The 10 Rules of Total Body Workouts

The 10 Rules of Total Body Workouts
For the most part, the same guidelines of a free weight total body workout apply to the machine weight version. Just to recap, those guidelines are:

Body Workouts

Rule #1: Do only one exercise per muscle group.

Because you’ll be exercising every major muscle group during a total body workout, you will want to limit yourself to one exercise per muscle group.  While you might be tempted to throw in a second exercise, try to avoid it. Not only do additional exercises extend your time in the gym (negating one of the main benefits of a total body workout,) but they may leave you too fatigued by the end of your workout to perform the remaining exercises — especially the more demanding leg exercises.

Body Workouts

Rule #2: Do not perform the same exercise, for the same muscle group, two workouts in a row.

It’s important to work the muscle with a slightly different movement during each subsequent workout. For example, if you performed dumbbell shoulder presses on Monday’s workout, you’ll want to perform For example, if on Monday you used the seated shoulder press machine for shoulders, during your Wednesday workout (workout #2), you will want to perform a different shoulder exercise, perhaps cable front raises.  Your goal by weeks end will be to have performed three different exercises for each muscle group. This ensures that the muscles are worked from different angles each workout, which will improve your overall development and strength.

Body Workouts

Rule #3: Limit any given exercise to three sets per muscle group (an initial, light warmup set is okay, however.)

Because total body machine workouts will have you performing as many as 27 sets of various exercises by the time your 60 minute workout is completed, your overall set volume may be actually higher than if you have been on a split routine.  Performing more than three working sets per exercise increases your risk of overtraining, and will over-extend your time in the gym.  Additionally, by the time you’ve completed your three-day workout cycle, you’ll have performed a total of 12 working sets for each muscle group. This should be more than adequate for most trainees, regardless of experience level.

Body Workouts

Rule #4: Do not perform a total body workout routine two days in a row.

Providing enough rest and recovery time between each total body workout is critical, since you’ll be working every major muscle group in a single workout session. This places more demands on your body and central nervous system, so you need to give yourself at least 48 hours recovery time between total body workouts. If you still want to hit the gym seven days a week, perform cardio on the non-weight training days, or break your ab workouts out and do them on the off days along with the cardio.

Rule #5: Choose machines that encourage compound movements

While it’s not as easy to perform compound exercises (exercises that require at movement at two or more joints for execution of the the exercise) on weight machines, it is possible.

If you have cable machines available (especially FreeMotion exercise machines), these machines can closely replicate free weight movements.  Chest press machines, leg press machines, lat pulldowns, overhead shoulder press machines and pull-up/dip stations all allow you to perform compound exercises. Whenever possible, avoid machines that isolate muscle groups — things like leg extension or lying hamstring curl machines, back extension machines or ab machines.

Rule #6: Use a weight that allows you to perform between six and eight reps.

You can play around with the rep ranges to emphasize strength (lower reps, higher weight), muscle size or endurance (lower weight, higher reps — as high as 20 per set), however, this total body workout uses rep ranges that target both muscle size (hypertrophy) and muscle strength.

If this is your first experience with a total body workout, try to utilize the 6-8 rep range (go no higher than ten reps per set) to build a solid foundation. After about six weeks, you can substitute a lower rep or higher rep workout to change things up and keep your progress rolling.

Body Workouts

Rule #7: Eat smart, often and at the right times

Because total body workouts are intense and place extra energy demands on your body to fuel both your workout and your recovery, you will want to make sure you are paying extra attention to what you eat — especially your pre- and post-workout meals.  

Try to eat a balanced diet, made up of 5-7 small meals (including healthy snacks) spread as evenly as possible across the day. Those meals should contains plenty of protein, some healthy fats from things like olive oil and nuts, as well as slow-digesting sources of complex carbohydrates (things like oatmeal, whole grains, etc.)

Try to eat a small meal with slow digesting carbs and lean protein one hour before your workout. Follow your workout up as soon as possible with a fast digesting source of protein,  whey protein  and some simple carbs. This combination will help with the post-workout recovery process.

Rule # 8: Reduce Rest Time Between Sets

Because of the volume of sets associated with total body workouts, you will want to minimize the rest time between sets if you want to get through the workout in under 60 minutes.  In other words, try to keep moving. This is also beneficial for post-workout fat loss and can help keep your metabolism amped up during the circuit. Limit rest time between sets to no more than 60 seconds, if possible. Or, try performing another exercise for a different muscle in-between other exercise sets (this is known as a super set.)  

For example, if you just completed a set of chest presses on a chest press machine, instead of resting on the machine for 60 seconds, immediately move to the pull-up station and perform a set of pull-ups for your back. Return then to the chest press machine and perform your second set of chest exercises.  If you workout at a particularly congested gym, this may not be possible without losing your machine. If that’s the case, then simply go with the shorter rest period approach.  

Super-setting or keeping your rest periods to under 60 seconds will keep your heart rate elevated, which is good for fat burning, and will allow you to complete this workout in less than 60 minutes.

Body Workouts

Rule #9: Watch the order of your exercises

Yes, order matters. Since you are training all of your major muscle groups with a total body workout, you’ll need to pay attention to the order in which you perform some of the exercises. The prevalence of compound movements in total body workouts means that you’ll not only be calling on the main muscle group you are targeting, but also a smaller stabilizer muscles, to successfully execute the movement.

Generally, you’ll want to stay away from working smaller muscles like triceps and biceps early in your workout, since they are heavily recruited during pressing and pulling exercises — things like chest presses, shoulder presses, pull-ups and rows.  If you perform tricep or bicep movements first, these smaller muscles can be pre-fatigued and give out early during the large pressing and pulling exercises. This may cause you to fail early, and not fully fatigue the muscle you are actually targeting.  

It’s also a good idea to leave ab or lower back exercises until last in your workout (or at least until after demanding leg exercises like leg presses), since your core is heavily recruited to stabilize and balance you during these types of movements.  This is less of a concern with total body workouts that rely on machines, since core recruitment is less than with free weights.  Still it’s a good practice to get in the habit of, especially if you plan on switching to free weights eventually.   

Rule #10: Change it up!

While initially you should try to follow the order, exercises used and rep and set ranges of this total body workout routine as closely as possible, you’ll eventually need to make changes to keep growing. Performing the same workout routine, with the same exercises, for months on-end is a surefire way to hit a plateau fast.

It’s a good idea to change up any workout routine — whether total body or split routines — every six to eight weeks. The changes don’t have to be dramatic — sometimes simply changing the rep ranges, rest periods, order of certain exercises (taking into consideration some of the things discussed in Rule # ) or performing a different variation on a given exercise, is all that it takes to jumpstart your workout again.

After about six weeks on this routine, you can even try something known as adulating periodization. This is actually just a fancy name for changing your workout up each session to emphasize a different goal. For example, one workout you would perform your exercises in the strength range (4-6 reps) and the next workout, lighten the weight at perform as many as 20-25 reps for each exercise instead. This has been shown to be extremely effective at preventing training plateaus, as well encouraging more complete development and overall fitness.