So, here is my challenge to you. For three months from the moment you finish this article, don't try to learn anything else about building muscle. Don't read any books, don't ask anyone's advice and don't buy any more magazines. Spend the money on food instead. All I want you to do is to read this article, understand it fully, and then put all your available energies in to applying it's wisdom, every day, for three months. At the end of this time you will find that you already know everything that you need to know in order to get very big and very, very strong indeed. It won't be fun. Your buddy's in the gym will think you've gone mad. But in three months time they will all be training just like you, so hang in there and ignore the inevitable criticism that will flow in your direction. It is part of the British mentality to mock and belittle the success's of others, usually in an attempt to draw attention away from the protagonist's own failures, so expect it from the off. Ignore the stares, ignore the comments, look at the ground, grit your teeth and get on with it. You will succeed and they will continue to fail.
What I will ask you to do would not have in the past been considered at all unusual. In fact, forty years ago it was the only way anyone ever got big and strong. It was only with the advent of drugs that there became any choice about how to train for growth. The mistake the majority of trainee's make is that they train like the pros, but without the drug intake of the pros. Funnily enough, they don't grow much. In fact many of them don't grow at all. These are the victims of the fallacy perpetrated by muscle magazine journalists everywhere. These are the guys who believe in the power of whatever is "new", while completely ignoring that which has been proven effective thousands of times over . Don't be one of them. Follow this program, in all its simplicity. Don't add exercises, don't try to get by on less sleep and don't cut corners with the nutritional component of the program and you will grow. How much will you grow? Well, I can't make guarantees' but I personally have gained twenty two kilos in the past 13 weeks, going from ninety four to one hundred and sixteen kilos whilst doubling my strength at the same time. Want similar results? Then do similar things. Stick with what follows, believe in its efficacy, and you will grow like the proverbial weed.

FREQUENCY AND RECUPERATION
This routine is dead simple. It relies on the massive muscle stimulation and hormone production effects of the "big" exercises, while incorporating sufficient recuperation and nutritious calories to allow you to recover from the equally massive stress that these exercises place on both your musclo-skeletal and your nervous systems. These routines also allow for extra rest and recuperation, at your discretion, whenever you feel it is required. This isn't an excuse to get lazy, just an allowance for individual differences and a recognition that certain bodyparts (lower back particularly) tend to take a hammering with the bigger exercises, and hence may need an occasional extra dose of rest and recovery once in a while. You will work every two to three days, dependent upon your own ability to recover, and your other days will be spent off. This may be a dramatic reduction in frequency, depending on what you've been used to, but when you see the exercises you'll be doing, and the intensity I will ask you to apply, then you'll understand why it has to be this way.

STRETCHING
On each working day you will warm up on the stationary cycle for five to ten minutes before stretching for a further 10 minutes or so�you do remember how to stretch, don't you? It's just that it seems to be one of those things that everyone knows prevents injuries, and yet hardly anyone bothers. Be bothered! It will dramatically increase your training life span and greatly reduce your likelihood of developing joint and tendon problems later on in your training life. Warm up and stretch before every workout. Not just the bodypart you intend to work, but your whole body. Protect yourself !!

THE WARMUPS
Once you have warmed up you will proceed to the real work of the day. The first day will consist of squats and assistance work. The second day will consist of bench presses and assistance work. The third day will consist of deadlifts and assistance work. On each day you will start with the main lift and then proceed to the assistance work. Before the work sets of each exercise you will follow a system of progressive lift specific warmups that will serve to further protect you from injury, whilst not taxing your recovery abilities too much or taking away strength from the work sets. I will use the deadlift to illustrate the warmup system. Say your planned work sets for deadlifts will be two sets of five with one hundred and eighty kilos. Start with a set of twenty with the empty bar, then a set of ten with one plate a side (60 kg). Follow this with a set of five reps with two plates a side (100kg), then a set of three with three plates a side (140kg), and finally a single with three and a half plates a side (160kg). At this point you're ready for the work sets of five reps with four plates a side (180kg). Follow a similar procedure for the other days' major lifts. Start with 10% of the work weight for twenty, then 30% for ten, 60% for five, 80% for 3, then finish with about 90 to 95% for one rep before moving on to the work sets. Between each warmup you should take about a minute to a minute and a half rest, though in reality this will probably only be long enough to add the plates in preparation for your next set. This system gets the working muscles, tendons and ligaments thoroughly warmed up, while taking you close enough to the working weight to allow you to get a feel for the poundage you will be lifting. This is important as it allows you to get your technique perfect with a heavy weight before you do the actual work. Far too many trainees warm up with a set or two with 50% of the working weight and then move on to the work sets. This is foolish not only because the actual working structure will not be warm enough (hence encouraging injury) but also because the nervous system will not be adequately prepared for the level of effort required to lift the work set poundage, hence depriving the trainee of his or her ability to generate maximal efforts in the work sets. The described system of warming up should not take away from your work set strength, but as a safeguard leave at least two minutes between the 90 % single and the first work set, maybe more if you feel you need it. Just rest long enough to focus yourself on the work set ahead, but not so long that you cool down substantially and lose the benefits of the warmup.

