The ideal plan is to go to the gym or exercise at home three or four times a week, each day targeting a different body part or muscle groups. That way, all parts of your body get an equal amount of physical activity and develop muscles and strength at more or less the same rate.
However, ideal rarely ever happens in practice. Devoting that much time to fitness and exercise is just difficult to do unless you are an athlete or a professional fighter whose exact job happens to be getting in shape. This is good news for about 1% of the population. Now, for most of us who have tasks, errands, businesses, work, kids, and other responsibilities to juggle, religiously sticking to such a routine is hard.
Luckily, we can always switch to full-body training. These workouts require you to make complex movements that target several muscle groups at the same time. It is also great for building strength, losing weight, and improving your muscular and cardiovascular health. In this article, we discuss the main benefits of full-body training.
1. It improves body and muscle strength.
The key to having a stronger body is to perform exercises that require you to deal with as much weight as possible. Compound exercises are tested and proven to improve muscular strength. Even the simplest ones, such as bench presses, deadlifts, and squats, have been proven to deliver great results in terms of strength enhancement. This is because they require way more total-body movement than other drills. You can also opt for variations of those mentioned exercises according to any specific need or muscle groups you want to target. Adding these to your regular routine will help you build strength right away without any fuss, and you will begin to notice differences quickly.
2. It allows you to get the most workout in the least amount of time.
As we mentioned earlier, not everyone has the luxury of having enough time to religiously stick to an exercise program. Most of the time, we do not even have a program! We just go to the gym or prepare a mat and some dumbbells at home whenever we have the time to spare. And by time to spare, we mean less than an hour. If that is the case, would you stubbornly opt to do a few repetitions of single-joint exercises or would you finally give in and do a multi-joint exercise? Full-body exercises are the perfect choice in such scenarios. Exercises such as spinning also provide awesome benefits, especially if you have a short time to exercise. Owning your own spinning equipment can go a long way in ensuring that you get in that 30 hour of exercise daily instead of having to run to gym. In so little time, you get to train several muscle groups.
3. Full-body training does not just benefit your body on the outside.
The physical results of full-body exercises do not stop on the surface, or even at the muscles. These workouts do not just make you strong or aesthetically pleasing. Full-body training keeps you healthy. For example, exercise is known to reduce your risk of heart disease and helps keep your blood pressure in check. This is precisely why they are recommended for those recovering from stroke and other heart-related diseases. They are also believed to help prevent diseases like several types of cancers, diabetes, arthritis, sleeping disorders, gastrointestinal problems, and even kidney issues.
Full-body exercises also help improve the health of your bones, which is especially helpful as you reach middle age. Resistance training is a good option if this is your goal. They strengthen muscles and bones effectively while keeping blood flow and oxygen flow at optimum levels.
4. It keeps your brain happy.
Full-body workout benefits your mental health just as much as it does your physical health. The physical activity you get from these exercises help preserve clarity and can even stimulate neuron growth and activity. These, in turn, help prevent the degenerative effects of aging on the brain.
Full-body workouts also help with hormonal response. When you exercise, your brain releases endorphins, which have come to be known as the “happy chemical,” which improves your mood and helps prevent depression. The physical work also stimulates testosterone and growth hormone production and release. These factors indirectly improve the formation of muscles and the burning of fat.
5. Full-body training allows you to burn more calories in a short time.
Time is always of the essence. Even as you work out, you are constantly bothered by the hundreds of things you have not yet ticked off of your task list. The good thing about full-body workouts is that they let you burn more calories than single-joint exercises. How do they do that? When you have to move several muscle groups at the same time (as in compound exercises), your body needs more energy to coordinate and provide a healthy flow of oxygen to the parts of your body that will be working out. If your goal is general fitness or fat burning, full-body exercises are the way to go.
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Author Bio: Billy Smith is a writer, fitness junkie, trekker, hiker, tech geek and adventurer extraordinaire. Having worked in the IT field for over 10 years, Billy now spends a lot of his time writing to inspire people to adopt a healthy lifestyle and to use technology responsibly. As the founder of Checkcorner.com, it is Billy’s endeavor to provide people with the best information and tools to transform their lives.
