Building muscles, getting stronger, losing weight, toning your body - all are common and valid reasons to start working out with weights as part of your exercise program. But while weight training should always improve your general fitness levels, different types of workout routines are better for different fitness goals.
At it's most basic level, these different styles of working out with weights can be divided into three basic areas - bodybuilding, powerlifting and weightlifting. It can get confusing to those first starting to work out, both because of the vast array of workout routines and because even the mainstream fitness magazines tend to use the category names interchangeably. So before you start working out with weights, it's important to know the differences between these three and when each style is best for you and your fitness goals.
Bodybuilding Workouts
While often used generically to refer to any exercise using weights, bodybuilding is specifically aimed at building the biggest lean muscle mass possible given that athlete's genetic makeup. While some strength gains and body fat weight loss will usually occur, especially at first, these are neither the main goal nor the primary function.
Exercise repetitions for this goal usually range in the 8 - 15 reps range, repeated for 3 - 5 or more sets of reps. Time between sets should be kept short, in the 30 - 45 seconds range. This style of training focuses mostly on increasing sarcoplasm, the liquid component of each muscle. Latest research indicates time-under-tension is emerging as the most important part of this process, hence the short breaks between sets. Also, some bodybuilding style variations include moving the weights more slowly, either in both directions or just on the negative(lowering) half of the exercise in order to increase the total time under tension.
Symmetry is very important in bodybuilding, so bodybuilding routines are designed to work the entire body with an eye to correcting any imbalances in size or appearance. While some muscle size imbalances are due to genetics, focusing more on the smaller, undersized muscles while going a little easier on those that develop quickly for you can help you achieve a more symmetrical appearance. Generally speaking, bodybuilders use a mix of compound exercises and isolation exercises to keep their muscles working constantly to adapt, forcing them to grow in the process.
Powerlifting Workouts
Unlike bodybuilding, powerlifting workouts are less concerned with building muscle mass and focus much more on building strength. Getting stronger requires lifting heavier weights - growing to lifting MUCH heavier weights as a powerlifter's abilities and strength progress. Lifting very heavy weights for fewer reps builds the myofibrils, or 'strength cords' that run through your muscles.
If you've ever watched a strongman competition you already know of the incredible poundages these people are lifting, and the powerlifting sport is not limited to men - more and more women are enjoying the sport as well! But along with the much heavier weights comes a lot more responsibility to yourself to ensure your form is perfect and that you use every safety precaution available. No matter what your level, it is never advisable to do a powerlifting workout by yourself - if your training partner and spotter doesn't show up, use higher reps and lower weights for that day's workout.
Powerlifting routines also require more rest between reps, sets and workouts due in large part to the effect of that extreme exertion on your central nervous system. That applies to nutrition and sleep as well - you'll need a lot more calories and at least 8-10 hours of sleep a night while on a powerlifting cycle to avoid overtraining and overtaxing your system.
Powerlifters do as many or more sets than bodybuilders, but due to the heavier weights, by necessity the reps are limited. Normal powerlifting rep ranges are in the 3 - 6 rep range, and it's not unusual to see a powerlifter doing 1-rep-max sets, or single reps using as much weight as they can manage while being too heavy to allow them a second rep in that set. Leave the 1RM sets to the experienced powerlifters though - they hold far too great a risk of serious damage or death for even an intermediate athlete to make it worth doing them.
You may well see some muscle size increase and burn some body fat, especially at first, but don't expect lean muscle mass gains to keep pace with your strength increases - powerlifting is all about strength and any other benefits are ancillary.
Weightlifting Workouts
Weightlifting is the most generic of the three titles, and can also be applied to powerlifting and bodybuilding routines, especially when either is just part of an overall long-term weighlifting plan. But for the purposes of this article, we'll use weightlifting as the type of routine aimed mostly at achieving a better overall fitness level - getting somewhat stronger, building some lean muscle mass, toning your body and burning some body fat.
As such, general weightlifting plans help reach the fitness goals of a much wider slice of the general population - those not looking to become professional and/or competitive athletes. While all workout plans should start with light weights, general weightlifting routines should never hit the weights used in powerlifting and usually doesn't require drastic adherence to specific sleep and nutrition plans required of serious bodybuilders and powerlifters.
Since your goals are less extreme and cover a broader scope, it should be easy to see the weight used will usually remain below the other two types of routines, and the rep range will be between the two. Using moderate weights for 8 - 12 reps per set with 3-4 sets for each exercise will keep you evolving to be closer to your goals. Pay strict attention to proper exercise form and only increase the weight you're lifting on any exercise when you can complete all your reps for every set in perfect form.
