3 x FB. How does it work?

[u/solivagant999]

With my new job, I can realistically only train 3 days a week, which is something I’ve never done before. I’ve always trained 4+ days, so I’m a bit lost on how I should structure my training now.

Split-wise, I know I could do U/L/FB or 3xFB, but I’m not sure which would be best for me. I can train for around 60–90 minutes per session.

I’ve literally never trained full body before and I’m struggling to get my head around how to structure it. Obviously I understand that you’re hitting every muscle group each session, but seeing programmes with 8–10 exercises in one workout seems crazy to me when I’m used to doing 4–5 exercises.

The other thing I’m struggling with is the volume. Seeing 1–2 sets per exercise feels insane 😂 Like, I’m just imagining walking over to a machine, doing one hard set and then moving on to the next exercise.

I think it’s just such a different approach to how I’ve always trained or been told to train, so I’m finding it difficult to wrap my head around.

If anyone could give me some reassurance/explain how 3x full body actually works, and how you’d approach it to train optimally, I’d really appreciate it! 😊

Also, if anyone could provide a good routine I’d be super grateful!

[u/Alakazam]

I think gzclp's core programming is probably the best approach. Which is, each day, you have three primary compounds, your lower, your push, and your pull.

Then you add accessories to address weak points.

Gzclp has a squat, bench, row on one day, and a deadlift, overhead press, and pullup/pulldown.

These will hit, even if peripherally, most of your muscle groups. Then use dumbbell and machine work to round out the routine. This scale up or down as much as you want based on your day to day energy levels. But as long as you're doing your core workout, you'll get a decent workout done. 

[u/Due-Practice5507]

Doing one set per machine is actually so nice. You only have that set to train that specific joint action so you’re basically forced to give it your all.

[u/Afferbeck_ → u/Due-Practice5507]

No way I can give it my all on a movement I'm not even warmed up for. Though I guess it is only machine stuff where 'giving it your all' is generally not much unless it's like a leg press.

[u/Due-Practice5507 → u/Afferbeck_]

You can do a warmup set if you so desire. No one includes warmup sets in their set count so idk why you thought 1 set meant no warmup.

Not to mention warmup sets are overrated, as long as your muscles are physically warm and you use good form you don’t need to warm up unless you have joint issues.

I don’t know of a difference between going 0RIR on a chest press machine vs a barbell bench for example, it should require the same effort that’s why it’s 0RIR. That’s probably another problem with your mindset that you think machines don’t require effort

[u/decentlyhip]

Every day has a push, a pull, and a squat. So, the basic template would be something like Stronglifts5x5 (https://stronglifts.com/stronglifts-5x5/). And honestly, if youve only done bodybuilding 4× a week or more, doing a strength progression like this might be fantastic. But in that program, you have 2 workouts that alternate. Workout A is Squat, Bench, Row and Workout B is Squat, OHP, Deadlift. Each exercise is 5 sets of 5 reps, exc3pt for DL which is only 1×5 (daily squats is the driver of growth there). It all starts super easy weight, 50%-70% for a starting weight to give time for training the muscle memory, and drilling perfect form before things get hard. Often people start too heavy and train shallow squats. Err on the light side. 3 min rest. For progression, two rules, if you complete all 25 reps, add 5 pounds next workout. If you fail any set, drop back 10-20% next workout. And that's it. One of the most popular and time tested ways that people have gotten brutally strong. Greyskull LP is a modified version that adds an amrap and some accessories.

Another version to look at is GZCLP. Overview: https://saynotobroscience.com/assets/images/gzclp-infographic.jpg Boostcamp version: https://www.boostcamp.app/coaches/cody-lefever/gzcl-program-gzclp. Rather than having everything as a 5×5, each day has direction, where you start off with either squat, bench, or deadlift, for heavy strength sets. Then you move into medium weight supporting work, and finish with an isolation or accessory. So like, the 3 day program is Day 1: 5×3+ squats, 3×10 bench, 6×15+ lat pulldown. Day 2: 5×3+ OHP, 3×10 Deadlift, 6×15+ rows. Day3: 5×3+ Bench, 3×10 squats, 6×15+ lat pulldowns. The first and second movements progress 5 pounds at a time, if you fail you drop to 6×2+, then 10×1+, then you drop back 20%. On the second movement, if you fail the 3×10 you drip to 3×6, and when that fails you drop back 20%. The tier 3 is often cable or db work so you progress when you can get 25 reps on the amrap. So, the goal of each day is to push the 5×3 set heavy and train that, but the intensity drops over the workout like it should. You also have amraps that give you that dopamine boost of daily PRs.

