Fullbody workout is great for beginners?

[al77]

I started lifting just 2-3 months ago, have been doing full body workout 2-2.5 times a week mixing everything I see in the gym (free weights\machines) and since I am a beginner it worked for me very well: I had some good relative gains.
So I have been doing 1 set of everything, totally maybe 1-3 sets per exercise, 5-10 reps. So it was quite low volume.

The problems started when I started reading more about lifting and somebody in the gym told me I should not do one set of biceps, than one set of chest press and then go back to biceps, than add some leg work etc.
I tried to do the 3-day split: very tough (muscle seem to forget what they did before) and see no gains. Tried some other simple splits, again it was too tough: no gains mostly.

When I tried to increse the weight (+5lb per each dumbell) and do it anyway with less reps... maybe 4 instead of 7-9 I slightly injured my shoulder.
I see this problem in other exercises too: when I do rows I don't have enough grip strength and the shoulder is feeling very weird.
When doing smith bench press my wrists are bending a lot and are stressed a lot but the weight is very low (150).
Ok, I included wrist curls, but what can I do strengthen my shoulder?

Should I just switch to full body workout I had been doing, and include more machines?
Or splits are way superior and I should stick to it?

 

[kmr89]

if you've been doing full body workouts for the past 2-3 months, i'm pretty sure you can start the splits, so yeah continue with them. as for the shoulders, try to make that the main focus of your workout because it sounds to me like its your shoulders that are holding you back. if you feel weird when doing bench press, try holding the bar closer to your palm and not your fingers. you could also try dumbbell bench presses, since itll work the stabilizer muscles, such as the shoulders.

 

[Un-Aru]

I originally posted this in bcherb2's powerlifting thread. Below are the exercises for your rotator cuffs, and these are the musles that stabilise your shoulder when you do any pressing movements. (or any movements at all) Think of it this way, your deltoid is the big muscle that you can see in your shoulder. The rotator cuffs are underneath it and more or less hold your shoulder together. Strengthen these muscles and you'll probably find your niggly shoulder will heal up, and you'll find bench and shoulder pressing much easier. They're difficult to explain but here we go...

1. Stand side on to a cable pulley with adjustable height. Your left shoulder pointing at the machine. Take your right arm and imagine you're holding your ribs after someone has given you a good crack in the side. This is the start point for your right arm. Holding the cable handle rotate your right arm away from your body. Visualisation: go from holding your bruised ribs to as if you're pointing a gun from someone. Your right elbow should never leave your side.

2. Stand with arms straight out to your sides at ear level. Bend you arms 90 degrees so your arms are still level with your ears but your hands are slightly in front of you with your palms facing down. This is the starting point. Rotate your shoulders so your hands are in the air, as if someone is pointing a gun at you and you want to show them you're unarmed. Your upper arm (bicep/tricep) should never move up or down, this way the rotator cuff does all the work. Now hold some light weights in your hands while you do this action. (can use cables as well)

3. For the previous 2 exercises, reverse the starting and finishing points (you'll also have to reverse your body positioning) and instead of 'pulling backwards', try 'pull forwards.'

 

[al77]

Originally posted by Un-Aru

2. Stand with arms straight out to your sides at ear level. Bend you arms 90 degrees so your arms are still level with your ears but your hands are slightly in front of you with your palms facing down. This is the starting point. Rotate your shoulders so your hands are in the air, as if someone is pointing a gun at you and you want to show them you're unarmed. Your upper arm (bicep/tricep) should never move up or down, this way the rotator cuff does all the work. Now hold some light weights in your hands while you do this action. (can use cables as well)

Un-Aru,

Thanks for the exercises. I want to make sure I got it right:
Hold the arms on the shoulder level (my ears are way above my shoulders!), at first arms are staright so hands are pointing in opposite directions, in directions of where my ears are "looking".
Now I have to bend my arms (forearms) in the way my hands are pointing forward (direction of where my eyes are pointing).
After that I lift my hands and rotate forearms until they are pointing upward.
Is that correct?

 

[manuva]

Hey Al

The best rotator cuff exercise I've found is to do pushups on a Swiss ball. Toes on the ground, palms face down on the unstable ball - you'll feel it in the rotator's immediately.

As far as full body workouts - they're fine. Many lifters (particularly on this site) will insist you must split from very early on, but in my professional experience, full body workouts will result in substantial growth in the first year of lifting. Basically, when you first start lifting, you're not strong enough to lift weights that demand a split. As your strength increases, the heavier weights will start taking a toll on your body and a split becomes a very viable option, but early on it is often just overkill.

If you are looking to progress your workout, try to eliminate all machines from your program, and replace machine exercises with freeweight exercises. A full body workout using freeweights will have fantastic benefits for your body.

Just remember to rest well and eat right - there's plenty of info here on eating properly if you need it.

Good luck!

 

[al77]

Originally posted by manuva

As far as full body workouts - they're fine. Many lifters (particularly on this site) will insist you must split from very early on, but in my professional experience, full body workouts will result in substantial growth in the first year of lifting. Basically, when you first start lifting, you're not strong enough to lift weights that demand a split.

If you are looking to progress your workout, try to eliminate all machines from your program, and replace machine exercises with freeweight exercises. A full body workout using freeweights will have fantastic benefits for your body.

Thanks for the clarification.
Thats how I felt about my workout now. It seems when you start it is beneficial to lift low volume (I do about 3-4 sets per exercise) with frequent workouts (sometimes I go to the gym 4 times a week).

If I stick to all body workout, it doesn't matter if I do sets in a row (lets say 3 for biceps) or I do them in a random way: 1 for biceps, 1 for triceps, 1 for legs, 1 for biceps etc.
What do you think?
I was told it doesn't matter except that I may need to repeat warm-up sets which means wasting time and energy.

 

[Un-Aru]

Thanks for the exercises. I want to make sure I got it right:
Hold the arms on the shoulder level (my ears are way above my shoulders!), at first arms are staright so hands are pointing in opposite directions, in directions of where my ears are "looking".
Now I have to bend my arms (forearms) in the way my hands are pointing forward (direction of where my eyes are pointing).
After that I lift my hands and rotate forearms until they are pointing upward.
Is that correct?

Exactly right...