D. Champigny is a certified personal trainer and the publisher of FlirtingWithFitness.com. Be sure to follow him as @FlirtingFitness on Twitter.
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Many bodybuilding workout routines are very rich in techniques and principles such as doing slow negatives to increase hypertrophy or doing supersets which help work opposing muscle groups more thoroughly and at the same time decrease workout time. Unlike powerlifting and Olympic weight lifting, bodybuilding training's goal is not to develop strength in movements but rather muscle size. There is much to learn. Here are some simple guidelines.
Don't Change Your Bodybuilding Workout Routine if it is Working
Because of the volume of exercises that bodybuilders sometimes end up doing, it's easy to get frustrated with your current workout when you've been doing it for awhile. You may be just plain bored with it. Boredom however should not be the reason why you change it. If the routine is working for you in that you are beating the logbook most of the time by getting more reps per exercise or lifting more weight then there's no reason to change. There are only two reasons to switch:
1) You injured a major body part and have to adjust by changing exercises.
2) You're stagnating and not beating the log book.
If You stall, Swap Exercises
Sometimes when training, you will plateau. An exercise will stall. Sometimes in order to see results again the best thing is to stop doing that exercise and swap it out with a similar one. For instance, you can switch the incline press for the decline bench press.
Patience and Good Nutrition Will Get You There Faster
You will not be getting an amazing physique transformation overnight. In fact, it may be months before you see any great results. Improve your nutrition and you'll see even more results. If you are too skinny, then add more protein and calories to your diet. If you are too fat, then decrease the amount of calories you are consuming but still be sure to get a lot of protein. The amount of lean mass can usually be increased by eating more protein. You may want to consider spending some money on whey protein for extra protein supplementation.
Know Your Exercises and the Definition of Power
There are two types of exercises: Compound and isolation. An example of a compound exercise is the bench press in which body parts (lower arms, upper arms, and torso) turn around more than one joint (elbow and shoulder). An example of an isolation exercise would be the barbell curl in which only one joint (elbow) is employed in the lift. You can usually lift more weight with a compound exercise than with an isolation exercise. Compound exercises also require more recovery in between workouts.
It is hard to define the difference between an intermediate and advanced workout. The simplest definition is that your body performs more work in an advanced workout. The physics definition of work is probably the best. It is the distance a weight travels given a certain amount of time (weight x distance x time). If you are doing repetitions with the same cadence but are lifting more weight or you are lifting the same amount of weight but are lifting it faster or moving it farther, then your muscles are doing more work. You should perform full reps for maximum results. Partial reps will only give partial results. Train hard with intensity and be patient. If you are a beginner you cannot expect to train with an advanced workout let alone compete in a strongman competition.
Length of Workouts and Cortisol
You don't have to be spending hours in the gym. For maximum results, keep the period of your bodybuilding workout routine down to less than one hour. After a certain period of training, the amount of testosterone in your blood goes lower and the hormone cortisol starts being released in greater amounts. There is much written about how cortisol is bad for muscle building but cortisol, however is useful in the process of super-compensation. It is used to decrease muscle inflammation and aid in the process of breaking down amino acids for protein synthesis after strenuous exercise. Too much of it, however can stop muscle gains.
Don't be dogmatic. Sometimes it's advantageous when feeling under the weather to seriously consider taking more rest days. It is common to feel sluggish after having a particular grueling workout. Remember, workouts break down muscle tissue. It is rest and proper nourishment that makes you grow stronger. Don't be so dogmatic with your training schedule that you can't take a rest when you really need one. You are a being made out of living tissue. A bodybuilding workout routine is a means to an end, not an end in itself.
It's Okay to Avoid Harmful Lifts
Some exercises are considered to be bad for the joints. Lifts such as upright barbell rows, pull-downs behind the neck or shoulder presses behind the neck, have been known to cause shoulder impingement. This can happen anytime when you raise your arms going backwards. A shoulder bone called the acromion can rub against a tendon or the bursa sac causing pain. If you don't have this, problem then don't sweat it. If you do feel pain, don't be a hero. There may be nothing you can do except for discontinuing the exercise that gives you problems. Other than being painful, an injury is nothing but a waste of time. If, however, you are hell bent on still doing press or pull downs then don't move the bar down past your ears.
Ballistic training is also the cause of many injuries. Never jerk the weight up in the lifts. This is known as ballistic training. It will not increase your power. If you blast and pump the only thing it will increase is the amount of injuries you accrue by adopting this way of training.