THE EXERCISES
Once you're all warmed up and ready to go you can move on to the work sets outlined below. As stated above, day one consists of squats and assistance, so let's start there. Your exercises on day one will be as follows.
1.Squats.
2.Front Squats or Leg Extension
3.Stiff Legged Deadlifts or Hamstring curls.

Day two is bench presses and assistance. Your exercises for day two are as follows.
1.Bench Presses
2.Clean and Jerk or Standing Push Press or Military Press

Day three is deadlifts and assistance work. Exercise selection is as follows.
1.Deadlifts
2.Barbell Row or Cable Row
3.Chins or Pulldowns to the chest.

As for rep ranges and sets, perform three sets of 6 reps for the "big three", and two sets of twelve for the assistance work. The exception to this is the clean and jerk. This exercise relies on such high levels of whole body coordination that I recommend you perform five sets of only 2 reps. This will ensure a maximal level of concentration can be applied to each rep with out fatigue increasing the chances of a missed rep or other mistake.

AVOIDING OVERTRAINING.
The reasoning behind giving you choices in what assistance exercises you do on each day is to allow you to give your lower back and other hardworking muscles more rest if they need it. Everyone recovers differently and you must make allowances for your own personal recovery abilities. The assistance exercise listed first on each day is the most taxing, the second less so and the third the least taxing of all. On day two, for example, the clean and jerk is the most taxing. It works your whole body, and puts lots of stress on your hip structure, thighs, arms and lower back as well as your shoulders. The standing push press stresses the deltoid structure equally heavily, but places less strain on your lower back and hips than the clean and jerk. The seated military press places virtually no stress on the lower back and hips but will still allow you to severely punish your deltoid complex. Can you see what I'm getting at? Each day you can decide for yourself how fatigued you are (especially in the hips and back ) and make your choice of assistance exercise selection dependent upon that, hence avoiding overworking the lower back and hips, which could easily take away from your performance in the squat and deadlift. On days when you feel fully rested and raring to go, do the biggest exercises and get the most muscle stimulation possible. If you feel a little less than perfect then go ahead and do the smaller exercise. You'll still get some of the necessary muscle stimulation of the relevant body part, but you won't tax your recovery abilities quite as much as you would with the bigger exercise. It's exactly the same deal with the front squat and the leg extension. They both stress the front thigh very heavily but the extension takes your lower back, hips and grip out of the equation. Lower back , hips and grip play a big part in the deadlift, so if progress slows in this lift then you should drop the front squat in favour of the leg extension, and drop the stiff legged deadlift in favour of the hamstring curl. Always keep in mind that the primary aim of his program is to give you a strength base in the three big lifts that will carryover to any other work you might do in the future. You must deduce for yourself how much assistance work you can recover from. How do you know what you can recover from? Simply start out with a fixed workout frequency and do the most taxing exercises on the list. I suggest a schedule something like one on, one off, one on, two off, one on, one off. From this starting point you can take measures to reduce your workload if neccasary. Simply put, if progress slows or stops on the lifts, then change the assistance work to the less demanding exercises. This should enable you to recover better and hence begin to make progress once again. You must understand that as a muscle grows bigger and stronger it requires more recovery time to heal up after a workout, so as you grow you will need more recovery time, and less total work per bodypart or area. Dropping the big assistance exercises in favour of the smaller ones will take pressure off of your hip and lower back structure by drastically reducing the total number of sets for these areas and increasing the time off between workouts that stress them. If after time your progress slows again then feel free to drop the assistance work all together. I'm not kidding! If need be, drop it all. If after dropping all assistance work your progress slows again, then decrease your workout frequency. Throw in an extra rest day, then another if need be. Almost make sure you totally recover before you do the same lift again. In this way you reduce workload and then frequency, hence preventing any insidious overtraining that may be developing and allowing yourself to make more progress on the big lifts. And remember, in this program, that is what it is all about. The big three.

