2845: Full Body vs. Push Pull Legs - Which Split Builds More Muscle?

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0:36With your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews.

0:42Adam Schafer:You just found the most downloaded fitness, health, and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, full body versus split. And the split routine that we're using to compare is a traditional PPL split. That's push-pull legs. By the way, we have a brand new MAPS program, MAPS PPL, and it's 40 % off right now. It's a three-day-a-week strength training routine. It's a push-pull legs split. Again, it's 40 % off. Go to MAPSPPL.com. The code for the discount is PPL. Now, this episode is brought to you by one of our sponsors, Roe Nutrition. So Roe Nutrition, they're experts in liposomal technology.

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2:51Adam Schafer:What's the better routine for you? You want to sculpt your body, shape your body, build muscle, burn body fat. Is it full body split or is it a split split type of routine? We're going to compare the two pros and cons. Let's go. Let's do it. What do you think? It depends. Yeah, it does. I think a lot of this, and we'll break them down, but let's first kind of address and break down both of them. So a full body split is you work your entire body each time you work out. Then you have a split routine, which is where you break the body up typically into body parts. A very common split would be push-pull legs would be a really common split.

3:32Adam Schafer:Now, all things have to be equal here if we're going to compare the two, right? volume um should be yeah so like that would have to kind of be equivalent for us to compare although that's not really a fair statement uh because um i think one of the reasons why people like split routines for example is the amount of volume that they can do in a routine um i know adam you you trained as a physique competitor and you did kind of split style routines uh eventually

4:03Sal Di Stefano:I started off though with more traditional maps anabolic. So I kind of progressed over the three years of competing and what it looked like was maps anabolic and then kind of performance and then aesthetic. And then eventually from aesthetic is when I started to break up the body parts after that. And so, and then it looked more like a body part split where it was more like a, like a double up of our PPL or like an upper lower type of a split. it um i just found that i was i was in the gym six seven days a week right and i had already scaled my volume up there so my body could handle it i was full-time working out you know it was like my my diet sleep exercise around there and so it made sense to start to split it up like that in the beginning early on uh when my training volume wasn't as high it made more sense to you know do a full body type of routine but eventually it got to a point where i'm spending an hour plus in the gym six seven days a week um that made sense to start to break the body up

5:06Adam Schafer:yeah i've done a lot of both um style routines um and one of the benefits of a full body and uh and this is why i like full body splits for a lot of people is that people tend to miss a workout here and there and when they do that they're not missing uh for like for the week they're not missing an entire body part in other words if you're if you're working out monday wednesday friday full body so you're doing your legs your back your chest your shoulders your arms core calves right the whole body if i miss one of those days i've still worked all of those areas yeah whereas with a split let's say it was a push pull legs split right if i miss one of those days i've missed an entire whole category category of my body yeah and um and that's just the reality for a lot of people a lot of people i'd say most people yeah a lot of people just aren't so consistent that they don't miss a day and then what tends to happen again this is human behavior is the day that they tend to miss the most tends to be the area they don't yeah the one they don't want they avoid it like uh conveniently yeah so it's like leg day you know it was like the famous like i skip leg day you know type of deal so it becomes a push pull workout uh with no leg day

6:16Sal Di Stefano:well i would say this is the this is the con of body parts place that's right the pro for the full body. Yeah. Is that, you know, you, every, almost every client that I've ever trained, um, and granted, remember a majority of the people that we train are average day people that, uh, fitness isn't their job. Um, they are trying to become healthier and fit. And so you consider that as a trainer, when you build a routine for somebody is like, okay, I know that the reality this person is going to probably miss some days here and there and so what serves them best and it seems that full body is the way to go now for someone who's more of a fitness enthusiast who is like and this is why again like i scaled to eventually that is like i wasn't missing yeah i'm not i'm not i'm i'm dialed yeah i'm dialed in yeah i'm consistent yeah i'm not missing workouts and so uh this to me was like okay this makes a lot of sense uh with the amount of volume that I'm doing and that I'm as consistent I am.

7:19Sal Di Stefano:But for the average person that has not proven that consistency, I'm almost always going to lean towards encouraging them to do with the full body first.

7:29Adam Schafer:Yeah. Now the thing with the split, it doesn't have to be this way, but it usually works out this way, is that the exercise selection tends to look different. So what I mean by that is let's say you're on a push day, right? So chest, shoulders, and triceps. And so we'll just say uh we'll just say chest um when i'm doing let's say 12 sets for chest because that's the one day i'm working chest yeah so i'm doing 12 sets on that day yeah it's a lot versus uh if i'm doing full body i'm not doing 12 sets on monday wednesday and friday i'm typically doing four on monday four on wednesday four on friday so i'm still doing 12 sets for chest it's just split up right the exercise selection looks different exercise selection for chest on a full body split is pretty much compound lifts.