A Few Words about Cardio
Many times lifters wonder if they should do cardio before or after a workout. Many pro bodybuilders do not do cardio at all because for them it takes the strength out of their legs. They say that lifting already works the heart and that a low carb diet is the best method for fat loss. You may want to experiment with your workouts to see whether or not cardio is for you. If you do decide to do cardio, walking is advisable. It is recommended to not walk longer than 45 minutes and not to walk on the same day that you train the legs.
Motivation is the Key Element to Success
The best bodybuilding workout routine is one in which you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. It is also a routine for which you can see regular results so you can stay motivated.
There are so many different workout routines for bodybuilding. The main things to remember are consistency of training, knowing your limits and good eating habits. For other topics related to bodybuilding such as high intensity training go to http://weighttrainingforever.com
Unless you have been living under a rock, you have no doubt heard of Metroflex Gym.
Shortly before Ronnie Coleman won his first Olympia, I visited the Arlington, Texas gym to spend four days alongside the Big Nasty as he prepped to become the greatest bodybuilder of the current age. While there, I interviewed Metroflex Gym owner Brian Dobson because the gym struck me as suck a throwback to everything I love about gyms and everything that is lost in the current age of corporate fitness centers.
Twelve years later, Metroflex is known as a hardcore haven, listed alongside Westside Barbell, Body Builders Gym in Akron, Dorian Yates’ Temple Gym, Quads Gym in Chicago and Rick Hussey’s Big Iron Gym as one of the few truly hardcore gyms around.
Fortunately, there seems to be a resurgence in hardcore gyms these days, with a number of Metroflex Gyms taking the position of the Gold’s and World Gyms before they self-castrated and went mainstream.
Now with locations in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin and new locations opening in Colorado Springs, Metroflex is on the rise. Best of all, these gyms are owned by top bodybuilders or fans of serious lifting. Greg McCoy, the owner of the Metroflex-Plano location is no exception.
To show his appreciation for serious bodybuilding, he runs twice a year promotional/customer appreciation events which consist of seminars, lift-offs and lots of freebies handed out to the crowd. He also held a seminar with National Level Bodybuilder and Top Level Trainer Jeff Dwelle, National Level Bodybuilder and Record Holding Power Lifter Justin Harris, and National Level Competitor and Metroflex Plano Member Steve Kuclo.
In the seminar Jeff, Steve and Justin answer questions regarding training, diet, and the lifestyle required to be successful as a bodybuilder or power lifter.
I am going to share some of the interesting info quotes below and also review the DVD:
Justin Harris: “That’s really the difference between being a guy that works out and being a bodybuilder. Being the guy that works out means going to the gym an hour or an hour-and-a-half, a couple days a week. Being a bodybuilder is not one hour a day. It’s literally ALL day long.”
“Every two hours when you eat you have a chance to make yourself a better bodybuilder or make yourself a worse bodybuilder.”
Steve Kuclo: “Bodybuilding is a twenty-four hour, 365 type of lifestyle. The guy that slacks over his off-season is the guy that not necessarily going to win. Consistency and dedication are the two key words applied to bodybuilding.”
Jeff Dwelle: “Bodybuilding shows are not won on the day of the show. They are won in the months or the years leading up to that show in the time in the training in the gym and the getting your food with the consistency.”
Justin Harris: “There is a point of overtraining but the fact that people walk around worrying that they are going to work TOO HARD to get big is a bit absurd if you think about it. I think about other sports, ‘I could have been a great basketball player but I worked too hard…’ Over training is probably, on the list of things to worry about, towards the bottom.”
Jeff Dwelle: “The only instances where I’ve seen it [overtraining] become an issue is in a diet situation, where you have some stress (low calories, lot of cardio). Outside stressors can definitely inhibit your ability to recover and get the benefit from training.”
Justin Harris: “If you decide to compete, you have to decide to compete. It is all-or-nothing. There is no worse feeling the being on stage and looking like shit… being on stage and being embarrassed to be up there.”
Justin Harris: “There’s a million different diets that work: the keto diet, carb cycling… they all work. The one thing that will never work is trying a million different things during the course of your diet.”
Jeff Dwelle: “For me as a trainer, what I ask my clients or prospective clients is, ‘Do you have the money…?’ because [contest prep] is a very expensive undertaking, no matter what. ‘Do you have the time’ and ‘Are you committed to winning?.’ Those are the three questions I would ask because it is a commitment you have to make on all fronts.”