Far too many trainees get caught up in detail exercises before they have a base of strength and size from which to work from. This leads directly to the plainly ridiculous sites that we all see in the gym everyday. The skinny neophyte pounding away doing dumbell laterals with 15 pound 'bells. The guy who wants huge legs but maxes out his quad workouts with 35lbs for 15 sloppy reps on the leg extension machine. It's a disgrace.
THE VALUE OF BIG FREE WEIGHTS

Let me put it to you this way. Take two hypothetical trainees. Trainee number one spreads his effort over several exercises in order to "train the muscle from all angles", and spends most of his time seated or lying on some kind of machine to "isolate the working muscle". Trainee number two trains very hard on the big free weight exercises, for moderately low reps and sets, and does little in the way of assistance or machine work. He concentrates on a few big exercises and makes sure he adds a little iron to the bar every week. After about six months of lifting, both men will probably have doubled or perhaps tripled their strength in the movements that they perform. Trainee one will be substantially stronger in the leg extension, leg curl, lateral raise, front raise, pec deck, dumbell flye, biceps curl, triceps cable push down, calf raise, some kind of pulldown and perhaps a machine rowing movement as well, assuming that he can recover from the high volume necessitated by training so many exercises in one routine. Trainee two will be substantially stronger in the squat, deadlift, bench press and military press. Now, take these two hypothetical trainees and swap their routines. Have number one get under the bar and try to squat the weight our second trainee has built up to. He won't be able to. Have him bend down and try to deadlift our man's training poundage. It won't budge from the floor. Bench press? Not likely. Military press trainee number two's training poundage? He'll be lucky if he can even clean it to his chest. However,if we have trainee number two attempt our machine man's poundages and reps, he will complete them with ease, and probably smash the first man's personal record lifts in the process. It is just a simple fact that strength built on machines does not transfer over on to free weights, or indeed, real life. Free weights force you to constantly balance the load, to use secondary and supporting muscles to a much greater degree than machines allow while at the same time generally involving a greater degree of directly affected musclature in the first place. They force you to work hard, and as a result your body adapts. Strength built with free weights tends to transfer over to machines much better than vice versa. For example, in the four months since I began training I have worked thighs with squats and front squats almost exclusively. I can now squat 315lbs for 15 reps, and it goes up by a rep a week. Prior to writing this section of the article I had a go on our gyms leg extension machine. Remember, this is having never done a leg extension before. Most of the regular leg extension crowd use about 15 to 35 pounds for 10 to 15 reps. Me? 65lbs for 20 reps at my first attempt. Do you really think that any of those 30lbs guys could match my 315 for 15 squat? Of course not. Point proven. Free weights will build a greater amount of functional strength in the beginning trainee than machines and in less time too. This is not to say that machines are useless, it's just that until you are already big and strong they have little to offer you.

NUTRITION AND REST COMPONENTS

Rest is what makes you stronger. Granted it is the training that provides the stimulus for this growth but without sufficient rest and recuperation you will not grow. Be lazy on your off days, take things very easy indeed. Don't get up if you don't have to!!! Lie in late in the mornings, take a snooze before dinner, and make sure you sleep all night.
Sleep is a wonderful thing for inducing growth. When you sleep your body naturally produces the neccasary hormones for growth. Sleep is your natural time for tissue repair and growth, so make sure that you take full advantage of it.

As for the eating component of this regimen, I simply recommend that you eat as much clean food as you can. The program only lasts for three months, so you are highly unlikely to get fat. I know it is very old fashioned to recommend a "see food" diet to atheletes but the whole point is to rapidly change your structure and metabolism to one more suited for growth. The easiest way to do this is to ingest a lot of calories every day. Food intake alone is highly anabolic, so make sure and eat plenty. 10 meals a day is often not excessive , with some men needing even more feedings per day. Just eat until you gain 2 -3 lbs per week. In total this will give you a 24-36lb increase over the 3 months. This is a lot more than most guys achieve in a lifetime of training. At the same time you will put 60-90lbs on your main lifts, which will change your lifting career for ever. Just imagine yourself 36lbs heavier and 160lbs stronger. Set your goals and get on with it.