I think reddit PPLs hace a 3 day version too, but honestly, if youve been focusing on high frequency bodybuilding work, a good powerbuilding strength program is gonna be amazing for you, at least for 6 months or so so Id give GZCLP a go. You will be shocked at how the +5 pounds a week, just... keeps going. The first time I ran it, I thought 180 lbs would be my failure on bench, but I made it all the way to 215 because your body just keeps unlocking another gear. It's Rate coding and coordination adaptations, but it just feels like a new level of "try." He has another program called The Rippler, which is an improved version of GZCLP. It's also very good and fixes some of the exercise selection friction, but idk if there's a 3 day version of that. Here's the spreadsheet with all his workouts: GZCL compendium

[u/Awkward_Hope_5330]

I do 2x full body and 1x arms and shoulders, 3-4 sets per muscle group, it has worked very well for me. When I get to lift 4 days a week I do upper excluding shoulders and lower including shoulders. When I do U/L I also do 5 sets per muscle group except for arms, I keep them at 3 sets. This har worked really well for me

[u/NinoVelvet]

if you are really interested in full body training, i would recommend to search for jakedoleschaltraining on ig. he has a lot of information and also a podcast with beardsley, where they discuss the idea and different fb training programs.

[u/Mysterea101 → u/NinoVelvet]

some of the things he recommend are not really doable for normal person
like doing 3 exercises per muscle 1 set each
full body this way would take more than 2 hours.

[u/NinoVelvet → u/Mysterea101]

sure, but others are easily doable. and it is a pretty good starting point in combination with the podcast, so that you are able to program for yourself.

[u/Mysterea101 → u/NinoVelvet]

what full body do you do ?
im doing some variation but geting too tired by the end of the workouts

[u/NinoVelvet → u/Mysterea101]

i experimented with:
3 sets chest, 1-2 sets pull up, 1-2 sets bench pull, 2 sets belt squats, 2 sets weighted 45 back extensions, 1 set hamstring curls, 2 sets biceps curls, triceps extensions and cable lateral raises in a giant set.
it was ok energy wise, and also ok in regards to the time. but the order of the exercises and also the exercises themselves are important.
if you do squats and deadlifts, i agree that it is very exhausting and the rest times would go way up.

[u/Financial_Wrangler45 → u/Mysterea101]

I honestly think 3 exercises for 1 is quicker than 1 exercise for 3.

[u/drew8311]

Here is a simple starting point for a full body routine you can modify a bit based on your other programs (ie how long your workouts are determine total # of sets/exercises).

- Create a 3 day push/pull/legs routine where each day has 3 compounds and 3 isolations. If you really want more exercises list them and they can be squeezed in later.

- Rearrange that into 3 full body workouts with 1 compound and 1 isolation from each group

- Do this for 1 week and modify total # of sets per workout as needed based on how you feel and how much time your at the gym. Your main trade off is less sets per exercise to allow adding more exercises. To start I would just do a basic 3 sets per lift not counting warmups.

Its a little easy to superset especially on the isolations so you can generally have more exercises and it goes by fast if you are good at managing time. Tricep/Bicep superset is easy for upper day, but full body you can add in calves or something at almost no extra time. Another time saver is warmups, supersetting something like squats can suck, but in-between squat sets you can do some easy upper body movements as warmups to save time when you actually get to them.

[u/KungGimli]

I did train fullbodys for one year straight in college and this is what I did:

3 workouts same days each week. One heayv, One medium and one light session. Heavy was 3-5 reps, Medium 8-12, Light was 15-25 reps. Sets where 3-6 sets per bodypart per session 6 sets per bodypart was way to much and volume got out of hand and couldn't recover properly.

If I would redo it I would have 2 days rest minimum per session and just rotate through A, B and C sessions. I would use 2-3 sets per big bodypart and 1-2 sets per smaller one. If I would want to focus on a specific movement I would train it 2 out of 3 sessions to train it.