Steve Kuclo: “I like cooking in bulk; not one meal at a time, if I cook, I cook for like three days so I have a container full of chicken at home and a container full of rice. I have it portioned out for the day and throw it in a baggy to go and eat. Cooking in bulk is huge in order to keep up with your eating schedule.”
Justin Harris: “We were meant to walk for four to six hours hunting before we got a piece of meat. The way we were designed… think thousands of years ago… the women would gather fruits and nuts and the men would go hunt all day for one single meal of meat. Obviously it is different being a top bodybuilding from being a skinny guy in a hunter/gatherer society but people get a little too worried that walking on a treadmill at a couple miles an hour is going to make muscle fall off.”
“Look at Ronnie Coleman. In one of his videos, he’s in the off-season and we see him squatting 800-pounds then two hours later he is doing an hour on the Stepmill. If Ronnie Coleman, at three-hundred pounds, can do 45-minutes on the Stepmill, which is high-intensity cardio, and he was not exactly lacking in leg muscle.”
Justin Harris: “This is the first time he [Steve Kuclo’s Nationals prep] has ever gotten that lean. Those last fat cells, those stubborn fat cells that are bound to an estrogen receptor that have never been gone before have been shrunk down…. Now that he has got there, his body will remember that.”
National Level Bodybuilder and Record Holding Power Lifter Justin Harris
Jeff Dwelle: “You can thin out your skin on a keto diet, there is no doubt, and you can lose bodyfat. I do think it comes as a trade at some level, depending on how long you can maintain glycogen and how long you can handle the dieting. It was difficult for me to train, to be honest. I was doing two hours of cardio a day and not really eating anything and subsisting on shakes and some protein. I really didn’t get much done… I think you need to find the right system for you and that can be different for everyone.”
Steve Kuclo: “This year was my first year experiencing keto and a lot of it boils down to your genetics. Keto isn’t for everybody. Is it something to try out? It is. A running keto is what I did. For two weeks I would hit keto and then I’d bring some carbs back into my diet. Did it get me really lean? Yeah, I got lean really fast but then I sacrificed some muscle and energy levels are just really in the dirt. When you are about seven days into it, you just really are pretty much running on fumes. Some people can handle it and some people can’t. For me, personally, a keto diet would be a last resort type of deal.”
Jeff Dwelle: “In my own personal circumstance, I make it really easy. I bookend my meals with eggs or egg whites. I’m at home for my first meal and I’m at home for my last meal so that knocks out two. I’ve got meat for two meals and some sort of carbs, so that gets me to four. I have some sort of protein shake and nuts, almonds or peanut butter for two and that gets me to six [meals]. That’s basic.”
Jeff Dwelle: “I was a steakaholic for a long time too. I’ve done a couple of diets just on pure steak. Different people will have different opinions on that. I happen to mix my protein sources so I don’t have steak at every meal, but I might have steak, when I’m contest dieting, twice a day. It does seem to satiate me a bit more than the white meats do. If I’m dieting and making progress well, I am going to stay on steak. If I’m not, I may go to white fish for a little while or mix them back and forth. I do think steak, for whatever reason, seems to be more substantial for me when I’m dieting.”
Steve Kuclo: “Personally, I have only pretty much dieted on chicken… just because of ease and cost. It’s pretty affordable. It’s going to boil down to calorie and fat content between the two [chicken and steak]. Obviously, if you are on track and eating steak, and you’re making progress, then there is no reason to change it. If you need to cut some calories out from fat go [from steak] to chicken or white fish, that way you are going to cut maybe fifty calories out a meal by just reducing the amount of fat.”
Justin Harris: “Steak generally has generally higher calories. It has saturated fat which gets converted to cholesterol, which gets converted to androstenediol, which gets converted to testosterone. For some competitors, natural competitors, that’s very important. But the other thing with steak… steak has a slightly lower bioavailability than chicken but the protein ratio is better for raising iron levels. If you can increase the iron level , it increases your hematocrit (the amount of red blood cells in your blood, which) you can increase your blood volume, which can give you a fuller look. You look at your bicep and only about 30% of your bicep is actual contractile tissue, actual actin and myosin. If you dehydrated it out… look at beef jerky. That’s the actual amount of actual tissue in the area. The rest of it is water, glycogen. If you can double the amount of blood vessels and double the amount of blood going through those blood vessels in your bicep, that’s going to add size to your bicep, and that’s something [a benefit] of the iron from steak.”
Steve Kuclo: “I’m a big fan of feeding a muscle as fast as you can after a workout. If you can [eat post-workout] the sooner the better, if it’s a meal or a shake. If you can afford a specialized shake, your branched-chain and glutamine ratio is going to be higher in a lot of those shakes because of the specialized amino acid profiles.”