It is always easier to look for a new way to train than it is to deliver full bore effort on an old routine. Make the change now. Deliver all the effort you can on the big three lifts and assistance work outlined above. Eat as well as you can, and sleep as much as you can and you will be unable to stop yourself growing. Once you have experienced the true growth potential of your body, not distorted by overtraining, undereating or undersleeping, you will find it easy to generate a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for your training, which in turn will further speed up your gains. So get up off your arse and get on with it. Train as hard as you can then get out of the gym and eat. The rest will take care of itself.

i think everyone who is remotely serious about BB should read this. There are a lot of idiots on this board.
Especailly the ones that whine about good info being to long...BWWHHHAAAA!

quote:

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Originally posted by DIXIEBOY:
Captain..you had a thread similar to Steels with great info. I searched for it and can't find it..Do you know what thread I'm talking about?

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Don't know the thread...but I saved that post so here ya go :

Triceps: When peforming a Narrow Grip Pressdown, don't let your arms go pass a 45 degree angle. (the author)
Mental Training: Franco Columbo once said that you shouldn't think about how much weight you're lifting during a heavy lift, just concentrate on your form. (the author)
Mental Training: Arnold once said in one of his books when lifting he would look at the bar and think: "You son of a b*tch, I'm gonna rip you off my chest, I'm gonna throw you over my head, I don't care how much you weigh. I'm the man who's gonna take you out." (the author)
Training Plateau: When reaching a plateau on a certain exercise, try dropping to 6 sets of a heavier weight for 1-3 reps for three weeks then take a week off. You'll come back stronger. (the author)
Training Plateau: Adding muscle mass or breaking a plateau could be as easy as adding intensity to your workout. Intensity comes in many forms, you can use one of the following or a combination: cut down rest between sets, Superset your exercises, add more reps, add more sets, try strength training for a few weeks (less reps but more sets at a higher weight), or pyramid your loads. BTW, check your diet and make sure you're getting plenty of rest. (the author)
Form: Remember that 8 reps at a slower controlled pace is better than 10 reps at a faster explosive pace. (the author)
Mass: When adding muscle mass, how about trying a powerlifting routine for 6 weeks. As a lifetime drug free powerlifter I have seen others do it and it WORKS. I know one natural bodybuilder who did this twice a year. He would do only 3 lifts and train 3 days per week. On day 1 he did heavy squats, medium bench press, then light deadlifts. Day 2 off. Day 3 medium squats, heavy bench press, medium deadlifts. Day 4 off. Day 5 light squats, light bench press, heavy deadlifts. Then 2 days off. (Al Wood)
Biceps: For building the lower Biceps, I read a article somewhere a few years ago and decided to incorporate it in my routine, I lacked lower bicep development. Use a straight bar and lighten the usual load, then stand in the normal curl position with hands out and instead of curling the bar up, you need to kind of drag the bar up the chest until you reach the top, then down the same way. After doing about 3 sets of about 15 reps you should feel cooked at the lower biceps. Heres another tip, just for fun, try changing your grip from hands out to hands in, this will stress your lower bis and your upper forarms, use the same sets and reps. I have more defined bicep bellies because of these movements, and a stronger grip. Good Luck to all. ( Adam K)
Techniques: WHEN MOST PEOPLE SEE A PLATEAU IN THEIR TRAINING AND THERE NOT GROWING THEY RESORT TO STEROIDS BUT THATS A BIG NO NO. I HAVE A HIGH INTENSITY TECHNIQUE FOR U BY THE END OF IT HOPEFULLY U WILL BE PUKING AND MAYBE U WILL GROW.
ITS CALLED THE STRIPPING METHOD OR RUNNING THE RACK. THIS METHOD CAN BE DONE WITH REALLY ANY EXERCISE PREFERABLY BENCH PRESS AND MILITARY PRESS. EITHER IF YOUR BENCHING OR DOING A MILITARY PRESS LOAD UP THE BAR WITH A WEIGHT THAT WILL LET U GET 8 GOOD REPS.WHEN LOADING THE BAR PUT SMALL PLATES ON NOT BIG ONES U WILL BE ABLE TO GO LONGER WHAT U DO IS EACH TIME U COMPLETE 8 REPS TAKE 1 PLATE OFF EACH SIDE THEN DO ANOTHER 8 REPS TAKE ANOTHER PLATE OFF AND KEEP GOING TILL U ARE BENCHING NOTHING BUT THE BAR.LIKE I SAID THIS CAN BE DONE WITH MILITARY PRESS. THIS IS CALLED THE STRIPPING METHOD
THE NEXT ONE IS CALLED RUNNING THE RACK. LETS USE DUMBBELL CURLS FOR EXAMPLE.LETS SAY U CAN CURRENTLY CURL 50 POUNDS WITH ONE ARM . TAKE THE 5 POUND DUMBBELLS THE 10 THE 15 THE 20 THE 25 THE 30 AND SO ON UNTIL 50 .FIRST TAKE THE LIGHTEST WEIGHT AND DO AS MANY AS U CAN THEN WITHOUT STOPPING THEN GO TO THE 10 BUST OUT AS MANY REPS AS U CAN THEN 15 DO AS MANY AS U CAN THEN 20 DO AS MANY AS U CAN AND SO ON. I PROMISE U THIS BY THE TIME U GET TO 30 POUNDS U WILL BE SCREAMING IN AGONY BUT DON'T STOP.
U WENT TO THE GYM TO GET BIG AND U ASKED FOR THE PAIN BY GOING TO THE GYM SO DEAL WITH IT .IF U WANT TO GET HUGE WITH OUT STEROIDS U HAVE TO BE BUSTING YOUR ASS. WHEN U GO TO THE GYM GO ALL OUT-OR GET OUT.. HAPPY TRAINING . (submitted by Brotherhood member Craig K, NY)
Heavy Partial Reps:I have been using these for a while to increase my maximum lift in thesquat and deadlift. For squats, I use a power cage, and set the safety bars to roughly 5-6 inches below my shoulder level. This allows me to do the most powerful part of the lift (and hence the most weight) without risking safety. My max is about 285 now, so I can do 6-7 partials with 405. This is a good way to strengthen the tendons as well as the muscles. In my understanding, you have to be able to do a partial repbefore a full one. Also, don't mess around with your safety. I usually don't have a spotter in my gym, so I ALWAYS use the safety bars. Never do heavy squats without them - even if you have a spotter. What if he can't help you enough? You just get flattened.
You can do partial reps in a power cage for bench press and military press, also. Just bring a bench over, set the safetys, and pile on the weight. Just don't overdo it. Use good form with the most weight for 4-6
partials. ( Adam B)
Training Plateaus: When you hit a plateau, or your workouts get "sluggish", the one factor that most people overlook is rest. Take five days to a week off, get eight hours of sleep a night, then continue to sleep this long per night as you begin your workout routine again. Start it where you left off. It's almost a guarantee that you will break the plateau without having to make any major overhaul to your workouts or diet. Rest plays a far greater factor than we sometimes give it credit. (Christian M)
Pause: If looking for a way to add intensity try doing a set to failure,
then counting to twenty and crank out another rep or two. (Chisel)
Technique: PRYAT'S HELL--------------this will bust your chest untill you want to cry, pass out, yak, or never look at a bench again. Start out doing what you can handle 6 to eight times on the bench press. Hit falure but don't get any forced reps in. Go straight from that to Flys. Do as many flys as you can then drop the dumbbells. Take about about 40-50% of your previous bench and do that untill falure. If you can handle it throw in some forced reps. Do two sets of this (Pryat's Hell) instead of your 4 sets of bench. (Big Pryat)