8:14Adam Schafer:It's going to be like flat bench, incline press, and maybe a dumbbell chest press. When I'm doing all 12 sets in a workout, it tends to incorporate some of those more isolation sculpting type routines, which I know bodybuilders like a lot, right? I think bodybuilders really like focusing on different parts of a muscle. I could see the

8:35Justin Andrews:fun in it though. I mean, there's, there is a lot of novelty and a lot of exercises you normally wouldn't do that you can do in a split where it's like it makes sense it's like you're just building up a little bit lower intensity volume uh and you're really focusing on that specific

8:50Sal Di Stefano:body part well i think this is the part that even attracts the average person who may not consider themselves a bodybuilder but is interested in sculpting the physique and that's one of the coolest parts about resistance training is you can do that although we cannot spot reduce you can spot build we can spot build yeah which is cool and that and so especially large muscles you want rounder more developed delts well then you could program that you could program a routine that puts more emphasis on that or recognize or recognize that oh i don't have a lot of rear delt but i have a lot of front delt and so programming more rear delt exercise in there so i can now shape and sculpt my delts and so that is one of the coolest parts about strength training is that you can do that.

9:39Sal Di Stefano:And the average person, let's be honest, that would buy personal training from you cared about how they looked. Many times that was the main motivator that got them into the gym was, I don't like the way I look, or I want to change the way I look. And so the fact that you can do that through resistance training is pretty cool. And so I think it, even though it may not be the best routine for the very beginner uh it does appeal to even the

10:07Adam Schafer:beginner because i think the people are attracted to that yeah the the the other thing and this i this you don't want to say lightly because i think everybody tries to compare based off of results but we can't take out the experience because you're going to be doing this routine um or you'll be working out hopefully for the rest of your life and so the enjoyment and the experience itself cannot be discounted. It's not just about results, although results are very important. It's also about how I enjoy it, this kind of workout. Do I enjoy it? And the thing about split routines is they're fun. I mean, I get a good pump.

10:43Adam Schafer:If I do full body each time, I'm not getting a crazy pump in my entire body. I get a little bit of a pump in each of the areas I'm training. But when I'm just training back and biceps in a workout, you get a crazy pump and a lot of people enjoy that feeling. It helps them connect to the muscle. It feels really good. And even if the volume is equivalent for the whole week, split routines tend to take less time. So when I'm doing a full body routine, even if all the volume is, even if the total sets are equivalent, when I'm going into a workout and I'm going, you know, squats, you know, bench press, rows, overhead press, curls, it takes a second to get into those compound lifts and train them appropriately.

11:29Adam Schafer:I got to really warm up and do a little mobility before each one. When I'm just doing chest, shoulders, and triceps, like I'll warm up for my press and then the rest of the chest workout, there's no more warm. I just go right into the exercises.

11:41Justin Andrews:Right in.

11:41Adam Schafer:And so split routines, even if the volume is equivalent, they just tend to happen faster because I'm not, it's not about getting into the groove. I don't need to focus so much about getting into the right groove and doing the warmup and foam rolling or doing mobility. I could just, that happens in the beginning, but then I fly through the workout, the rest of the workout. Well, you mentioned the pumps.

12:02Sal Di Stefano:This was my biggest challenge with converting over to a full body routine is I was so attracted to that feeling and I trained that way for so long that it was really difficult for me to fully adopt the full body routine because I like that. Even though I accepted that it may be the better program for where I currently was at when I was training like that, it was also hard because I was like, oh, man, I miss that. And so I would chalk this up as one of the cons of the full body routine and one of the pros of the split. That's a major pro for the split is that if you like the feeling of a pump, the look of it, the feel of it, you get more of that in a body part split like a push-pull legs than you get in a full body routine where you do two or three sets of your squats and then you're on to the next thing.

12:52Sal Di Stefano:It's just like, I'm barely - You just got warmed up.

12:54Adam Schafer:Yeah. Essentially.

12:55Sal Di Stefano:Yes.

12:55Adam Schafer:There's also a difference in intensity and it doesn't even have to be intentional. It just works out this way. If I'm doing my whole body three days a week, there's a certain intensity that I train at. And if I go beyond that, it doesn't work very well. When I'm working a body part once in a week, chest, shoulders, and triceps is once. Back, biceps is once. Legs is once in the week. even if the volume is the same, number one, I can train with a higher level of intensity because I'm not hitting that body part again for the rest of the week. And number two, the exercises that I tend to incorporate don't tend to cause as much damage to the body.

