I’ve always been a huge fan of full body circuit workouts. They’ve always delivered with clients who either have limited experience with weight training, or those that aren’t comfortable with smashing their muscles with higher volume body part workouts. They could hit each body part more frequently, but with less volume of work, which is great for helping clients learn and remember what good technique feels like. Another interesting fact about this is that studies have shown that when the volume (the total number of reps performed) of work was equal between the body parts, whole body workouts may offer an advantage in improving strength, and increasing muscle mass. I don’t want to mislead you into thinking that whole body workouts are ALWAYS the best remedy like some people attempt to do, because there’s moving parts to designing effective workout programs. I talk about some of them here https://youtu.be/WGkh9Msvnl4  

• Full Body Circuit Workouts are Great for helping people who are going on a weight loss program, or are cutting, or trying to get leaner. I use a system that I learned from Charles Poliquin called German Body Comp, or GBC. With GBC, the exercises are arranged in supersets, or 4 exercise circuits. This allows you to take advantage of a concept called density, which is when you attempt to get large amounts of work, done in a short period of time. This is possible due to the fact that I arrange the supersets with exercises that hit different muscles so that shorter rest periods can be used, but it doesn’t affect the performance of the target muscles because they are resting while you work the other muscles, in addition to the rest break. For example:

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Tempo	Rest	Notes
A1) Cable Rows	3-4	15-20	2021	—	Pronated Grip
A2) Hip Thrust	3-4	15-20	20X2	90 sec
B1) Bench Press	3-4	15-20	31X0	—
B2) Split Squats	3-4	15-20	2020	90 sec

If you look at A1 and A2, this superset targets glutes, and upper back muscles. So when you perform Hip Thrusts, the muscles used to perform Cable Rows are resting, then you also have the 90 seconds rest period when you complete this superset. I can easily get a client through an 8 exercise workout in an hour using this format. And because I can also keep the rest periods short, I can take advantage of fat burning hormones to allow my clients to experience more fat loss, without compromising the gains in strength they’ll make. I can also make this workout even more challenging or increase the density by combining the two supersets in the above example to make a 4-exercise circuit. As the workout gets more dense, you can burn more body fat, and build more muscle. But you have to be ready for these workouts.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Tempo	Rest	Notes
A1) Cable Rows	3-4	15-20	2021	—	Pronated Grip
A2) Hip Thrust	3-4	15-20	20X2	—
A3) Bench Press	3-4	15-20	31X0	—
A4) Split Squats	3-4	15-20	2020	2 Min

Another thing to think about when you design whole body workouts is the order of the exercises in your program matters. For example, some of my wrestlers that were new to weight training, would try to start their workouts with barbell curls and triceps extensions. This ends up being a huge mistake, especially for inexperienced lifters. When you tire out the smaller muscles first, it’ll make it much more difficult to perform your best when you need to work your bigger muscles (or exercises that require multiple joints). When it came time for them to perform bench presses and pull-ups, their performance suffered because they had already tired out the muscles that assist them with those lifts. It’s hard to finish pull-ups when you’ve burned out your triceps. And the same thing goes for the bench press and your triceps.

This is the reason why I recommend starting your workouts by hitting the larger muscles, or exercises that make you work the most muscles, or multiple joints 9aka compound exercises) first, and then working your way down smaller muscles, or single joint exercises. And again I like to superset muscle groups that don’t interfere with the performance of each other together. Looking at the examples above Cable Rows, which work the lats and the upper back muscles, are supersetted with Hip Thrusts which work the glutes and hamstring muscles of the legs. The “B” Split Squats, which work the quadriceps, hamstrings, and glutes, are supersetted with Bench Presses, which work the chest muscles. 

The 3rd pair of exercises is where things may get interesting. The abs are bigger muscles but if you put them first, it may make it more difficult for some people to maintain proper form during squats and deadlifts, so they would pair nicely with any shoulder work you may have before finishing the workout with the last pair of exercises, that will target the biceps and triceps, which are the smallest muscles. Also, if someone has a lagging body part that they’d really like to bring up, I’d include it here, but make this a tri-set, or a circuit. Here’s an example for a client that wanted to devote extra time to building her glutes.

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Tempo	Rest	Notes
C1) Lateral Raise	3-4	15-20	21X1	—
C2) Reverse Crunch	3-4	15-20	31X1	—
C3) 1-Legged Glute Bridge	3-4	15-20	20X2	90 sec

This client would have hit them earlier in the workout with the Deadlifts, but hit the glutes with a little extra volume later when she performed the Glute Bridges. Remember volume is one of the most important variables when you’re training. Being able to perform and RECOVER from higher volume, makes you more likely to achieve the results you’re seeking.

Here’s two whole body workouts examples. I usually have clients alternate between them. And you can workout up to 5 times/week. Most people don’t understand what tempo is, or even how to execute workouts written this. This video should be helpful https://youtu.be/tmJFszPMxig 

Workout 1

Exercise	Sets	Reps	Tempo	Rest	Notes
A1) Cable Rows	3-4	15-20	2021		Pronated
A2) Hip Thrust	3-4	15-20	20X2	90 sec
B1) Bench Press	3-4	15-20	31X0
B2) Split Squats	3-4	15-20	2020	90 sec
C1) Cable Crunch	3-4	15-20	30X0
C2) Lateral Raises	3-4	15-20	21X0	90 sec
D1) Hammer Curls	3-4	15-20	2020
D2) Triceps Extensions	3-4	15-20	2020	90 sec	w/DB’s
Workout 2
Exercise	Sets	Reps	Tempo	Rest	Notes
A1) Leg Press	3-4	15-20	40 sec	—
A2) Lat Pulldowns	3-4	15-20	31X1	90 sec
B1) Deadlift	3-4	15-20	31X0	—
B2) Incline Bench Press	3-4	15-20	31X0	90 sec
C1) Shoulder Press	3-4	15-20	30X0	—
C2) Reverse Crunch	3-4	15-20	—	90 sec
D1) Preacher Curls	3-4	12-15	2020	—
D2) Overhead Triceps Extensions	3-4	12-15	22X0	90 sec
* AMRAP- As Many Reps As Possible