I can never seem to get a straight answer. My old personal trainer, my dad ( olympic swimmer), and one of my doctors tell me split workout routines ie ( arms one day, chest lats another day) are much better than total body workouts if done with maximum attention and ability. Than i hear the trainers at 24 fitness and some people on here saying split routines are horrible and that full body routines are better? Which should i go with here? I have been lifting for 5 years so i am not a newcomer. I eat right, lift 6 days a week, do my cardio. My goal is to get tighter and to gain muscle mass as well. Is there a workout schedule you could possibly post on here for me as an example? Thanks

it depends on ones goals, ones current level of fitness, how long one has been training, their genetics, and how devoted they will be to perfect nutrition and sleeping consistently every single night.

there is no one right answer, only general rules of thumb based on past experiences with others.
someone with great genetics can eat chips and drink beer and have a great body, while those with bad genetics have to work twice as hard as the normal person just to avoid being morbidly obese, let alone a healthy weight.

Yup. A lot also boils down to what you enjoy more. The more fun you have in training, the better gains you'll make. There're a lot of splits out there aside from single bodypart training-upper/lower, push/pull, full/upper/lower, etc

this is a good article
Inside The Muscle Laboratories - Men's Health

The Pros of Total Body Training

• More frequency may be better for increased neuromuscular coordination — this is one crucial component of strength, a big benefit. Practice makes perfect and generally you get a better practice effect by doing it shorter and more often then just one long session.

• You're relatively "fresh" for each exercise since you hit one area of the body and move on, so there's not much of an accumulated specific fatigue effect.

• It's easier to incorporate total body exercises like the Olympic lifts, gymnastics moves, and strongman stuff into this type of routine.

• Essentially all fitness professionals agree that total body is ideal for beginners.

• TBT may better prepare an athlete to handle total body fatigue (as in a game) than split training.

• As Waterbury has pointed out, TBT hits a higher percentage of the total motor units in the body per day than a split plan.

• Because you're working your whole body, TBT may be better at burning calories and promoting fat loss.

• TBT is good for recovery from an injury or a layoff because by default the intensity is reduced so you'll get more out of it practicing more often.

• If you miss a workout or two for the week, you still provided some training stimulus to your whole body instead of neglecting it for that week.

• Having a greater frequency can help prevent undertraining.

• It's easy to implement supersets (antagonistic sets) which save time.

• Easy total body days are harder than easy split days (i.e. total body vs. arms).

• You don't get the deep soreness from a TBT routine that you do from a split routine.

• You can get a good overall workout in only three days a week.

• Personal opinion — I've found that it seems easier to do a hard TBT session without a partner than a hard split program without a partner.

I used to be a split guy, didnt even know how to setup a fbw. Then I went full body and love it. Splits just dont have the frequency for me. Any old schooler (your dad :P) will tell ya splits are superior.

Check out the article in my log~the split training roundtable