Jeff Dwelle: “I will have a shake, usually whey protein, some carbs; probably because I just like the way it tastes and its simple and it digests quickly. I have that immediately after training. And then I will eat a whole [food] meal sixty-to ninety minutes after that.”
These are just a fraction of the wisdom shared. I recommend that you purchase the DVD of the entire seminar, which I have conveniently reviewed below
As a voracious reader and gluttonous consumer of info products, I like to share my finds with like-minded lifters. There are some impressive products out there but, with every nutrition expert, guru, strength coach or national contender waving a product in the air, our Paypal accounts can only be spread so thin and we have to discriminate where we are going to send our hard-earned dollars.
This is therefore a REAL REVIEW. What you commonly read in the magazines are not actually product reviews, they are press releases reprinted as part of an advertising package.
For those of you not familiar with me, I have a reputation for journalistic integrity unmatched in our industry (which means I’ve taken the moral high ground and paid for it) and that’s not something I intend to ever cash in.
So consider this a completely unbiased review:
This hour-long seminar DVD was put together by Greg McCoy, the owner of Metroflex Gym in Plano, Texas. The seminar features Justin Harris, Steve Kuclo and Jeff Dwelle. Justin Harris is known as one of the smartest power bodybuilders and nutritional theorists in the industry. He understands both the science of bodybuilding nutrition and the reality of a 600-pound deadlift. Steve Kuclo (at 24-years old) is a bit less seasoned but is the rising star of the group, expected to break through at the national level in the next few years. I was not familiar with the third speaker, Jeff Dwelle, who is a Texas-based competitor and contest prep coach. He was a great addition to the roundtable with some insightful views and a gift for boiling topics down to useable strategies.
The seminar was a Q&A roundtable, which is one of my personal pet peeves. No offense to the three speakers here or the seminar promoter, that’s just the way bodybuilding seminars are done these days , which I think is why they have dwindled in attendance from the crowd they would pull two decades ago.
I would have preferred thirty-minute focused and prepared segments of, for example: 1) Justin Harris on setting up a carb rotation diet, 2) Steve Kuclo explaining training strategies, and Jeff Dwelle discussing pre-contest dieting, and 4) a wrap-up Q & A segment. Of course, the fact that I wanted the seminar to be longer in length says that the content was exceptionally good.
If a couple experts at the level of these three showed up with a polished, entertaining presentation (overhead projector presentation, handouts, etc.), they would help elevate the seminar concept and make it a viable money-making avenue once again. So the responsibility for good content is shifted to the attendees to ask decent questions, which almost never really happens.
Fortunately, these three speakers have a lot of insights (as you will see above) so quality came out regardless. And this is just a smattering of the info that these three experts share.
While the production value is nothing special (but certainly not bad), Greg is offering the DVD at an incredibly affordable price (just $10.00 plus shipping), which to be honest, is pretty much giving it away. I assume he just wants to get the word out about his new Metroflex, which I hear is a great place to train.
With most similar DVDs selling for three to four times this cost, you owe it to yourself to add this to your library. Even if you just pick up a couple ideas (or have a good idea reinforced) it is well worth the price and thats why I have given it an official rating of four out of five plates.
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Discuss, comment or ask a question
If you have a comment, question or would like to discuss anything raised in this article, please do so in the following discussion thread on the Wannabebig Forums - The Best Bits & Review of the Metroflex Bodybuilding Seminar discussion thread.
About Steve Colescott
Known as the Guerrilla Journalist, Steve Colescott has written over a hundred published articles for many major bodybuilding publications, including Peak Training Journal, the innovative and well-respected magazine in which he served as Publishing Editor.
He is currently a staff writer for WannaBeBig.com and has been a consultant to a number of top sports nutrition companies.
With his company, Colescott Metabolic Solutions, he has transformed the physiques of scores of average businesspeople, weekend athletes and housewives beyond their wildest expectations. Steve lives in Akron, Ohio and trains at the ultra-hardcore Body Builders Gym, an Ohio musclehead landmark.
“What is the best way to gain size?” Because I am a competitive bodybuilder and coach, I am asked this question more than any other, and in my experience, everyone seems to expect that there should be a black and white answer. The truth is that if a black and white answer were to exist, wouldn’t everyone who is seeking physique development already have the body they want?
