Build the Perfect Full-Body Strength-Training Workout at Home or at the Gym

When it feels like there are never enough hours in the day, you want to maximize your workout time. And by "maximize," we don't mean exercise as much as possible. Rather, you're going to want to make the most of the time you're already putting in.

Full-body strength workouts are one of the best ways to do this. Rather than divide your regimen into back-and-biceps days, chest-and-triceps days and legs-and-shoulders days, you hit everything at once. Instead of six sessions per week, you end up with two or three.

But efficiency is just one of the perks of a total-body strength-training approach. Practicality is another.

"It's movement-specific versus muscle-specific," which makes full-body training more useful in everyday life, says Steve Stonehouse, a National Academy of Sports Medicine-certified personal trainer and director of education at Stride, a chain of indoor running studios in California and Florida.

To explain the difference, think about a sled push and a biceps curl. It's a lot easier to connect pushing a heavy sled to movements someone might do outside the gym, like playing football or working in construction, Stonehouse says. But it's much harder to imagine a job or a sport where the muscle-isolating curl is as relevant, he says.

Full-body training also reduces injury risk, says Wayne Westcott, PhD, professor of exercise science at Quincy College. He recommends balanced training of all the big muscle groups to avoid any weak links. "If you have a major muscle that is not strong and you're an active person, that's the one that's going to be injured," he says.

Full-body training is, in Westcott's words, "any protocol that addresses most, if not all, of the major muscle groups in a single session."

In designing such a routine, he follows the American College of Sports Medicine's resistance exercise recommendations:

• Two to three full-body strength workouts per week
• 2 to 3 sets per exercise
• 8 to 12 reps per set
• Approximately 2 minutes of rest between sets

As for the exercises themselves, if you have time, Westcott suggests doing one for each of these muscle groups:

• Quads
• Hamstrings
• Abs
• Lower back
• Chest
• Upper back
• Shoulders
• Biceps
• Triceps

If your time is limited (and whose isn't?), you can consolidate. Westcott actually studied abbreviated full-body workouts within the U.S. Navy, which wanted a routine for shipboard members, hard-pressed for space and time. A workout whittled to five exercises still increased strength compared to lengthier routines, he discovered. The key was incorporating exercises that targeted multiple muscle groups.

Grab a set of dumbbells and a kettlebell and you've got all you need for this workout from Stonehouse, a kettlebell master instructor who teaches certification classes to other trainers. He likes kettlebells for all-around strength-building because they tend to "require a lot of full-body involvement," he says.

​Do:​ 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps per exercise. Rest 2 minutes between sets.

If you access to gym equipment, give this five-move routine a go. Westcott modeled it after the plan he devised for the Navy.

​Do:​ 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps per exercise. Rest 2 minutes between sets.

​Move 1: Bench Press​

1. Lie on your back on a flat bench.
2. Grip a barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width apart.
3. Lower the barbell to just above your chest.
4. Lift the barbell until your arms are fully extended. Avoid locking your elbows.

​Move 2: Seated Cable Row​

1. Place your feet on the support plates and hold the cable attachment with your arms outstretched.
2. Keeping your back straight and chest up, pull the attachment toward your core.
3. Squeeze your shoulder blades together, maintaining the contraction for one to two seconds.
4. Extend your arms to return to the starting position.

​Move 3: Leg Press​

1. Seated on a leg press machine, place your feet shoulder-width apart on the platform in front of you.
2. Unlatch the safeties at your sides as you extend your legs.
3. Retract your legs until they form a 90-degree angle.
4. Pushing through your heels, extend your legs without locking your knees.
5. Relatch the safeties.

​Move 4: Back Extension​

1. Place the front of your thighs on an exercise ball or on a back extension machine's upper pads, and brace your heels against its lower pads. Your torso should extend diagonally into the air, spine straight.
2. With your hands behind your head or your arms crossed over your chest, slowly bend at the hips.
3. Continue lowering yourself until your torso forms a 90-degree angle with your legs.
4. Lift your torso back to the starting position as you exhale.

​Move 5: Machine Seated Crunch​

1. Sit on an ab crunch machine and grip the handles. If the machine has padded rollers, place the bottom of your shins behind them. If it doesn't, set your feet flat on the floor. Your knees should form a 90-degree angle. (Adjust the seat height as needed.)
2. With your chin slightly tucked, pull forward to engage your core.
3. Slowly return to the starting position as you inhale.