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 Part 1: Beginner's Bodybuilding Program! Part 2: Intermediate's Bodybuilding Program! Part 3: Advanced Bodybuilding Program!
By now you should have gotten the hang of the basic exercises and gym routines. Hopefully you've experienced some growth and increased strength as well. Now is the time to start developing a more thought-out bodybuilding strategy. The first step is reviewing your training split.
As you get better at targeting muscles and hammer them with heavy sets, you inflict more "damage" to the muscles at each workout. Your mind-muscle connection has improved, and you need to let them rest more to recover. As a result, it's time to revisit your training split. Some may get away with continuing a twice-a-week schedule, but many natural bodybuilders find that to be too much - overtraining is common and must be avoided. More on overtraining in the Advanced chapter. Here are two sample training splits, one with three workouts and one with four workouts per week. For simplicity, I've assumed a 7-day cycle where you do the same workouts on set days of the week, but you can of course adjust this as you see fit. If you feel fully rested and energized after 6 days, by all means, go on a 6-day cycle and ignore what day of the week it is, or vice versa, with an 8-day cycle if you feel that you need more time to recover. Ultimately, it is your body that decides how frequently you can train.
Another change you will notice is a couple new exercises. Deadlifts and barbell squats are classic mass-builders, which help you build core strength. While it may be nice to use the latest and greatest machines, it's hard to get the kind of mass the classics provides. Many distinguished professional bodybuilders got their massive foundation by sticking to the basics for the first few years. Then, once you've reached a solid base you can experiment more with machines and cables.
Monday: Chest/Triceps/Shoulders
Tuesday: Rest Wednesday: Back/Biceps/Forearms/Abs
Thursday: Rest Friday: Legs
Weekend: Rest
Monday: Back/Biceps/Forearms
Tuesday: Shoulders*/Calfs/Abs
* excluding anterior delts
Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Quads/Hamstrings
Friday: Chest/Triceps
Weekend: Rest Click here to learn the proper techniques of over 300 exercises with pictures!
With junk food out of your diet and a nutrition log stretching over the past few months, you should already feel more in control of your eating habits and start experiencing the positive effects of better eating. Now it's time to narrow the focus to your specific goals. Generally, people can be divided into three groups: Those who have a hard time putting on weight (ectomorphs), those who put on weight too easily (endomorphs), and then there's that lucky handful who're just right in the sweet spot and only need to keep eating to maintain their balance (mesomorphs). Not everyone can be placed squarely to one category, but you quick look in the mirror should tell you which general area you're in.
Key to getting the diet right for these three groups is to determine a suitable balance of protein, carbs and fats. The way to do this is simply summing up the totals from each column in your log, then multiply protein and carbs by 4 and finally multiply fat by 9. Then add the three totals and notice that the total calories differ slightly from the calorie-column you filled in. Don't worry, you didn't mess up - you'll notice the official calorie-count of many foods don't quite add up when you break it down, so just check so you're in the same ballpark and you're ok. For simplicity, let's bring up the sample menu from the Beginner chapter: Beginner Sample Diet
Ok, let's do the math:
Carbs: 252 x 4 = 1,008 Fat: 50 x 9 = 450 Total: 2,134 calories Now, let's divide each number with the total calories:
Carbs: 1,008 / 2,134 = 0.472 = 47.2% Fat: 450 / 2,134 = 0.211 = 21.1% (NOTE: Calories are rounded to the nearest whole number. This may cause your total calories added up to be different than the calculation above.) Does This Diet Not Work For You? If this diet does not work for you enter your bodyweight in the form below and it will output how many calories you need from protein, fat and carbs. From there you can use the BODYBUILDING.COM NUTRIENT DATABASE of over 6,000 foods and find out how many grams of protein, carbs and fat are in the foods you eat, along with the full vitamin and mineral profile.
Now, let's look at different strategies for the three basic types of people.