A common idea in the industry is that in order to get bigger, you must lift heavier and heavier weights and constantly work to gain strength. This is only partially accurate. The problem is that many people misinterpret this approach by striving to increase limit strength (1-rep max) in order to induce hypertrophy. In doing so, they focus exclusively on lifting more weight, thereby training the movement and not the muscle, and this flawed strategy undermines proper muscle fiber recruitment. Lifting better, not necessarily heavier, is what is essential for development! How much you lift is only relative to correct lifting technique and execution.
Another industry plague is the ingrained dogma of bodybuilding. Put simply, bodybuilders are creatures of tradition. They tend to either do what they have always done or follow a trend because a champion bodybuilder did it, not because there is actual expertise behind it. Consider Dorian Yates, for example. Undoubtedly, he had one of the best physiques in bodybuilding. However, he also had countless injuries as a consequence of his training style. Many people followed his system not realizing that only a select few could actually achieve real progress from it. Dorian eventually reverted to more traditional hypertrophy training because he had to think more about the long-term as opposed to short-term, as most bodybuilders tend to do.
Lee Haney, a multi Mr. Olympia, was always known for both size and symmetry. He was one of the last of the mass monsters who had a tiny waist and incredible shape to compliment his sheer bulk.
Most individuals have no concept of how to monitor and vary their training in order to achieve the best possible results because they have simply never been taught properly. Unlike most other sports, bodybuilding (or physique development) has never had the benefit of guidance from real coaches. There are thousands of coaches out there who help elite and amateur athletes alike excel in their chosen sport, be it basketball, hockey, swimming, gymnastics, or many others. Physique development coaches, however–with actual expertise in helping individuals who are not genetically superior to obtain an impressive physique–are a truly rare species.
When it comes to training for size, there is a right way and wrong way to go about it. There is a right approach to use when performing a movement to extract the most benefit, and that includes training the muscle through its full range of motion. This does not mean that every person should do the same program–it simply means that after you take into account the individual, his or her current fitness level, current phase of development, and other factors, you still must apply the same basic principles.
Note: There are many ways to design a program to suit an individual’s current needs, and this should always be taken into account. Given this article’s limited scope, however, only basic body part training is discussed here.
GET YOUR HEAD RIGHT
Pick an objective, and stick to it. When training for physique development, you must recognize this as your main objective–everything must therefore be structured around this goal. Too often I see trainees who want to gain size, but focus only on how much they can bench, squat, or deadlift. Even though these are all great exercises and should be part of a well-designed program, they are merely tools in the toolbox–simply increasing the amount of weight lifted should not be the main focus. Doing so will detract from your goal. Remember, you are training to increase your size, not your 1-rep max. Although I’ll likely be criticized for such a statement, I have learned this through my coaching experiences with hundreds of clients over the years, as well as my own experiences as a former powerlifter. Just because you can bench 400 lbs or squat 500 lbs does not mean you will fully develop your physique. Now this is not to say that you shouldn’t lift heavy; you do still want to incorporate the overload principle. However, the quality of the exercise and obtaining maximum voluntary contraction are the most important objectives, which can only be achieved with proper technique and increased workload capacity with the addition of greater intensities. These principles are much more nuanced than simply lifting as much weight as possible from point A to point B. You want to reach muscle failure, not movement failure, which is when other muscles start assisting in the lift. Your goal is maximum hypertrophy and size, not maximum strength.
Flex Wheeler is another bodybuilder who was known for the sheer beauty of his physique. Few bodybuilders have ever approached the flowing lines and rounded muscles bellies Flex sported at his peak.
Be realistic. As a bodybuilder, you must realize that you have a unique genetic makeup that ultimately determines how fast you can grow and how much muscle you are able to build. Only a very small percentage of lifters can attain success as professional bodybuilders. No amount of steroids will help you achieve that type of size if you don’t have the right parents, so to speak. Be reasonable, work towards building the best physique you can build, and don’t compare yourself to the genetic elite. People often approach me under the misguided belief that they can add 20 lbs of muscle in a few months. This is unrealistic. It is difficult to achieve such gains in an entire year, let alone a few months. Moreover, unless you are a complete beginner, most of you will fight to put on 10 lbs of solid muscle in one year. The more advanced you become, the harder it gets…that is just being realistic.
Also keep in mind that this sport is a marathon, not a sprint. You must be patient, consistent, and tenacious to achieve results. There is no magic pill or single training program that will get you the results you desire. Be focused and be realistic when you set out to become a bodybuilder—in adhering to these simple principles, you will begin your journey leaps and bounds ahead of most of your competition.