Technique: Here's a tip to develop some freakish calves, jump on the back of an incline bench spotters stand and do 1 legged calf raises do 1 set of 20 for each leg, then slap a dumbell in your hand and do the same motion for 1 set of 10 with each leg. (Be sure to break the level plain of the stand on the back of the incline bench to stretch) Repeat the process for 3 sets of each type (3 sets of 20 each leg, 3 sets of ten with each leg = 12 sets) don't worry, your calves recover quickly even with the high # of sets. Repeat until calves become cows. (Kazod)
Routine Technique: After using just about every technique I had read about ex. go heavy/low reps, light/high reps and so on I found that if I did it all, in three basic sets, I had amazing results in a short amount of time. I start with as heavy as possible, for example: my first bench will be 405 (hammer) for three or four reps (failure), then I drop a plate and do negative reps (very effective) to failure, then go light to failure. Three sets each exercise and I have gained a large amount of lean muscle mass (for a drug free lifter anyway). (Mark J)
Plateau: Having trouble breaking that weight plateau? Try focusing on a body part that aid in the lift. Increase your triceps strength and your bench will follow, increase your lower back strength and your high intensity squats will have better form. This theory can be applied to almost any exercise.. (Dan H)
Plateau: I hit a plateau in my training where the traditional exercises one uses for gaining mass in the lats and posterior delts weren't producing the
results I was used to.....Stand at a Lat pull-down machine and use about 50% of what you usually use on lat pulldowns...here's the catch....stand, don't sit...take a couple steps back and reach up and grab the bar with a shoulder width grip. Your arms should be as parallel to the floor as possible.Push the bar down to your waist (kind-of like tricep push-downs but with straight-out arms) This works your lats and shoulders like crazy!! and, as an added bonus, it works your abs quite a bit to counterbalance the weight that you are pushing down. (BJ Corbin)
Triceps :I saw this exercise with the triceps that totally intrigued and mystified me. It was done using a bench that declined with the leg restraints(to keep you from falling off the thing) and using the E-Z curl bar and whatever weight that you could do. I call it decline triceps extension. This exercise really got the top portion of the triceps and they just tore me up. I love (and hate) the way it really explodes the top head of the triceps. It hurts but man, after you see the results and feel the results it will be a part of your routine. Its' GREAT!! (Hadjr)
Squats: If you want some awesome quads try this. Take a weight you know you can handle for 12-15 reps with high quality form. Now knock that down to about 75%. Start squatting but you count to five on the way down pause for a
second at the bottom and then slowly start upwards again counting to five.
Each set should last anywhere from a minute and twenty seconds to a minute
and forty seconds. Do six to eight sets of that and you'll be crying like a little school girl but you'll have legs the size of the Texas Panhandle. (Ben H)
Plateau: change your tempo. ie: 3210... 3 count down, 2 second pause at the bottom, 1 count power up, 0 pause at the top. (Jonnyel)

