Bodybuilding routine for building mass

Making a bodybuilding routine can be very confusing. Many questions can arise. How many days should I work out, How many sets and repetitions should I be doing, What body parts should I workout together, How much protein do I need per day? I know now that when I first started working out I really didn’t have a clue of what I was doing. I can remember watching Body Shaping on ESPN and reading muscles magazine to get the latest tips. Yes I did learn a few good tips, but trial and error has been my best teacher.

One thing I do want to promote about exercise is how it can change your life. Working out is a great way to really learn about yourself. Yes, its physical, but I believe it’s more mental. It’s takes a huge responsibility to make a commitment to stay on a workout program. Many things can happen on your journey, injuries, slow results, holidays, friends, but when you fight through those and stay focused on your journey, that’s when the real results happen. Once you see how you have transformed your body and mind, you believe anything is possible. With that said, I will now share some advanced bodybuilding techniques that have worked for me.

The next few paragraphs I’ll share some exercise principles and advanced techniques that have helped me with my exercise goals. This program has helped me gain over 50 pounds of muscle my first 5 years of bodybuilding. Consult your local physician and Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist for proper exercise prescription.

How many sets and repetitions are recommended?

My resistance training workouts are no longer than 45-60 minutes. After a certain amount of time your levels of muscle building and fat burning hormones that your body produces (such as testosterone) begin to drop. So instead of helping our body grow (anabolic state), your hinder its growth and recovery if your training is too long (catabolic state).

The general rule is to perform 3 sets of each exercise. I suggest 4 sets of each exercise. First set is the warm up set. Use a low weight for each new exercise getting the muscles warm and your body using proper form. Example: Chest press, I usually use 70 lbs dumbbells, but for my warm up set I would use 40 or 45 lbs.

Sets should be of 8 - 15 repetitions each. Again it will depend on your goal. Studies show that lifting at least 10 reps helps release growth hormone, which is one of the best hormones for muscle growth.

What kind of bodybuilding techniques work the best?

A number of techniques have been developed to make weight training exercises more intense, and thereby potentially increase the rate of progress:

1. Drop sets - I love drop sets and strongly encourage you to implement them into your exercise program once you have worked out for at least a few months and learned proper form. Drop sets do not end at the point of momentary muscular failure, but continue with progressively lighter weights. Example: I’m doing Biceps curls with 35 lbs dumbells, as soon as I finish my set, I drop the weight to 25 lbs and immediatly start a new set. You can even do this another set and drop the weight to 15 lbs. I recommend doing the drop at least twice and up to five times. You are guaranteed to see results with this one, but be carefult not to hurt ourself. Injuries are the biggest de-motivator and sometimes take up to 1 yr to heal. That’s the last thing you want. Know your limits. Pushing too hard will only hinder your results.

2. Pyramid sets - In a pyramid the weight is first increased, and then decreased over a series of sets. A full pyramid typically includes five sets of approximately 12, 10, 8, 10 and 12 reps. The first two sets are performed with light to medium weights to warm up the muscles. The middle set uses the heaviest weight possible. The last two sets are drop sets, and further fatigue the muscle with progressively lighter weights. This technique provides a combination of volume and intensity, and is therefore popular with bodybuilders. However, the full pyramid may be too much for a beginner to handle, so it is only recommended for experienced trainers.

3. Supersets - Supersets combine two or more exercises with similar motions to maximize the amount of work of an individual muscle or group of muscles. The exercises are performed with no rest period between the exercises. An example would be doing a seated row, which predominantly works the back and bicep muscles, and then moving to an exercise that works chest such as the basic pushup. You can really get a quick, but effective workout with supersets.

4. Super slow - Super slow repetitions are performed with lighter weights. The lifting and lowering phases of each repetition take 10 seconds or more. This exercise has given me great results.

5. Negative reps - Negatives are performed with much heavier weights. Assistants lift the weight, and then the weight trainer attempts to resist its downward progress. Alternatively, an individual can use an exercise machine for negatives by lifting the weight with both arms or legs, and then lowering it with only one. Or they can simply lower weights more slowly than they lift them: for example, by taking two seconds to lift each weight and four seconds to lower it.

6. Forced reps - Forced reps occur after momentary muscular failure. An assistant provides just enough help to get the weight trainer past the sticking point of the exercise, and allow further repetitions to be completed. Weight trainers often do this when they are spotting their exercise partner. With some exercises forced reps can be done without a training partner. For example, with one-arm biceps curls the other arm can be used to assist the arm that is being trained.

7. Compound sets – Compound sets have 2-4 exercises per body part in succession. Indivuals perform one exercise to fatigueThis creates a fatigue and helps develop muscle mass. Example: Chest – Chest press, then immediately after, you do incline chest press.

What body parts should I work together?

This is the program that I have followed for myself and is only a recommendation. I suggest splitting your body parts into two different days. Example: Monday – Chest, shoulders, triceps & abs would be one day. The next day on Tuesday – Back, biceps and legs. Take Wednesday off and start routine over on Thursday. Saturday and Sunday let your body recover from the week. Start same routine over on Monday. Do 3 exercises for chest and back, 2 for shoulders, triceps, & biceps and 6 sets for abs.

Example of day 1: Chest - Chest press, incline chest press, cable chest fly, pushups also work great with a compound set for chest. Shoulders - dumbell shoulder press and side lateral raise. Triceps - Tricep pressdowns and tricep kickbacks. Abs – ball crunches, plank, bicycle, v-up, torso twist for obliques.

Example of day 2: Back - Seated or standing row, lat pulldown, pull ups(assisted), rear deltiod exercise, & reverse fly. Biceps - Bicep curls & preacher curls. Legs – Squats, leg presses, lunges, and calf raises.

The reason that this program makes complete sense is that those muscle groups work together . Everytime you do a chest press, you are using your shoulders and triceps. Everytime you do a standing row, you use your biceps. So fatiguing those muscles in one day and then resting for two, gives your body the best chance for growth.

Every bodybuilder has gone through overtraining during their exercise program one time or another. We get so into the workouts and want to grow, we end up going to the gym 6-7 days a week. This actually defeats the purpose. Some may differ, but this my experience. Remember, injuries can completely stop your progress.

Another key component of bodybuilding is how fast you recover. A big factor in how your recover fast is the nutrition that you put into your body. Eating correctly for what type on goal you have is crucial. I learned the hard way. It took me a few more years than the average bodybuilder to see the results I was looking for. In my next article I will share some of personal nutrition secrets that helped me pack on 50 lbs of muscle.

Please feel free to make comments and share what has worked for you. Also share how exercise has changed your life.