GET YOUR TRAINING RIGHT: MISCONCEPTIONS AND MISAPPLICATIONS
Isolation Builds Character…And Muscle Target training is a must for bodybuilders. You must learn to train only the targeted muscle in the set exercises for that session. Keep in mind that your body will always try to make an exercise easier by recruiting other muscles, so you must always focus on only making the desired muscle do the work. If you fail to do this, other muscle groups will inevitably assist in the lift. This is not what you want when trying to induce an adaptive response in the targeted muscle.
Admittedly, it is technically impossible to truly isolate a muscle. Nevertheless, your goal is to make the targeted muscle the weakest in a group of acting muscles in order for it to achieve maximum overload. This requires knowing the planes and ranges of motion in which a muscle functions in order to effectively overload that muscle. Always ensure that you train the muscle through its full range of motion– research has consistently shown that a muscle stretched with resistance (eccentric loading) will receive the most overload. By doing this, the intensity of the contraction will be much greater, and you will start tapping into your high-threshold motor units, which is essential for growth.
Pause…For What? If you seek to exert maximum effort and produce development in the gym, you need to avoid the habit of pausing on exercises! For example, many individuals often take a slight pause at the top of every rep on leg presses or squats. Why? Because it makes the lift easier! The pause allows the nervous system to rest, thereby potentially limiting the maximum benefit achieved from the workload. Instead, always focus on the mentality of stretch & contract, and try to keep tension on the targeted muscle over every single inch of every rep. Remember, you are trying to fatigue the targeted muscle and place as much stress on it as possible. Yes, there are certain techniques like extended sets, strip sets, etc., that appropriately incorporate pauses, but in general, focus on just continuously pumping out most of the exercises most of the time.
Anatomical Leverages and the Individual Lifter When it comes to bodybuilding, the same tired old aphorisms are circulated over and over again: you must squat to get big legs, you must do pull-ups to develop your back, and so on. Throngs of people swear by these statements, and they might actually work for a given individual and maybe lots of others. Take heed, however–this doesn’t mean it will work for you. Your body’s leverages and the lengths of your arms, legs, and torso will play a huge role in which exercises will be more suited for you in order to fully develop a muscle. For example, if you have long legs, doing back squats may produce more stress in your lower lumbar region and decrease your range of motion, thereby preventing your legs from receiving the most overload! Alternatively, if you have long arms, pull-ups are probably going to be extremely difficult due to the range of motion and distance you need to travel to complete one full rep, thereby limiting you to doing minimal reps. This will obviously reduce overall time-under-tension and take away from your back development. There are countless other exercises that are good and/or bad depending on the leverage system of a given individual. So be smart and choose exercises that enable you to fully stimulate the targeted muscle. Do not get caught up in the industry hype that if you cannot perform a certain lift well then you will not grow. I have proven that axiom wrong numerous times with multiple clients over the years. Understanding the range and plane of motion in which a muscle works is critical to achieve maximum overload in an exercise. What does that mean? Technique is more important than how much weight you use. Remember this when you leave your ego in your gym bag.
The Scourge of Ego There is absolutely no room for ego when it comes to training for physique development. Every day I see guys using their own leverage advantages just to lift more weight, but this approach does not isolate a muscle and most definitely will not produce enough overload for an adaptive response. We have all seen guys doing quarter squats and half reps on DB presses with tons of weight just to try to impress someone. Wake up, egomaniacs! This does absolutely nothing for your development. In fact, all it does is increase the risk of injury and make your head swell because you put a ton of weight on a bar and moved it two inches. Is it then ironic that in spite of so many dazzling plates of glory, your legs are as big around as my wrists?! Ego. Gym bag. Leave it.
Unconventional training and diet were just the beginning. Few bodybuilders have ever looked so good in the “relaxed” pose as the late, great Serge Nubret.
People that ego-train are not making the targeted muscle the weakest in the movement. They simply use leverage and often momentum as well to complete the lift for them, thereby stressing the joints more than the actual muscle they are trying to work. Humble yourself and back off the amount of weight you are using, and instead, put the muscle through its intended range of motion. Invest your time in the gym and stop squandering it–strength will come over time. If you try to force it, you are begging your body to react negatively, if not disastrously.
The Lore of Exercise Sequences Another misconception is the appropriate exercise order for a particular muscle group. Likewise, a common maxim in bodybuilding lore is, “Thou shalt do compound movements first and isolation movements last.” Why? The real answer is that you can lift more weight if you perform compound movements first. This is more ego-driven nonsense. Again, we must concentrate on training muscles and not egos. Varying the sequence of exercises will keep your body from adjusting too efficiently and help to further isolate muscles. For example, switching up and doing leg curls before squats will do wonders for hamstring development and actually help to engage quads more when doing squats. Just because you will then need to squat less weight than you typically do doesn’t mean you won’t grow (remember your goal??). Your muscle only knows how much stress it is under, not how much is on the bar. Quite simply, if the weight is challenging, then it is the right amount. Variation is one important key to an adaptive response. Therefore, when you write your program, occasionally start a session with flyes, leg curls, etc., and save the big movements for last.