Quads: You do 2-4 giant sets beginning with leg extensions. Do 8 reps to failure and then the same with leg presses. Then do sissy squats to failure and then squat to failure with a weight you could normally handle for 12-15 reps. If you can do more than 8 reps with this, increase the weight. (Mike A)
Triceps: I got a great tip for trashing your triceps. Its one of my favorite all time ways to make em burn. First you do close grip bench, I prefer the cambered bar myself, and do a set of ten to all out failure. Sometimes I get a couple of forced reps in. Then right after that, I do a set of bench dips to failure, DONT LOCK OUT AT THE TOP! I set a flat bench right next to where I do my close grip bench presses, so I don't waste any time, or allow my muscle to recover at all. After doing hitting the last couple reps on the bench dips my arms give out and I fall to the ground. Thats what I call failure. I usually can't do more than 2-3 sets of this. Give it try, you wont regret it. (Silverman)

Starting a bodybuilding program can be a daunting experience. You visit your local gym only to see intimidating, big armed men and lean, muscular women training with a serious attitude. You look around and are dazed by the expansive array of equipment. How dies it all work? Even the vocabulary seems like a foreign language: spotting, pyramid training, gastrocnemius, reps, periodication.
Whew! Would it help if we reminded you that even Arnold Schwarzenegger, perhaps the greatest bodybuilder of all time, had a first day in the gym? If fact, we all did!

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Getting Started

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Great - you've decided to try bodybuilding. Perhaps you want to build mass, tighten up your midsection or slim down; those are all possible with strength training. Whatever your reason (and you should definitely write down your goals for starting and your realistic expectations of what you hope to achieve in the short and long term),m you should follow a clearly defined program.

Don't expect us to provide you with any so-called success; let's state for the record right now that some training methods are smarter and better than others, but nothing resembles a secret. Our role here is to teach and guide you through your first three months so that you can take your training to the next level and design a personal routine that meets your needs.

Is there one program that's right for everyone? No. Did you really expect that one routine would serve the needs of the female college basketball player who wants to make a more dominating presence on the court, the 45 year old businessman looking to firm his body and improve his health, and the young man interested in competitive bodybuilding? Every person who trains has different motivations, desires and genetic potential, and each must make his or her own adjustments in putting together a particular program. It's really not so difficult. But before you get started, here are some points you'll want to consider.

Get a physician's release if you are over 40 or have had any sort of previous injury or impairment.

Be realistic but positive. Assess your current condition and where you want to be in three months, one year and five years. Keep focused on your goals and know you'll achieve them.

