A couple weight lifting question

[Ride_The_Lightning]

First, let's get some background info about myself:

I'm 17 years old, I'm 205 LBS, I'm 6'2", and I'm into strength training primarily for strenghtening purposes; I'm not in it for the six pack or the 3% BF that everyone wants to have.

1) Which is better, a split workout or full body? I personally prefer the full body workout because it's more challenging and I have a greater feeling of accomplishment working out my entire body at once rather than individual parts. My only fear is that I may overtrain. The thing is, I have volleyball practice at school 5 days a week, 2 hours a day and, I feel that if I keep it up with the full body workouts, I will over train. If it helps, I'm a beginner when it comes to weight lifting (8 months) and during the volleyball season (spring, now) I don't workout my legs w/ weights (coach has us do plyometrics instead) and so I just stick to core exercises and the upper body only. Should I stick with a fullbody workout and make it less demanding, or should I suck it up and do splits? Any help would be appreciated.

2) How many exercises per muscle group should I have in a full body workout? How many in a split?

3) If I were to start doing split workouts, which combination of muscle groups is best per workout?

Again, any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[warri0r87]

if your going for strength then you'll want a split.

the best split would b something around the big 3 (squats, bench, DLs). so a pull/push/leg split, or legs-abs/chest-shoulders-tris/back-bi's split.

btw, plyo's r good but they also work good when u r working on ur strength. plyo's is about generation power and explosiveness. you need strength and momentum to gain power/explosiveness, therefore you cannot neglect your legs.

i personally prefer the have the big 3 with 3 'accessory' (but also compound) movements, within the rep ranges of 4-6 and on occasion 2-3.

for instance, today i do back/bi's, this is what i did.

DLs
3-4 working sets within 4-6reps

bent over bb rows
3sets

hypers *
2sets

bb curls *
2sets

*these were more isolation movements so i had slightly higher rep ranges. i went for 6-8 or 8-10reps.

im sure someone else will post a beginners routine for you, but this is something for 'food for thought'.

[wnxmaximus]

just because of v-ball and plyometrics, that does not mean squats are not needed. Squats are always a valuable exercise. You need to do them always. Just make sure you are eating well enough to keep your body recovering.

[Papasmurf]

Originally Posted by wnxmaximus

just because of v-ball and plyometrics, that does not mean squats are not needed. Squats are always a valuable exercise. You need to do them always. Just make sure you are eating well enough to keep your body recovering.

Its poor advice to have someone do squats in-season while also doing plyometrics. his legs are probably being torn up from just vball practice and plyos- adding squats would do no good.

[jlozan84]

Originally Posted by Papasmurf

Its poor advice to have someone do squats in-season while also doing plyometrics. his legs are probably being torn up from just vball practice and plyos- adding squats would do no good.

I disagree. I played volleyball in high school and college and we still trained our legs. Now, the weight and volume was scaled back considerably. But, you should still work your legs. My recommendation would be to work your legs on Friday night (that should provide the most time for recovery).......assuming you don't play on the weekend.

You also need to be careful with overtraining your shoulders while in-season.

What sort of plyo program is your coach having you do? Heavy plyometrics during the season IMO is a very bad idea.