Maybe you want to get out of your divided life. Or, your current training plan may not be effectively working all of your major muscle groups. Either way, you can benefit from a full-body training plan.
Rather than focusing on a specific type of movement or body part like split workouts, full-body workouts are designed to work your muscles from head to toe. Additionally, for people whose regular routines are simple, such as running or cycling, a full-body workout may target muscles and energy systems that are usually ignored.
Whether it’s HIIT or weightlifting, many BODi programs and workouts consist of exercises that work your entire body. Discover the benefits of a full-body workout by following the full-body workout below, which consists of some of the moves from these programs.
Why do a full body workout?
Full-body workouts avoid the segmented focus of split routines and employ exercises that work all major muscle groups in one workout. In addition to the benefits of increased muscle mass, strength, and cardiovascular capacity that come from any workout, there are many benefits to a full-body workout.
1. Train functional fitness
Full-body workouts, using exercises that challenge multiple joints and muscle groups, focus on functional training and promote movement patterns that better reflect daily life. The result is often improved coordination, proprioception, balance, and stability, making daily tasks easier to manage and reducing the risk of injury during daily activities.
2. Save time
You can complete a workout faster by working your entire body at once, rather than focusing on one or two muscle groups for one set and then having to recover before doing it again. You may even be able to reduce the number of exercise days per week in order to cram more overall work into each session.
3. Burn more calories
The more you use your muscles, the more energy it takes to move them, and a full-body workout uses more muscles overall, burning more calories in the process. At high intensities, it can also help promote fat loss.
This is because training multiple muscle groups at high intensity at the same time requires you to burn additional calories even after you’ve finished your workout thanks to the afterburn effect (also known as excess post-exercise oxygen consumption, or EPOC). This higher calorie consumption greatly contributes to weight loss and improved metabolic health.
4. Improved mobility
Rather than simply curling dumbbells with your elbows or shuffling your feet with jogging strides, a full-body workout involves moving your limbs (and muscles) through a full range of motion.
This helps improve mobility, the ability to move your joints to their fullest extent. Consistently increasing your mobility through a full-body training routine also supports joint health.
5. Emphasize strength and aerobic exercise
Overhead presses alone don’t offer much cardiovascular benefit, but when combined with squats, they can significantly increase your heart rate and amplify the effects of your aerobic workout while building strength in both your upper and lower body.
6. Promotes muscle balance
Rather than focusing solely on the mirror muscles, full-body training requires a fairer division of labor between different muscle groups, which can help eliminate or prevent muscle imbalances.
Additionally, incorporating full-body training into your routine can prevent overtraining of specific muscles, reduce your risk of injury, and allow for more complete muscle recovery.
What to look for in a full body workout
How you structure your workout is important. When auditioning for a full-body workout, there are a few important things to consider.
appropriate fitness level
First, it’s important to choose workouts that match your fitness level to maintain proper form, minimize the risk of injury, and maximize results. Movements need to be challenging without causing failure in execution.
compound movements
Full-body training requires you to perform a variety of compound movements, both bodyweight and loaded. Compound movements work multiple joints and muscles simultaneously, or at least collectively, ensuring overall muscle activation.
resistance + aerobics
A balanced full-body workout typically combines strength and cardiovascular components to promote muscle growth (hypertrophy) and endurance, as well as aerobic capacity. For example, the workouts that make up the 80 Day Obsession combine weighted compound exercises with low- and high-intensity cardio intervals.
mobility training
Finally, full-body training should increase flexibility and mobility to ensure healthy joint movement through the fullest possible range of motion. Dynamic stretches, yoga-inspired movements, and actions on all three planes of movement not only help prevent injuries and improve overall performance, but also improve posture and reduce pain during daily tasks.
Can you do a full body workout every day?
Full-body training distributes the load evenly across muscle groups, but doing it every day is not recommended for everyone. Muscles need rest to recover and grow from the stress of exercise, and working the same muscle groups every day can lead to overtraining and injury.
Your ability to safely perform a full-body workout every day depends on several important factors.
- Strength: How hard are you working on each workout?
- interval: How long do you train each day?
- Training focus: Does the exercise have a big impact on your body or is it easy?
It is generally recommended to take rest days between full body workouts to allow for adequate recovery. However, if you exercise every day, consider varying the intensity and concentration of your exercise.
Most BODi programs are designed to be performed four to six times per week, depending on your goals and level of commitment. The workout type, length, and intensity required for each workout are taken into account to ensure you get the benefits of a full-body workout while minimizing the risk of overtraining.
How long should you do a full body workout?
There is no standard length for a full-body workout. However, you can save time by targeting multiple muscle groups at the same time, so it may not take as long as the workouts you’re used to.
Still, if you follow the intervals in the sample circuit below, the workout could take anywhere from 11 to 54 minutes to complete, depending on your fitness level and number of rounds completed.
How many exercises should a full-body workout include?
The number of exercises that make up a full-body workout will depend on your current fitness level, goals, and preferences, but you can complete a complete workout in as few as four movements.
To make sure your muscles don’t go un-strengthened, we’ve put together an eight-move workout below. However, if you want to save even more time, prioritize the number of rounds over the number of exercises and save the remaining movements for your next workout.
8 exercises for a full body workout you can do at home
- Before you begin, do 5 to 10 minutes of dynamic stretching.
- Follow the instructions in the table below to perform all eight movements as one circuit (that is, one set per round in the order shown).