Naturally skinny people need a lot of calories to put on muscle mass. While it's easy to think pizza and ice cream should be the ticket to getting those extra calories, they should come from good sources rather than junk in order to promote the muscle-building effort. Since you have a naturally high metabolism to begin with, you need to a lot of fuel to burn, especially when you're lifting weights 3-4 times a week. Carbs is your primary source of fuel, in the gym and afterwards, so it makes sense to keep the carb intake up. Examples of good sources of carbs are rice, pasta, veggies, bread (preferably the rough, high-fiber types) and oatmeal. In addition to fueling your workouts, carbs stimulate the release of insulin, which is highly anabolic. Insulin also encourages your body to store fat, but that's not a big issue for someone who has to fight for each gained pound. Any fat you may gain along with the muscle can be worked off later.
Structuring the diet for an ectomorph is not rocket science -- try to eat more of everything! Starting with your daily caloric average (that you derived from your first week with the nutrition log) try to add about 500 calories per day. Adjust this up or down 100-200 calories if you're very large or very small. This will provide your body with a little extra every day to ensure there's always a "calorie surplus". Get 20-25% of your calories from protein, 20-25% from good fats and 50-60% of your calories from carbs. Aim for complex, aka. slow carbs rather than sugary stuff. Avoid saturated and processed fats -- go with flax and olive oil, fish and nuts for your fat intake. Sample Ectomorph Diet
If you're an endomorph, the challenge is keeping the fat off while gaining muscle. It's a hard line to walk, but it can be done. While the popular high-protein/high-fat/low-carb diets may be questionable for safety and long-term results, they do have a nugget of truth: carbs are not the best friends for people prone to packing on fat. This is largely caused by the dual-edge nature of insulin -- it helps you build muscle, but it also nudges you toward increased fat storage. Protein, on the other hand, does not trigger a release of insulin, yet adds good calories that are unlikely to be turned into fat almost regardless. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, you still need to consume fat to function and to burn body fat. Also, since less carbs often mean less vegetables and fiber, you may want to consider daily fiber supplementation for keeping your digestive system in shape. The endomorph diet strategy reflects this emphasis on protein and carb-avoidance. A tried-and-true caloric split of 40-45% protein, 40-45% carbs and 15-20% fat helps ensure sufficient protein for growth while keeping the carbs under control. If your goal is to shed fat, start with your daily caloric average (that you derived from your first week with the nutrition log) and deduct about 500 calories. In other words, if you took in an average of 2,400 calories per day while neither gaining nor losing weight before, your new target average intake is 1,900 calories. Adjust 100-200 calories as necessary if you're very large or very small.
Sample Endomorph Diet
Mesomorphs are lucky in that they add on muscle relatively easily without having to worry about packing on too much fat in the process. Still, even the most genetically blessed mesomorphs won't get away with a pizza-and-beer diet. Your goal is to provide enough carbs to fuel your workouts and enough protein to enable optimal muscle growth without going overboard. Complex carbs, such as rice, pasta, oatmeal and rough bread, along with complete food proteins such as eggs, milk, fish, chicken and lean beef should be the base of your diet. Avoid processed foods and don't forget your daily veggies and/or fiber supplements. As far as the caloric split, aim for 30-35% protein, 45-50% carbs and 15-20% fat. Based on your daily caloric average (that you derived from your first week with the nutrition log), add an average of 500 calories per day. Be prepared to make adjustments as necessary - use a measuring tape to track your waist, chest, arms and thigh measurements on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. If your waist stays the same and the rest increases you're good, if all measurements increase you need to cut back on carbs and/or fat, and if nothing happens anywhere you can increase the calories in 100-calorie increments until you see results. Sample Mesomorph Diet
Your multivitamin/minerals and protein drinks remain the foundation of you supplementation regime. In addition to having protein drinks as in-between snacks, you may want to get into the habit of having a pure protein drink before bedtime, caloric budget permitting. Pure protein drinks, with little or no carbs and fat, typically provide 40 grams of quality protein while staying under 200 calories yet helps your body recover better as you sleep. As protein does not trigger the release of insulin it won't turn into fat. Check out our protein shakes recipes main page, click here!