Commit yourself to three months before making any judgements about whether it's working or not. The truth is, you're probably a bit impatient, and sculpting your physique takes time. Changes take place incrementally, but three months is long enough to notice some significant changes in strength and size. Persistence and dedication are characteristics that all successful bodybuilders have in common. Do you?

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Designing Your Exercise Program

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Before getting into your program, you need to develop an understanding of how and why you're building your exercise routine. Although we've gone ahead and designed a program for you, just about everything in ti can be changed depending on your particular circumstances. Your primary objective here, as a beginner, is to build a solid foundation - and not just any training program will take you there in an efficient manner. Study the following points to better understand your bodybuilding program.

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Bodypart Training

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Bodybuilders group exercises by bodypart and train one muscle group at a time. Working one are with 1-3 exercises ensures that you train it thoroughly. Experience says that this type of training is the most efficient for bodybuilding. (Circuit training, on the other hand, allows you to do movements for different bodyparts back to back with no rest in between).

Every major muscle group should be developed to prevent muscle imbalance and the risk of injury. The major muscle groups include legs (quadriceps, hamstrings, calves, glutes), chest, shoulders, back (Trapezius, lats, erectors), abdominals and arms (biceps, triceps).

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Exercises

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You can choose from any number of movements that target a particular muscle group, but beginners should stick with the basics to develop a solid foundation. The first exercise you do for a given bodypart should be a compound movement. (A compound or multijoint movement, unlike an isolation exercise, has movement at two or more joints and thus brings in a greater number of assisting muscle groups. Note: Some bodyparts like biceps, triceps and calves can be worked with pre-dominatantly isolation exercises.)

Some basic movements can be done in a number of ways; for example, you can do a bench press with a barbell, with dumbbells or on a machine. Eventually, you'll learn how to do them all and use the in your training arsenal.

Two similar exercises can target a muscle differently. For example, the bench press is a good exercise for most of the chest, but the incline press (essentially a bench press done on an incline bench) works the upper pectorals more effectively. When you put exercises together to form a routine, you'll want to include those movements that hit the same muscle in different ways. That's why you normally include 2-3 exercises when you work each bodypart.

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Weights

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During the first couple of training sessions, you'll want to go pretty light just to get a feel for how to do the movement correctly. After you feel comfortable with the form, begin adding weight.

Even an experienced lifted should always do his first set as a warm-up with practically no weight to flush to target muscle and connective tissue with blood. On the second set, add a couple of small plates and do the exercise again. Was it still east? If so, and assuming you used good form, add more weight. If you struggled to reach 12 repetitions, add just a little bit of weight. (Adding weight on successive sets is called pyramid training and is one of the safest ways to train.)

Continue adding weight until it becomes tough to complete 8-12 reps. Your goal is to train in the range where you reach muscular failure at 8-12 reps. Once you find a challenging weight, stick with it. So you'll become stronger and be able to increase the number of reps. Once you can do 12, it's time to increase your training poundage by about 10%. At this heavier weight, you won't be able to do 12 reps, but with time you'll once again be able to. Keep working in this fashion.

The principle behind this type of training is known as overload. It states that for improvements to occur, you must impose a demand on your muscles greater than what they're accustomed to (for bodybuilding purposes, about two-thirds of your maximal strength). Your muscles compensate for this strain on the cellular level by adding protein to grow thicker and stronger. At that point, the same load is no longer sufficient to induce further changes, more load must be added. That is, you must progressively add training stimulus to make continued improvements.

Keep track of your training poundage by recording your weights, sets and reps in a training log alongside a list of your exercises.

Some bodybuilders swing and heave, cheating for the sake of pushing heavier weights. Remember, the name of the game here is not weightlifting, but rather bodybuilding.

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Sets

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A set is a combination of any number of reps of a single exercise. As a beginner, you'll normally want to do 1-2 light warm up sets of each movement (especially the first movement for a given bodypart) before doing 1-3 heavier sets. That equals 2-4 total sets per exercise.

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Reps

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A rep is a single execution of one exercise. if you do a set of 10 bicep curls consecutively, that's 10 reps. During your first week or two, keep the weights very light so that you can complete about 15 reps in good form. This is a change for you to practice good form while you work on your neuromuscular coordination and lean the proper 'feel' for the movement. Developing that feel with become even more critical later on because it will tell you if an exercise is working.

