#011 Boats & Logs Full-Body Program

Welcome to the Boats & Logs Lifting Club - and welcome back to all loyal members! I truly appreciate your strong support and how quickly we could grow a fast-growing community that understands that building muscle is not rocket science. It only takes intense workouts, a good diet, and proper sleep.

And today, I want to help you to nail the “intense workout” part. Many of you have been asking me via DMs when I will be releasing a full-body split, and I planned to do it as some kind of Christmas special, but then I decided to just publish it now so you don’t have to wait until 2024 to get started.

If you want to deepen your knowledge of certain muscle groups, I recommend checking out my other newsletters over the last few weeks, where we have covered the best strategies to train Chest, Back, Legs, Shoulders, Arms, and Abs.

Advantages of a Full-Body Program

The full-body split is an often underrated split. Many lifters believe that a full-body split is only effective for beginners in the gym. But that is far from true; nearly everybody - from beginner to well-advanced - will make progress with this plan. However, beginners and intermediates (<5 years of lifting experience) will benefit most.

This program is designed to optimize gains while keeping our time spent in the gym as low as possible. This plan is very effective in reaching around 10 sets per muscle each week, the benchmark we should aim for to make proper gains.

If you have a lot of time and really want to optimize for the most muscle possible, choosing an upper/lower or Push/Pull/Legs split could provide you a bigger upside, but the upside is not as big, especially taking into account, that you are spending at least 4 days per week in the gym.

Another benefit of this program is that it contains a lot of different exercises and rep ranges. This will help you to get to know your body better and work on strength and hypertrophy. Additionally, the variety in the plan has the nice effect of keeping the motivation high motivation throughout the week.

Applying this Program

As the Boats & Logs philosophy generally follows a low-volume, high-intensity approach, it is critical for your success with this plan that you really apply a high intensity during every workout and set.

To ensure a high intensity, you need to apply progressive overload. The goal is to become stronger every week. Let me give you an example:

On day 1, you should do 4-6 reps of incline dumbbell bench press for your first set. For the first week, pick a weight you can move for 4-6 reps. Let’s say you are moving 60 lbs for 5 reps. In the next week, you should beat that number by doing at least 6 reps with 60 lbs. If you reach the upper end of the range (6 reps), you should increase the weights in your next workout and try to reach 6 reps again before increasing the weight another time.

We are also taking every set to failure. Failure is the point where you can’t complete another rep without breaking form.

With that program, you should take at least one rest day between each workout. A split could look something like this:
Monday: Day 1
Tuesday: Rest Day
Wednesday: Day 2
Thursday: Rest Day
Friday: Day 3
Saturday: Rest Day
Sunday: Rest Day

You will see that I categorized some exercises as “Optional Accessories”. These are isolation exercises for the arms, calves, and abs. I would highly suggest you do the optional exercises, but I know that a lot of you skip calves and abs anyways. Therefore, do with this information as you wish.

To see proper results, you also need to take care of your diet.

As a rule of thumb, you should consume 0.7-1.0 grams of protein per lb of body weight. If you want to more about protein, read our post explaining everything you need to know about protein.

Your calorie intake depends on your goals, but if you are <12 body fat, it makes sense to be in a 300-500 calorie surplus. If you are between 12-18% body fat, it makes sense to be around calorie maintenance or in a slight surplus, and if you are above 18% body fat, you should be in a 300-500 calorie deficit.

Also, sleeping at least 7 hours per night is important to allow your body to recover and build muscle.

I’m convinced that you will see great success by applying this program.

The Program

Day 1

30° Incline Dumbbell Bench Press (2 sets; 4-6 & 8-10 reps)
T-Bar Rows (2 sets; 6-8 & 12-15 reps)
Cable Flies (2 sets; 12-15 reps each)
Pull-Ups (3 sets; until Failure; add weights if you can do 20+)
Romanian Deadlifts (2 sets; 4-6 & 8-10 reps)
Hack Squats (4 sets (2 Quad Focus + 2 Ham Focus); 10-12 reps each)
Calf Raises (4 sets; 12-15 reps each)
Optional Accessories:
Triceps Overhead Extensions (3 sets; 12-15 reps each)
Concentration Curls (2 sets; 12-15 reps each)