Although we a priori talk about routines that share the same purpose: muscular hypertrophy, the fact is that if we consider other factors such as a specific goal, personal needs or the combination of weight training with another sport discipline, the correct choice between a full-body routine or a torso-leg can offer us certain benefits.

When we set an objective we must know, first of all, what is based on each of the routines we doubt, their main differences and what are the advantages that each of them offers us depending on what we are looking for. For this reason today we analyze full-body Vs torso-leg: when and how to apply each one.

Basics of a full-body routine

• What we work : The full-body routine works all muscle groups in each workout, i.e. work both torso and leg: quadriceps, femoral, gluteal, dorsal, trapezius, pectoral, core, arms, shoulders … Generally, in this type of routines, are always used multi-articular exercises, involving several joints, and that involves a work in all muscles synergists.
  For example, if we work the chest at the same time and as a consequence we will work the triceps and the shoulder. Another example would be the practice of squatting where, consistently, we work a lot of muscles more at the same time.
• Frequency and rest: when we speak of full-body, we speak of a routine of high frequency where it is trained three times a week each muscular group. It is recommended that when we do full-body routines let a day of rest between training and training to optimally recover our muscles and central nervous system (CNS).

• Training pattern : in each session we work at high intensity all muscle groups, often leading to technical failure or even muscle failure (range of repetitions from six to twelve). Full-body training is primarily aimed at muscle hypertrophy.

Bases of a torso-leg routine

• What we work: As its name indicates, the torso-leg routine trains torso and leg on alternate days , that is, one day we train torso and the next day we focus on working leg. The most notable difference with the full-body routine is that, as we have explained, in this one we will not train all muscle groups in the same session.
• Frequency and rest: in this case, the rest space we do once we have finished the torso-leg cycle, ie on Monday we can do torso, Tuesday leg and Wednesday (we have already completed the cycle) we would rest. In this routine we would not need to rest after each day of training because when working in each session separate groups, which do not involve synergy, we can train in sessions in a row.
  The torso-leg routine has an average frequency where you work two times a week each muscle group. Recall that in the full-body we worked three times weekly, which involved more frequent training.

• Training pattern : One day we will train heavily the leg and in the next session we will work in a light way. The same will happen when we train torso sessions: a heavy day and a light day .
  The days of heavy training will introduce high intensity with higher loads, while lightweight days will reduce weights (always maintaining a certain load) but increase the volume of work by doing more repetitions.

In the next second full-body routine Vs torso-leg routine, we will tell you when to choose one or another type of training based on the objective that we want to achieve and taking into account other aspects that may condition the way of prioritizing exercises based on our needs personal information.
If you want to follow the routine that suits you: do not miss it!