13:36Adam Schafer:Like if I'm working out my legs on a full body workout three days a week, it's a lot of squatting. It's like squatting, front squatting, Bulgarian split stance squat. I'm not going to go – you can't go super intense every single one of those days. Most people get fried. But if I'm doing a leg day, it might look like squats, leg extensions, and leg curls or something like that, right? I'm still doing three sets of each or four sets of each, 12 sets.

14:01Justin Andrews:Some leg press, yeah.

14:02Adam Schafer:But I'm going harder. I can try with a higher level of intensity, which is more appropriate with some of those, quote, unquote, easier exercises. And also because I'm not hitting that body part, again, until the following week. And so it's just a different feel. It really is. and it's a different mindset. I could definitely really enjoy the mindset of practicing lifts that I get in a full-body workout. Like full-body workout, I tend to go in and practice the lifts. There's a sufficient intensity, don't get me wrong, but I'm really practicing the lifts is what it feels like. When I'm doing a PPL or a split, I'm kind of like, I'm really working the body part.

14:42Adam Schafer:I'm hammering the body part and the intensity is much higher. It's a different mindset.

14:46Justin Andrews:Yeah, very much of a feel. like and trying to describe that it's like you know a bit of a burn and it's like you know you're kind of grinding your way through but also you're getting that reward of it being bigger and yeah you know that that pump that's associated with that versus you know yeah when you're just doing the full body thing you're just going for that strength output like what can i get up like and uh you know you're gonna hit it again later on the week so yeah like you said you just can really get after it and i think this is too where some of that mentality that we see a lot you know the sort of heroic type workouts you start seeing that i i see this as a pro and a

15:23Sal Di Stefano:con that's yes totally for the full body and i'll say the pro of the full body here is that the practice argument you make this is why again i lean towards this almost always to a beginner because i think the practice is is so important the con to that though is it leaves uh less room for air for the measure or gauging intensity and so that was another difficulty i had when i

15:48Adam Schafer:switched over to you don't get a full week of recovery yes and coming from a guy who trained more splits earlier on in his career i guarantee you overdid it oh yeah i honestly i if i have a

16:00Sal Di Stefano:tendency to still do that because that's so ingrained that that intensity level towards an exercise is so ingrained into my training that i can't apply that so i can't go to maps anabolic and apply that same mindset that I did in a split. Because a split, like you said, I have plenty of days to recover if I overdo the intensity. But with MAPS anabolic, I'm right back in another two days. That's right. And I'm back to training those legs again. And it's like, oh, I can't afford to have overreached that much or else it's going to hinder that workout. And so it does. Now, again, why I like it for beginners is it teaches them kind of that appropriate intensity level and practice, and that's so beneficial.

16:44Sal Di Stefano:To someone who's more of an advanced lifter who wants to increase intensity and push it and kind of get after those muscle groups, that makes it a con, I feel like, for the full body and more of a pro for the split because it's like I can get away with kind of pressing the intensity lever a little bit more because I've got plenty of recovery days ahead of me.

17:00Adam Schafer:That's right. And there's also, again, this is kind of a feel thing because at the end of this I'm going to kind of break down what the data says. Okay. But, uh, when you have a specific part of your, your body and area that you really want to bring up, like you're like, I really want to develop my back or it's my legs. It's my lower body or it's my chest. It's, it's lagging with a split routine. And you can do this with both. Okay. So trainers and people understand workout program, you could definitely do this with both, but a split routine lends itself really well to higher volume and more intensity on the body part that I want to train and less.

17:37Adam Schafer:on the days I don't need to develop as much. I mean, I'm going into a back workout. I'm like, you know what? I'll take some volume off the other days and I'm going to go hard on my back with intensity and volume all in one day. And it tends to lend itself well just from a behavior standpoint. Now, again, you could do this with a full body. Like I could totally do this with full body. I could cut down the volume on the other exercises, add more to the area I want to focus on. But there seems to be something about just the behavior aspect of I'm going to really get after hammering my hamstrings or whatever body part you think you need to develop.

18:11Adam Schafer:And split routines tend to lend themselves well to that mentality, I would say.

18:17Justin Andrews:Yeah, when you have kind of the lower risk category type exercises, yeah, you can kind of flirt more with failure. And I think that's appealing on that end of it to be able to really get the maximal output you can out of these muscles.