- During each work interval, complete as many repetitions as possible with correct form.
| level | work interval | break between practices | rest between rounds | number of rounds |
| beginner | 20 seconds | 30 seconds | 2 minutes | 1-2 |
| Intermediate | 30 seconds | 20 seconds | 90 seconds | 2-3 |
| advanced | 50 seconds | 10 seconds | 60 seconds | 3-4 |
Device:
- dumbbell
- mat
- Stopwatch or interval timer app
1. Punching squat thrust
BODi training: Job 1 >> Week 1 >> HIIT It
- Get into an athletic position with your feet parallel to shoulder-width apart, your knees slightly bent, your torso upright, your hands balled into fists in front of your chest, and your elbows at your sides.
- Punch explosively with your left arm, quickly withdraw it, and immediately follow with your right arm. Repeat in quick succession.
- Squat down with your knees bent and hips bent, placing your palms on the floor in front of you.
- Keeping your back flat and core engaged, kick your legs back up to a push-up position. Keep your arms and body straight, with your hands in line with your shoulders and slightly wider than them.
- Jump your legs back to the starting position. That’s one rep.
2. Push up knee crunch
BODi training: JBYB >> Julien Daigre >> Strength and Flexibility 1
- Start in a high plank position. Keep your feet together, body straight from head to heels, and hands in line with (but slightly wider than) your shoulders.
- Lower your torso until your chest is within a few inches of the floor, then immediately push yourself back up to the starting position.
- Keeping your hips as horizontal as possible, bring your right knee closer to your right tricep and lower your right leg back to the floor.
- Complete the push-up on the other side as well, bringing your left knee closer to your left triceps. Return your left foot to the starting position. That’s one rep.
- Repeat this sequence the specified number of times.
3. Reverse lunge and squat
BODi training: DIG DEEPER >> No excuses >> Full body
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and hold a medium-weight dumbbell in front of your chest with both hands.
- Keeping your chest up and core engaged, take a large step back with your left foot and lower your body until your right thigh is parallel to the floor. Your left knee should be just above the ground.
- Maintaining the same position, return your left leg to the starting position, assuming a squat position, then push your body back up to the starting position.
- Repeat on the other side, stepping back with your right foot and continue alternating, performing the same repetitions on both sides.
4. Bird dog row
BODi training: 4 Weeks of Intensive >> Total Body Strength 2
- Get on all fours, place your left hand palm on the floor, and grab a light to medium weight dumbbell with your right hand. Make sure each hand is in line with your shoulder.
- Stretch your left leg back. This is the starting position.
- Keep your back flat and hips level, and lift your elbows up to rest your weight on your ribs.
- Slowly lower your weight back to the floor and repeat, then switch between rowing arms and extended legs. Perform the same repetitions on both sides.
5. From curls to high pulls
BODi training: Certain things >> Week 2 >> Strength of the combination
- Stand tall with a dumbbell in each hand at arm’s length, palms facing in (neutral grip).
- With your chest up and your elbows locked at your sides, wrap the weight around your shoulders and rotate it outward so your palms are facing you at the top of the movement (underhand grip).
- Flip your grip 180 degrees (to overhand), lower the weight to your thighs, and push your hips back, hinge forward slightly at your hips like you would in a deadlift descent, keeping the weight within an inch or two of your legs.
- Stand up with your back flat and core engaged, then quickly row the weight upwards in front of your torso until your elbows are at shoulder height.
- Slowly lower the weight back to the starting position.
6. Alternating side lunge push-offs
BODi training: BODi Lava >> Week 5 >> HIIT
- Stand with your feet hip-width apart and take a large step to the left with your left foot, keeping both feet parallel.
- Keeping your right leg straight, chest up, and back flat, bend your left knee, sit back at the hips, lower your body, and tap your right fingers on the floor inside your left foot.
- Maintaining the same upper body form, shift the lunge to the right, bending your right knee while extending your left knee, and tapping your left fingers on the floor on the inside of your right foot.
- With your core engaged, push off explosively with your right leg, balance lightly on your left leg, and kick out to the right with your right leg, clasping your hands over your left shoulder.
- Slowly land on your right foot and transition into another lateral lunge, keeping your left leg straight, bend your right knee, and tap the inside of your right foot on the floor again.
- Shift the lunge to the left, tap the floor, push off explosively with your left leg, balance lightly on your right leg, and kick out to the left with your left leg, clasping your hands over your right shoulder.
- Land slowly on your left foot. It’s one complete sequence.
- Alternate sides and repeat the same number of times on each side.
7. Commando Jack
BODi training: 6 Weeks of Training >> Week 4 >> Full Body Push/Pull
- Start in a high plank with your feet hip-width apart, your body straight from head to heels, and your hands in line with (but slightly wider than) your shoulders. option: Wrap a resistance band around your ankles.
- Without lowering or lifting your hips, shift your weight to your left hand and lower your right forearm to the floor, followed by your left forearm.
- Keeping your core engaged, jump your legs outward as if you were doing a horizontal jumping jack, then return to the starting position.
- Without bringing your shoulders closer to your ears, shift your weight to the left and place your right palm flat on the floor beneath your right shoulder.
- Keeping your body completely straight, shift your weight to the right, place your left palm flat on the floor, and return to a high plank with your arms straight. That’s one rep.
- Repeat this sequence, alternating which arm starts the movement on each rep.
8. Triple Bear
BODi training: LIIFT4 >> Week 7 >> Day 4: Full body Hiit
- Get on all fours with your feet together and your hands directly below your shoulders. Your knees should be bent 90 degrees below your hips and a few inches off the ground.
- Keeping your back flat and core engaged, move your legs together to the left, then back to center, then to the right.
- Bring your feet back to center. That’s one rep.
