) 3-5 x 6-12

Overhead Press (Barbell or Dumbbell 3-5 x 6-12

Rows (Barbell, cable or Dumbbell) 3-5 x 6-12

Put It All Together

Alternate between workout 1 and workout 2 three days a week. Your schedule will look something like this:

Week 1: Workout 1, Workout 2, Workout 1

Week 2: Workout 2, Workout 1, Workout 2

Try to give yourself about 48 hours between workouts and occasionally don’t be afraid to take an extra day off here or there if you think you need it.  The goal is to be consistent with getting those three workouts in every week. Track your progress in a logbook and always try to beat your past performance by increasing the weight, the reps or both if you can.