Tarren Jamal Bryant
Assignment #5
December 4, 2013

Going to the gym
Both men and women go to the gym regularly for a multitude of different reasons: some go to improve their performance in sports, others for health; while many commonly go to better their body image, striving even to look like those people in fitness magazines. It is true there is no one way to achieve one’s goals, but for a beginner the number choices can be disconcerting. There are literally hundreds of routines, diets, supplements, and ideas circulating around on the Internet; personal trainers and coaches constantly arguing and bickering about what works and what doesn’t—it’s enough to confuse anybody. In reality, one of the hardest decisions to make is actually what kind of workout routine to use; the big two are full body workouts and split routines, which differ mostly by the types of exercises implemented, time management, and muscle gain. It is most important that newbie gym-goers know the differences, pros, and cons of the possibilities, so that they may make an informed decision themselves.
As the name implies, in full body workouts the entire body—more specifically, every muscle group— is exercised through weight training in a single session; to accomplish this, compound movements are used. These training movements involve more than one joint, thus utilizing more than one muscle at the same time (main muscle group, secondary muscle group). The foundation of any FBW plan revolves around squats, bench-presses, chin-ups and pull-ups, dips, military presses, deadlifts, and barbell rows. These are the basics, but a training regimen is not limited to these. Because of the intensity of each session, the volume of the workout is best kept low; in other words, no more than four to five sets per exercise are recommended, with relatively heavy weights that allow eight to twelve repetitions.