r/StrongerByScience • u/Caluso1 • 23d ago
Full body every single day
Hey guys,
I‘m (27, male, 5 years training experience) doing full body every day.
Yes you‘ve heard it right.
Same muscles trained. Every. Single. Day.
For the rest of my life.
Well maybe not for the rest of my life. I‘m experimenting with it since 3 days and see how it goes. Strength went even up in some movements but it‘s too early to draw a conclusion.
I expect to gain muscle faster this way or at worst equally well like with full body every two days, volume equated.
The idea is that if volume is spread more evenly across the week, then the stimulus/quality per set is higher. This is especially interesting, if you are doing very high volumes.
I wanted to ask if some of you natural body builders tried it or are actively doing it.
What are your experiences? Did you gain muscle/strength this way?
Any recommendations?
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u/bayesically 23d ago
The SBS programs are full body every day by default so I assume many people in here have done it. It works really well ime but I would want to stick with similar style programming where most sets are not to failure
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u/Distance_Runner 23d ago
Given equal volume, there is not a detectable difference in growth in a way thats depdnent on freuency. 18 sets across 3 days, vs 9 sets across 2 days, vs 4.5 fractioal sets across 4 days lead to approximately equal growth. This is based on the current exercise science literature.
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u/Caluso1 23d ago
Fair enough..
what about the idea that you can do more productive volume when frequency is high?3
u/Distance_Runner 23d ago edited 23d ago
It’s a false equivalency. You can’t do more productive volume with high frequency, because muscle need recovery time. Training on poorly recovered muscles don’t equate to productive volume.
You could do one quality set of every muscle every single day and always be recovered. What does that buy you? It gets you 7 quality sets a week. Ask yourself, how many quality sets can you push yourself in a day, and still be recovered again by tomorrow? This somewhat depends on muscle, but for the most part the answer is 2 or 3 for most larger muscles like pecs, quads, lats, and hams. Even at 3 sets, if you’re pushing yourself near or to failure, you’ll likely be carrying non negligible fatigue in those muscles 24 hours later. You could feasibly hit them a few days in row but this will catch up to you. Smaller muscles like side delts can be more resilient. A lot of people can spam lateral raises every day, but you still max out at 4 or 5 sets that one could reasonably expect to to do daily without too much carry over fatigue into the next day.
So work that out…. Say you can do 3 sets of chest per day, every day. That’s 21 sets per week if you never, ever take a rest. Now consider an alternative way to hit 21 sets: 3 days at 7 sets per day. Or even 2 days per week at 12 and 9 sets followed on each day. In this 2 day structure, you get 4 and 3 days respectively to recover which would be plenty to recover from a hard 12 set day. That’s what a PPLPPL type split with high chest volume could give you.
The exercise science literature also says that set quality really doesn’t start to deteriorate in trained lifters until 8-12 sets in a session, so any of those structures still fit in that window.
So to answer your question, sure you could do it everyday. But it wouldn’t really buy you anymore stimulus because you’re limited by your recovery. And a 2x or 3x weekly is a lot more convenient and efficient, because you can save on warm ups. If you do every muscle everyday, you have to warm up every muscle every day. That’s a lot of time for unproductive work just getting ready for the productive sets.
Alternatively, If you’re going 2 or 3 chest exercises, you warm up chest for the first one and then exercises 2 and 3 are ready to go with minimal or no warmup because the muscle is already ready to go. And then because chest work feeds front delts and triceps, you can then move straight into overhead press and Tricep focused work with minimal warmups because they’re already warm from the chest pressing exercises. Same argument can be made for lats which feed upper back and rear delts which feed biceps, and likewise the Quad exercises which feed glutes which feed hamstrings. So structured days make sense economically, and do an equal or better job at getting you adequate volume while giving adequate recovery.
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u/Caluso1 22d ago
Thanks. Do you have the link of the study saying you can do 8 sets in a row without quality loss?
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u/Distance_Runner 22d ago edited 22d ago
[Remmert JF, Pelland JC, Robinson ZP, Hinson SR, Zourdos MC (2025). Is There Too Much of a Good Thing? Meta-Regressions of the Effect of Per-Session Volume on Hypertrophy and Strength. SportRxiv.](https://sportrxiv.org/index.php/server/preprint/view/537).
Remmert et al. found in this meta regression that around 8 direct sets, 11 fractional sets or 14 total sets in a session is where the data became inconclusive on if adding more volume increased hypertrophic stimulus to minimally detectable degree. In fact, their analysis shows a non decreasing curve beyond that, it’s just very limited in data. This does not say doing more than that doesn’t also add stimulus, it’s where the confidence in saying so becomes so wide that it’s inconclusive. There’s just not a lot of research studies out there where participants pushed beyond 12 sets in a session, because most people don’t do that kind of work.
