Fit and Fine by Kamal Singh CSCS: Customizing the full body training template
Keep in mind the advantages of this style of training: the body is treated like a single unit and every part gets its necessary focus
As I mentioned in the previous column, training the entire body in a session is not just for beginners! It was very successfully used by competitive bodybuilders in what is now known as the golden age of bodybuilding–the 1940s and the early 1950s. One of the biggest advantages of this style of training is that body is treated like a single unit and every part gets its necessary focus. Trainees who train like this generally have symmetrically developed physiques, without one or two body parts being over developed and the others lagging.
Customizing the FBT template
Bodybuilders of yore used a specialisation program to bring up a body part while they continued to train their body fully at every session. Here is an example for somebody who feels that their calves are lagging while the thighs are doing fine:
Option 1 – Sequence preference
He could start the workout with training the calves first. In effect he is reversing the order of exercises, instead of hitting the biggest exercises like squats, bench press, lunges first, the workout could be started with 2 exercises for the calves. One of the leg exercises – lunges - can be dropped to keep the volume in check.
Option 2 – Volume preference
The workout in each session follows the earlier sequence of squat, bench press, etc. but the sets are reduced from 3-4 to 2-3 while two more exercises are done for the calves for 3 sets each.
Option 3 – Intensity preference
The trainee maintains the intensity on all his exercises except for the calves, e.g., if doing 3 sets of 12 repetitions for 85 kgs on the squat, he does not go up on either the weight or the repetitions. But with the Calf Raises, he/she tries to increase the weight or the repetitions in every session.
Option 4 – Frequency preference
If the trainee feels that he/she is not being able to focus properly on the lagging body part or is not recovering from the increased intensity and volume, they may add a 4th day where only the lagging body part is worked on. But this does not mean that on the 4th day, the trainee goes berserk. A short quick session with 2-3 exercises with 3 sets per exercise and it is done. This “feeder” sort of workout really helps as the trainee is fresh and can fully focus on that body part.
There you have it. At least 4 options to play around with. You can mix and match the options too if you want to. For example, the sequence option and the volume option can be used together or even the sequence option and the intensity option can be mixed. Though I would caution against using higher intensity and higher volume at the same time. This can be a recipe for disaster unless you are 18 years old and have no other responsibilities except train, eat and recover. I am sure the readers are smart enough to come up with some other options but the principle remains the same. Now go and do it…
Kamal Singh is a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist who has been coaching for 15 years
From HT Brunch, October 29, 2022
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