In addition, it increases the water retention in your muscles, giving you a more buffed look while making it easier to get a good pump. Another positive aspect of the increased hydration is that it increases protein synthesis by bringing in more ions into the muscle cells = more growth. To take best advantage of creatine you should cycle it with distinct loading-phases and breaks between each cycle. Some studies have suggested a low-dose, continuous approach works too, but it is my experience that cycling is more effective. Drinking a lot of water, especially during the loading phase, is key to taking full advantage of the creatine. How To Take Creatine:
Take 5-10 grams of creatine with breakfast, mid-afternoon before workout, immediately after the workout, and right before bed for a total of 20-40 grams for the day (depending on bodyweight. <150 lbs = 20 grams, >220 lbs = 40 grams.) Drink a LOT of water!
Day 5 & Onward:
After 4-6 Weeks: To get the best absorption, have your creatine with something sugary such as grape juice or dextrose. Some supplement companies sell pre-mixed creatine cocktails that promise rapid absorption. Another supplement you may want to consider is glutamine. Glutamine is an amino acid that plays a key role in protein synthesis, i.e. helps your body build muscle. In addition, it boosts your immune system and is a major building block for DNA. You've probably heard about "keeping a positive nitrogen balance" as a good thing for building muscle. Unfortunately, nitrogen processing has a nasty side effect: ammonia. Too high levels of ammonia in the body are not healthy, but glutamine helps keeping the ammonia in check. While you can always reap some benefit from adding a couple of 5-10 gram doses of glutamine to your daily supplementation regime, the real bang comes when you're dieting to lose weight - it can do wonders in helping you preserve muscle mass while shedding the fat. Last but not least, taking a few doses of vitamin C throughout the day can help you stay healthy. While not producing instant results like creatine, vitamin C is more of a good-to-have supplement with a bunch of intangible benefits. But hey, it's dirt cheap and water-soluble so you don't have to worry about overdosing -- what's to lose?
Forced/Assisted Reps - Learn More
Last but not least, the help should only be applied to the positive phase, i.e. while the muscle is contracting. In the negative phase, where you're resisting the weight on its way back down, should be completely unassisted. You're up to 40% stronger in the negative phase anyway, so you shouldn't need the help. In fact, this difference in strength between the positive and the negative phases comes in handy for one of the advanced intensity boosters, but it carries a fair risk of injury so you don't want to play that game until you have a couple years of experience under your belt. Drop Sets - Learn More
This is great for getting an awesome pump and is a good option for those training alone, but you lose some of the benefits of having the heavier weight in the negative phase. Some exercises are especially suitable for drop sets, such as lateral dumbbell raises, bicep curls and cable crossover flies. Supersets - Learn More
Obviously, you'll be weakened for the second set so choose weights accordingly. Also bear in mind that some muscles are more suited to supersets than others. Chest, for example, is a perfect muscle for supersets, where you can start with heavy dumbbell presses and then immediately go to cable crossover flies. On the other hand, there are only so many ways to hit hamstrings - can the body really tell the difference between seated leg curls or face-down leg curls?
Don't lose the spark that got you started in the first place! Keep your eyes firmly on the end goal and keep hitting your small partials goals. Adjust your expectations to fit reality and push on.
As mentioned earlier, a workout partner can be golden when it comes to staying motivated. A good training partner will urge you to go beyond what you thought you were capable of, while a bad partner can make you wish you were back home on your couch. Ideally, pick someone who is slightly stronger than you and have an upbeat, positive outlook. Try to match that mindset and don't be afraid to engage in friendly competition. Keep things fun yet focused on the task at hand. Another dumb but surprisingly effective trick for pushing yourself is to imagine an eccentric millionaire walking in with an offer of a million dollars for breaking your old record. With a thick stack of $100 dollar bills under your nose, wouldn't you find some extra reserve someplace to squeeze out another 2 reps? Sure you would, so just do it. You may surprise yourself. Last but not least, learn to accept pain. If you shy away from the fact that the last reps of leg presses will make your quads burn like fire you'll never realize your full potential as a bodybuilder. There's no need to go masochistic, but the sooner you learn to suck it up and push through to the other side the better off you will be. Acquainting yourself with pain will also help you identify regular, harmless pain caused by a good workout as opposed to unhealthy pain caused by joint injuries, muscular tears and similar.
Part 1: Beginner's Bodybuilding Program! Part 2: Intermediate's Bodybuilding Program! Part 3: Advanced Bodybuilding Program!Good Luck, Recommend this article to a friend by e-mail here! Visitor Reviews Of This Article!
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