After that initial break-in period, to build size and strength you want to do 8-12 reps per set (after your warm-up set of 15 reps, which you should do at the start of each exercise). Use a weight that allows you to do the recommended number of reps and still reach muscle failure.

Muscle failure means that you cannot do any more reps with good form. If you can't do eight strict reps, the weight's too heavy. If you can do more than 12, the weight's too light. Adjust the weight for your next set. (Note: The numbers eight and twelve are not arbitrarily derived. Exercise scientists have conducted numerous tests and have found that working with a weight about 70% of your one-rep maximum produces the fastest results. Most bodybuilders can lift about 70% of their one-repetition maximum 8-12 times).

Though you don't have to train to muscle failure to grow, you need to come pretty close. Bodybuilders call this intensity. How do you know if you're close to working at 100% intensity? Simple: If you can do another rep with good form, do it! If you can do still another, do it.

After you build you base, you may want to experiment with a program that alternates periods of high reps (which build muscle endurance) to medium reps (builds muscle mass) with low reps (builds strength and power) and back up again. This is called cycling. The idea here is to progress to a higher level of strength each cycle. (Note: Advanced strength athletes like powerlifters use slightly different training methods, most notably the number of reps, that do bodybuilders. You'll get stronger as you build muscle, but training to maximuse strength isn't identical to the type of training that maximizes mass.)

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Proper Form

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We'll say this again and again, but it's far better to use a weight that allows you to perform the movement correctly than to cheat with a heavy weight that will, sooner or later, result in an injury.

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Speed of Movement

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Use a smooth, controlled motion during all phases of the lift. This deliberate rep speed produces the greatest results for bodybuilding purposes. Super-fast reps with ballistic movements and jerking can be harmful to muscles and connective tissues, while slow training accomplishes very little. In general, most bodybuilders use a formula that approximates a two-second positive contraction (raising the weight), a momentary squeeze of the muscle at the point of peak contraction, and a two-second negative contraction (lowering of the weight).

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Breathing

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Most people don't think much about breathing until they begin lifting weights, but it should still come naturally. Start each set with a deep inhalation and exhale as you push through the most difficult part of the lift. Inhale at the top (or the easiest portion of the lift) and exhale as you push.

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Rest between Sets

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In general, rest as long as it takes for you to feel recovered from your previous set. That normally ranges from 45-90 seconds. Larger muscle groups take a bit longer to recover; smaller muscle groups clear low pH levels are are ready to go more quickly. Don't fall into the all too common mistake of talking with your buddies for 3-4 minutes between sets, during which time your muscle can become cold. This is counterproductive and lengthens the time you spend in the gym.

If you want to emphasize strength, take a little longer rest between sets. On the other hand, less rest means you won't be able to lift as heavy, but you'll be stressing your endurance. Of note: How much you can lift on a given set and the number of reps you do are directly related to the length of your rest period.

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Use a Full Range of Motion

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Use a full range of motion in your exercise movements. You want to work each target muscle through its natural range of motion for complete development and to prevent injury.

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Training Frequency

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Say you train your entire body on Monday. Should you do it again on Tuesday, or wait until Wednesday? The answer is that your body requires a minimum of 48 hours to fully recover after exercise, sometimes even longer. Physiological processes at the cellular level require rest and nutrients before you can train that same muscle group again. A good rule of thumb: If you're even slightly sore, you're not ready to train that bodypart again.

If you're an advanced bodybuilder and split up your workout into, for example, one day for upper body and another for lower body, you can train on consecutive days as long as you don't repeat the same workout. As a beginner, you don't want to go more than 96 hours (four days) without training the same muscle group again. Timing too infrequently results in submaximal gains.

The answer for the beginner, then, is to train every 2-3 days (or three times a week). A Monday - Wednesday - Friday (or similar) schedule is ideal.

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Training Duration

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If you follow the exercises, sets, reps and rest prescription, you should complete your resistance training in about an hour. Never mind those two hour plus sessions; who could possibly maintain the high level of intensity and mental fortitude of a marathon training session? What matters is the quality of your workout measured by the intensity you create, not the length of time you spend in the gym. Remember that.

*OH and yes I promise to bitch slap him for making the comments he made about the board and the bros

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I read it ALLLLLLLLL! Saved it as well! You can never learn too much in life....

quote:

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Originally posted by Latimer:
Wasn't this originally posted by G-Force?

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Yes, it was. I've had it saved on my hard drive in MSWord format since like March of 2000. Gforce is the coolest.

-Warik

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