Choosing between full body workouts and split routine workouts can be a challenge if you’re unfamiliar with the benefits and disadvantages of each one. The fitness community is full of people that advocate for full body workouts. However, split workouts have also remained popular over the years.

So let’s take a look at each one and uncover which workout type is better for you. 

What are full body workouts?

As their name implies, full body workouts are exercises that target multiple muscle groups or the full body. Common full body workouts include squats, bench presses, barbell rows, and dips.

Benefits of full body workouts

Full body workouts exercise more muscle fibers than split routine workouts. This releases more testosterone and growth hormones during workouts, which results in better muscle growth. Most people use full body workouts for this hormonal response.

Another advantage of using these workouts is that muscular gains are evenly spread across the body. This allows you to build a well balanced body that is aesthetically pleasing and feels evenly toned.

Disadvantages of full body workouts

Full body workouts do come with some drawbacks. People that follow full body workouts may have difficulty targeting and building muscle in a particular group. If your arms are undersized compared to the rest of your body, a full body workout may not be effective at balancing out your muscle proportions.

Full body workouts can also lead to overtraining, as the same muscles are targeted during each workout. This overtraining could eventually lead to long-term injuries. So people should be careful about doing full body workouts too often.

What are split routine workouts?

Split routines are workouts in which different muscle groups are targeted separately. Someone who is following a split routine regimen will typically do an upper body workout exercises one day, and then perform lower body workout exercises on another day.

Split routine workouts include chest and triceps exercises, and legs and shoulders exercises.

Benefits of split routine workouts

Split routine workouts allow you to focus on building specific muscle groups. So if you want to prioritize muscle growth in a particular area, you can do it easily.

You can also give certain muscle groups time to rest while you target other groups. This allows you to make gains as needed without risking overtraining.

Disadvantages of split routine workouts

Split routine workouts typically burn fewer calories than full body workouts. This is because  fewer muscles are in motion during split routine workouts.

Another drawback of split routine workouts are muscle imbalances. If you’re not careful about targeting each muscle group evenly, you may end up with significant gains in one muscle group, but little to no gains in another. This can cause your body to have an imbalanced appearance, and lead to posture and/or health problems.

Which one is right for me?

If your goal is to lose weight or gain muscle evenly, you should go for full body workouts. However, if you’d like to build a specific muscle group, whether for health or aesthetic reasons, you should opt for a split routine workout.

Full body workouts are also better for people that miss workout days often. But if you’re capable of sticking to your workout schedule, split routine workouts may be more suitable.