Total Body Workout | Who is it for? How to do it? Exercises

Total Body Workout

By total body workout we mean a training method that stimulates all muscle groups through bodyweight exercises (or with the use of light loads) to seek toning and muscle conditioning: in particular in this article we will talk about the bodyweight version of this methodology.

Follow Marco's workout routine:

Who is it for?

This type of training is not necessarily dedicated to the female world only: although it is used a lot in the slimming and toning sectors in the context of female personal training and group courses, the total body workout, if well planned and structured it is a valid ally for all those looking for a "fitness" form, integrating it with classic sessions in the weight room.

The session is generally much more fun and stimulating than a classic jog on the treadmill, while the training protocols, often set on HIIT, lend themselves particularly well to stimulating the metabolism.

A classic total body workout session in an exclusively bodyweight key consists of 3 main phases:

1. warm up
2. middle stage
3. cool down

Warm up

In the warm up phase, you can start with a roundup of mobilization exercises of the main joints: sterno-clavicular, humeral scapula, elbow, wrist, hip, knee and ankle.

Then we start with a muscle warm-upAn example would be a chained exercise routine performed in ladder.

The 5 exercises could be linked in this way, starting from the standing position: jumping jack, squat, split jack, push up, rock up.

Exercises

The central phase is the training part, which contains the actual workout. It can be composed in various ways, adequately mixing more types of exercises also performed in their variants to involve more muscle groups and always seek out different stimuli, avoiding monotony both from the training point of view and from the mental point of view: the primary rule of training is to avoid boredom, the enemy of concentration and intensity.

For this reason, I also leave ample space for music: playlists of all kinds as long as they give the right energy to those who are performing the workout.

Returning to the central phase, an example of a workout could be the following.

Seen from a slimming perspective, one could think of reviewing everything in a PHA (peripheral hert action) key, that is alternating exercises involving muscle groups distant from each other in order to intensify blood circulation and consequently intensify the cardiovascular work.

Here are the exercises that I personally recommend.

1. Diamond push up

Not for everyone, this variant is performed with close hands so that thumbs and index fingers touch each other to form a diamond. Stress is mainly focused on the triceps, pectoral, trapezius and rhomboid.

2. Air squat

Bodyweight squat, with particular attention to the depth of movement which must be the maximum possible but guarantee the maintenance of the physiological curves.)

3. Jumping jack

Exercise with a cardio component that involves the opening and closing of the legs and arms alternating consecutively with a jump.

4. Sit ups

Classic version of the exercise for the abdomen which involves a start from a supine position with legs flexed and soles of the feet close to the ground.

By contracting the abdomen, rise up to touch the feet keeping the neck relaxed, and then return to the initial position, taking care to keep the lumbar area adherent to the ground.

5. Plyo push up

Plyometric version of the push up with a large force component, which involves the detachment of the hands from the ground in the final part of the concentric phase.

6. Jump squat

Plyometric version of the squat which involves the execution of a jump in the final part of the concentric phase of the exercise.

7. High knee skip

Exercise with a great cardio component, which needs no explanation.

8. Russian twist

Exercise for the rectus abdominis which involves a sitting start with knees bent, resting only on the buttocks, with the heels detached from the ground.

Perform as many counter twists as possible, taking care to touch the ground with your hands, and counting one rep for each pair of twists.

One way that I find very stimulating to propose these circuits especially in groups is to count the total repetitions in the 4 minutes.

Each athlete counts the repetitions he manages to perform in the prescribed time, for all 4 sessions: at the end of the workout, the highest 3 are eliminated and the one with the poorest performance is kept, comparing it with the poorest of his teammates.

Why the poorest? Well, this guarantees a performance at least focused on a steady pace, and not a peak in any of the 4 sessions followed by sharp drops.

Cool down

Performing a light stretch for the involved muscle groups.

For this kind of training, the exercises to be used are practically endless. Some examples?

1. Legs / buttocks: squats, lunges, jumps, bridges, etc., in all variants of execution (isometric, plyometric, with eccentricity, with overloads, etc.).
2. High part: push up, pull up, trx rowing, bar rowing, dips (plyometric isometric, with eccentricity and overloads).
3. Abdomen: plank, sit up, knee2elbow, toe2bar, tilt, scissors and many others (in all variants and with overloads).
4. Cardio/full body: jumping jack, burpee, skip, rope jump, running, mountain climber (in all known variants).