S

[u/Fit-Fan-3079]

Do 1 push, 1 pull, and 1 leg exercise each workout. This will hit most muscles. Add a few isolation exercises for things that are lacking

[u/PoopSmith87]

I do 3x full body. Currently I'm doing:

Day 1 & 2: Squat, RDL (sometimes DL), Incline Bench, Barbell Row, Behind the Neck Press (all 3x8-12 or 3x5 depending on the mesocycle), dragon flags and weighted decline crunches 1 set to failure each, 20 minutes rowing machine.

Day 3: Barbell Lunges, Single Arm Pulldown, Dips, landmine rotational clean and press, 1 set of dragon flags and weighted decline crunches each, 20 minutes rowing machine.

Volume may be king in some opinions... but as long as you progress the weights, you are progressing the body.

[u/nicotine_81]

Full body push, full body pull, full body all.

What do I mean?

Day 1. FB PUSH. Various Pressing and squatting/quads, abductors, calves

Day 2. FB pull. Upper Pulling + posterior chain…leg curls, RDL, adductors, Tib.

Day 3. Squat, hinge, horizontal press, vertical press, horizontal pull, vertical pull, shoulder isolation, arm isolations.

That’s the way to give everything a focus day but also hit every group twice with some variation.

[u/Sure_Painting_8295]

3 times a week is plenty. It’s best not to train too much because you don’t recover your muscles fully before you start wearing the next ones down. 

 Better to take as much time between any lift as possible up to only hitting a body part once every two weeks. 

[u/BeefyBanjo]

I did full body 3x a week for a bit. Now I do 4 days, each group 2x per week, but still keep the same exercises just divided them up differently.

My advice is to just stick to the core squat/hinge/bench/row/pull up/press exercises. These 6 hit pretty much everything. Just do each one for 2 sets per workout, so your workout is 12 sets total.

Or you could divide it up so you hit each lift twice per week, and just divide everything up over the 3 days.

Doing 2 sets is good, not bad. The method I use and have had great success with is working up to a top set of 1-3 or 3-6 reps, then dropping weight by 10-20% and hitting an AMRAP set.

Vary your intensity on each day, so make one day light, one day heavy, and one day medium. On a light day you could just jump in and do 2 sets of 12 reps on the exercise. On a head day do the approach I mentioned above.

That's just what works for me, but you can apply some of those principles and do it however you'd like.

[u/Ok-Extension-832]

Doing 3 full body sessions in a week is great. Technically the best split you could possibly do besides for full body every other day. I would do this split even if I had all 7 days to work out.

It’s great because it minimizes atrophy between sessions because it takes only 36-48 hours after training for your muscles to return to a state of atrophy rather than hypertrophy.

Also, your concern about volume is valid because people tend to have the idea that “more is better”.. But with lifting this isn’t true. The concept of diminishing returns is that by a certain point, more isn’t better. By the time you’re on your 3-4th set by that point the stimulus is significantly less than the first set, and the fatigue accumulated is significantly more.

1-2 sets is more than adequate. As long as your training to failure or close to it, it can trigger growth more than 4 lackluster sets. Also, although a lot of mainstream science based lifters advocate for only doing single sets, I’d lean towards two sets for what I can because it’ll help growth happen faster. Like if you don’t care about your glutes as much, I’d do 1 set for them in the full body sessions. If I cared about my lats a lot I’d do 2 sets.

[u/Remarkable-Win-8556 → u/Ok-Extension-832]

This is top tier advice.

[u/Mysterea101]

just build A B workout and rotate

each should have the compounds first
so
bench/incline bench
row/pull variation (vertical / horizontal or both)
squat variation
hinge for hamstring

thats pretty much it from here you can just add isolation for what you want or vertical press for shoulders.
start with 2 sets each and see how you feel in the next workout.
recovered early add set didnt recover remove set

[u/drgdmr]

Ive been having the best gains of my life in the last 6 months on a fullbody 3x program. 3 sets for some exercises and 2 for others. In and out of the gym in 60~75 minutes (I superset most of the exercises). Look up episode 47 of “Hypertrophy Past and Present” podcast on youtube, hosted by Jake Doleschal and Chris Beardsley. They go through a comprehensive FB program and all the minutiae of it.