Improving General Fitness
If your goal is to improve your overall fitness level, a full body workout like a circuit training program can be highly effective. According to British sports physiologist Phil Davies, circuit training programs require you to perform around 10 different exercises in a session, with each exercise performed for 60 seconds and around 30 to 60 seconds of rest taken in between sets. This creates a workout that can be highly motivating because of its variety and will help you finish your entire gym workout in only 15 to 30 minutes.
Aiding in Recovery Time
For bodybuilders and lifters interested in gaining strength or muscle mass, a full body workout lets a person focus on pushing muscles to the maximum while still allowing 24 hours or more time for those muscles to rest and grow between workouts. Recovery plays a crucial role in muscle growth after muscle fibers are damaged lifting weights. By exhausting all of your muscles in a single workout, you can leave more time between each of your weekly gym visits. If you only perform upper body workouts on back-to-back days at the gym, you give your muscle fibers very little time to develop. This leads to overtraining and the failure to produce results with your workout.
Weight Loss
Some types of full body exercise are highly effective at helping you burn calories and lose weight. According to the American Council on Exercise, exercises like jogging and swimming are the most effective cardiovascular exercises for burning calories because they engage a large number of muscles in your body. Simply put, the more muscles you engage when working out, particularly large muscle groups like your back and legs, the more calories your body needs to burn to meet those demands.
Warning on Complicated Movements
Though full body exercise is useful for burning calories, Robert Robergs, Ph.D., and Len Kravitz, Ph.D., of the University of New Mexico warn not to use exercises that are excessively complex. They note that when you combine an exercise such as stationary bike riding with an upper body exercise, it can increase your perceived exertion level without actually increasing the number of calories you burn. This is because unnatural motions may tire you out quickly and distract from the main calorie-burning focus of the exercise, such as pedaling the bicycle.
