The main goal of a full-body workouts mentioned in this article, is to target all of your muscles groups to efficiently and effectively promote muscle growth.

Whether you are a bodybuilder of any level, are underweight, or want to build muscle following an injury or illness, a total-body workout can help you gain muscle and strength both.

Choose exercises that involve compound, or multi joint, movements to target your entire body. Working more muscles at once can save you time and maximize your gains. It is also helpful to do exercises that target large areas of muscles.

So let us tell you about such exercises which strengthen and develop your muscles.

1. Barbell Bench Press

The first exercise is the barbell bench press and is going to be your main chest exercise for this workout. It is going to be responsible for contributing to most of your chest is overall size and thickness overtime.

More specifically, due to the flat angle of the bench, or middle part of your chest while also developing your shoulders and triceps muscle.

Bench press was chosen for various reasons.

First of all, it is great at activating the chest muscles.

Multiple studies like this 2000 EMG paper by Behren's & Buskies, have found bench press to elicit the highest chest activation when compared to other common chest movements.

2. Barbell Back Squat

Next, we're going to move onto a lower body exercise before proceeding onto the next upper body movement. This just helps to optimize our recovery and performance with each exercise throughout your total body workout.

A 2014 paper by McMahon and colleagues found that there was a two-fold increase in muscle size after only 8 weeks for subjects using full ROM squats compared to partial range of motion squats. Although what constitutes full range of motion will be based on your anthropometry, we would stick with what the research recommends as optimal. Simply aim to come down to at least slightly below parallel or deeper if your mobility enables you to do so safely.

3. Pull-ups

Pull-ups are going to be the next upper body exercise and your main back exercise for this workout. The main muscle worked will be the last. But various shoulder and scapular stabilizers and other muscles will be involved as well.

As you perform this movement, you should feel the muscles working, with most of the tension being felt in the last.

And once you're able to successfully complete around 10-12 bodyweight pull-ups straight, you'll want then to progress it. You can do so by slowly loading it with weight using a weight belt or holding a dumbbell between your feet.

4. Lying Dumbbell Hamstring Curls

Next, going back to the lower body muscles, we're going to be using lying leg curls.

We would suggest trying out this variation with a dumbbell held between your feet as it helps ensure that you're controlling the weight throughout each rep.

This is crucial because as shown in this 2009 EMG paper, the back squat doesn't sufficiently activate the hamstring. In fact, the hamstrings only reach about 27% activation during the squat.

5. Standing Overhead Press

The last major compound movement of this workout will be the standing barbell overhead press. This shoulder exercise is essential when it comes to upper body development and strength. Although the full body is involved, the main muscles at play here will be the anterior deltoids, triceps, and the serratus anterior.

As for the reasoning for this exercise, it has been shown in studies like this one by Behren & Buskies, this is the best exercise for the anterior deltoid.

In addition, when compared to other similar shoulder pressing exercises, it enables you to lift the most weights. From a practical standpoint, it is also the easiest shoulder exercise to overload with more weight as you progress.