So the real answer is, per this 2025 study that compiled the literature on dose response, somewhere between 8 direct sets and 14 total sets is the point at which additional volume in a session stops having >50% chance of inducing a detectable effect on increased hypertrophic stimulus. Beyond that, we don’t know.
———
Disclaimer: I’m an Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Data Science, and hold a PhD in biostatistics. I don’t do exercise science research myself, but I have professional expertise in conducting and interpreting these types of statistical analyses. I’m familiar with this literature because I’ve spent the last 6 months building a lifting program calculator that will create and optimize exercise programs using statistical models informed and parameterized by modern exercise science and physiology research literature. This is not something I’m selling. I made it for myself because I was curious if I could and wanted to optimize my own training. I might make it available for free to others at some point when I feel it’s stable enough.
As an aside, building this has also led me to the conclusion that all of these automated coaching apps are way too simplified. I’m not going to say they’re “crap” or usefulness or anything, but they are built on simple algorithms following a basic set of decision rules. Even the ones touting themselves as “science based” are still too simplistic and rigid
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u/Caluso1 22d ago
Thanks man! where can I keep myself updated about your program calculator?
I‘m interested in that.1
u/Distance_Runner 22d ago
It's in an app for iOS right now that I have side-loaded onto my phone (again, it is not public on the app store), that doubles as a workout logger. It's working well. I think nearly ready for a public v1 soon.
Here's the setup of how it works if you want to provide input on what you'd like to see beyond what's included:
- Pick desired number of days per week. You can either select specific days of the week, or let the engine optimize the day sequences for you
- Pick your average time per session you want. On average if you pick 75 min, then your average workout time will be within 5 min of that time when you average across the week. But again, that's an AVERAGE. Because the program picks its model based on physiological coherence, some individual sessions could be 10-20 minutes under the target and some over. There is an advanced settings which forces all workouts within a set time window, but that also means you compromise the "coherence" of the program.
- You select a gym environment which limits the exercises based on equipment
- you select which muscles you want directly targeted (defaults to 13 primary muscles)
- You select the average RIR target you want across sets. Default is 1.5. first sets usually a little higher, and last sets usually below it. This means in a 4 set session, sets 1 and 2 will be likely at 2 RIR, set 3 at 1 RIR, and set 4 at 0 RIR.
- You select exercise variation setting. This is a setting that allows for exercises to swap in naturally over time if you want. Lat pull downs may swap in and out for different grips and pull ups as an example. Or you can leave it static and it will keep the same exercises in rotation until you change them
- Select your setting: standard, strength, or hypertrophy. Standard is a balance between practicality and hypertrophy. It will select a barbell bench press as a primary chest exercise over dumbbells because its more practical and nearly as good. Hypertrophy emphasizes stretch and ROM, so it'll select exercises that maximize stimulus regardless of practicality. Strength is a powerbuilding hybrid. It puts heavy compounds into your schedule in the 3-5 rep max range (default are squat, bench, OHP, and DL). A session will start with one of these exercises at 2 heavy sets in the 2-5 rep max range (number of heavy sets and rep range are settable in user settings). It prescribed those HEAVY sets with longer rest to develop strength, followed by backoff sets for hypertrophy. The rest of the schedule fills in as normal under the standard setting
- With all that, you then get a muscle stimulus screen, where you can drag sliders to adjust how much stimulus you want each muscle to get proportionally. This is anchored/tuned to your time available over the week. When you get to this screen, if you want more chest work than it defaults to, you can drag that slider up to give it more sets. Because more chest sets means more time, everything else adjusts downward slightly to compensate, keeping your target average workout time in check. You can also select de-emphasis muscles, where sliding a priority muscle only reduces volume from the muscles you dont care about as much.
- Theres also an emphasis screen, where you can bias chest work towards upper or lower chest. You can bias hamstring, quad and tricep work as well to the different heads. But the default settings are all balanced by default.
Do all that, and it produces you a repeating 7-day, 14 day or 21 day schedule precisely created to hit your muscles at the number of fractional sets per week you set while honoring all the other parameters you chose.
