"Frankenstein Training"

“Frankenstein Training” is a term attributed to Pavel Tsatsouline (Kettlebell and Conditioning legend) to describe the all-too common trend of training the body as if you were Dr Frankenstein assembling his monster, limb-by-limb and muscle-by-muscle.

This means following workouts that treat the body as a collection of independent parts and muscles rather than recognising that in reality it is a complete organism, a “system of systems” (Kelly Starrett) that interact when we move in the real world.

Signs that you might be following a Frankenstein training approach:

• You train distinct body parts each day ie: the typical bodybuilder splits of chest day, legs day, arms day etc (“Today, Igor, we’re going to work on the legs!”)

• Your workout each day looks like an anatomist’s shopping list, going into double figures of exercises to train each muscle group individually eg: Chest Flys, Bicep Curls, Quad Extensions, Ab Crunches.

• You're doing both! Eg: Chest day may involve 5 to 10 exercises to target the chest muscles. From a practical point of view, you're deep into the "Law of Diminishing Returns" here.

In technical terms, this means following a training programme that is based around daily body-part splits, and is focussing on isolation exercises over compound ones.

In simple terms, it means that too many people in the gym are training like bodybuilders, when they have no interest in or need to become a bodybuilder!

What's the Alternative?

Full-body workouts are more practical and effective for those looking to generally improve their fitness and strength, rather than focus on building muscle like a bodybuilder (though they will build functional muscle in any case).

A full-body workout can be achieved with as little as three exercises using the classic "Legs, Push, Pull" method ie: Training one compound movement for the legs (eg: squats/deadlifts), one for the upper-body pushing muscles (eg: push-ups/shoulder press), and one for the upper-body pulling muscles (eg: pull-ups/seated row).

Throw in some cardio or conditioning and you'll be in and out of the gym in under an hour and have worked every muscle in your body, including your heart and lungs.

And you won't even need a jolt of lightning to bring it all to life!