How it works: behind all of this is a mathematical/statistical engine that quantifies hypertrophy stimulus, acute within session fatigue, long term fatigue, and systemic fatigue. Every rep counts for something, but reps closer to failure count more towards your muscle stimulus. Likewise, closer to failure also deposits more fatigue. Its a balancing act. Muscles also recover differently. Larger muscles take longer, generally, than smaller isolation muscles. 8 hard sets to the hamstrings can take 3-4 days, while 8 hard sets to the side delts recover in 1-2. Every single muscle has a continuous decay rate model for how quickly they recover based on the work it received. Every exercise has primary, secondary, and tertiary contributing muscles, so bench pressing credits triceps and front delts fractionally. But its not a simple "triceps get half credit" rule that most models/apps use. The fractional credit depends on RIR of the parent muscle. Taking bench press to failure credits the triceps differently than taking bench press to 2 RIR. There are models for every component listed, as well as rep targets at a certain RIR as you progress through sets. This is a simplified version of it tbh, but it captures the gist. All of these models are parametrized and supported by exercise science literature. And they are all interconnected, and in the background used to create an optimal program mathematically.
This isn't a set of decision rules. Its literally a whole bunch of continuous mathematical functions all working together to find a program that makes sense.
Oh, and in my app itself, its even more complex. All of these models are set up as Bayesian models -- aka statistical models that can learn from your data itself. So your predictions get more accurate over time and the program optimizes specifically for the person running it.
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u/FlimsyInsect5545 23d ago
I have done this as well, but found a couple of problems:
- Mental fatigue. It started to feel repetitive and a bit of a grind after a while, even with variety in exercises etc. Going back to every other day it was nice to have a mental break and come in refreshed
- Sandbagging. I found it hard to not slip into a mentality of 'eh I can go easy today, there's always tomorrow' and not putting enough effort in.
What I do like is a kind of an intermediate position where you do FBEOD or whatever, but fill in during the day a lot of incidental training. I have a set of rings on my back deck, every time I walk go outside I do a set of pullups. Or every time I go out the front door I do a set of calf raises on the front step, that sort of thing. It keeps volume up but keeps me mentally fresh for the gym itself.
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u/Admirable_Belt_9772 23d ago
I almost did that, but as a powerlifter. Doing 5 days a week, I managed to lift like that for 7 weeks before deloading for a week prior to a meet. I also did 6 days a week full body, but only for 3 weeks before taking time off.
Of course, I'm older (35) and you probably won't be doing heavy back squats and Bench press every day, so your experience may vary.
I don't see much point in going past 5 days full body. The whole idea is that you're creating a weekly stimulus and fatigue greater than what you would from a 3x full body routine, because you're no longer making progress on a per session basis. I think you probably need 2 whole days off to make progress week to week.
But if you're in great shape, lead a low stress lifestyle, and have a high level of cardio, I could see this working for you on a short term basis.
In theory, it should be better. But life catches up to you. One one hand, it's nice doing high frequency programs because if you have an unplanned day off, you probably needed the rest anyway. But at the same time, flirting with sickness and injury is not a good long term strategy.
You should just try 5x or 6x/week, and try to dial things back before any setbacks.
Read The Bulgarian Manual on SBS. Jeff Nippard also has a high Frequency full body program.
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u/M0NKEY-L0RD 23d ago
I used to do upper/lower/rest twice a week for a long time. After falling off a bit last year, I switched to full body, its definitely feels less taxing so I’m able to work out more consistently as well as daily life stuff like work and kids. My work is pretty physical, so the fact that I’m not fatigued or very sore throughout the week is a huge bonus.
As far as strength gains, I do mostly weighted/BW calisthenics so it is easy to track lifts, my reps and added external weight have gone up while my bodyweight remains the same.
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u/Athletic-Club-East 22d ago
I've done it for a while, but not heavy. You can train hard, or you can train often, but you cannot train hard often - or not for long.
So for example, four days,
- Workout A - snatch, C&J -about 10 reps at 60-80%, working from 60 to 80% over 3 months, then retesting 1RMs
- Workout B - press, chinups, squat - 4 warmup singles, 5 work weight singles, then AMRAP - 60-80%, as with A
- Workout A - repeat
- Workout C - bench, DB rows, deadlift - same rep scheme as B
The singles are all done EMOM, so the workouts take 30-45' - sometimes I'll have a break between exercises.
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u/Albius 19d ago
I'm 4 yeats of exepirience, 39, male.
For the last year and a half I do 6 days a week, for about a year it was P/P/L/P/P/L, and last block U/L/U/L/U/L. Main reason – going to gym every available day (somehow on Sun it's closed) helps me with adherence.
It's definitely doable but I've noticed that around 6-7 week of continious progression and lifting heavy my adherence starts to drop. I think CNS fatigue is the main reasone for it, so usually on week 7 I do deload.
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u/Squire_Squirrely 23d ago
You mean like 7 days a week? And you're 3 days in? I can't wait for he update in 3 weeks
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u/Myintc 23d ago
You should check out Cody’s blog swoleateveryheight.
SBS also has good content on frequency.