Reps, Weights, and Other Ridiculous Bedtime Stories Finally, let us address the beloved heavy-weights-for-low-reps tradition. In every gym in which I have ever trained (and in most forums for which I have written), the most common solution proffered for getting big is to use heavy weights for low reps, and the converse of that is to get cut, use lighter weights for high reps. Both solutions are wrong! If you are a bodybuilder, you are always looking to increase your workload capacity; you don’t achieve this objective by using low volume and heavy weights. Most of the time, you achieve it by using heavy weights and high volume. Keep in mind, when I say “heavy,” I mean heavy relative to what you are doing, not “how much is on the bar”. Also, when it comes to volume, you don’t just do a ton of exercises and get results; volume has to be properly and intelligently progressed. To many times trainees take this advice and basically do junk volume with no rhyme or reason other than to do more, but unless the program design is properly applied based on the individual, you will do more harm than good and hinder overall results.
Extensive research has shown that the duration of overload on the muscle produces the most growth, not the amount. Therefore, instead of focusing on how much is on the bar, your goal should be to achieve maximum voluntary contraction on every rep of every set of every exercise you do. This requires proper technique and incredible concentration, which leads to greater overall intensity. Choose a weight that allows you to concentrate on performance, and once you adapt to that, increase the amount of weight you use accordingly. Again, lifting better and harder is more important than simply lifting more.
CONCLUSION
If you have been scratching your head wondering how you should be training in order to be a bodybuilder and develop a great physique, look no further–this article should help to clear up the confusion and dispense with a lot of misinformation and myths out there in the industry. If you take the principles I have discussed and apply them to your training, your results will increase substantially.
Disclaimer - If you can’t afford new clothes, you should probably stop reading now. Applying the principles in this article could leave you needing to purchase a whole new wardrobe. But, hey, that’s a good thing!
Chances are you’ve heard of people using bands in the gym, but may not know what the benefits are or how to use them (and no, we’re not talking about music).
Popularized by Westside Barbell legend Louie Simmons, bands have been helping powerlifters get bigger and stronger for years, but until recently, very few bodybuilders have experienced what bands can do for them. This article will show you how to use them to your advantage.
But first, what the heck is a jump stretch band, anyway?
Quite simply, they’re giant rubber bands.
They’re most commonly used in strength training by securing one end to a stationary object and the other end to the collar of a standard barbell. The beauty is in their simplicity. Just like the smaller rubber bands you use in daily life, the more the jump stretch bands are stretched, the more resistance they provide. This increasing resistance, when used in combination with strength training, is known as accommodating resistance. What the bands do is transform a barbell into something akin to cam-based resistance training machines (think Nautilus® machines).
Arthur Jones, the creator of the Nautilus® training machines, was essentially the first man to incorporate the concept of variable resistance into strength training. He did this by running a chain over a cam which was shaped like a nautilus shell (hence the company’s name).
Legend Mike Mentzer on the Nautilus Pullover machine
The chain was secured to a variable weight stack on one end and a movement arm on the other. When the trainee lifted the weight by pressing or pulling the movement arm, the chain traveled over the rotating cam.
The changing diameter of the cam altered the movement, thus altering the torque and resistance provided by a given load. The primary function of the cam as Jones designed it was to increase the load when the working muscles were in their strongest position and decrease it in the weakest, thus eliminating the inherent flaw of barbells known as the “sticking point” (the point in the movement where the perceived load is the greatest based upon the pull of gravity and/or musculoskeletal leverage). This allowed for maximal stress to the muscle.
Like Jones, Dr. Fred Hatfield (a record-setting powerlifter) looked for a way around the limitations of barbell training and championed a concept known as “compensatory acceleration”.
His idea was to have the lifter literally push harder on the barbell as the exercise got easier in an attempt to overcome the leverage-induced decrease in resistance. Theoretically, this made the exercise more effective in achieving muscular overload, which is crucial to gaining muscle.
Dr. Fred Hatfield hitting a big 1,003lbs Squat
The idea was good, but was limited in practice by the fact that the lifter pushing harder throughout the range of motion still did not eliminate the sticking point. He had the right idea, but not the tools to execute it.
Bands work similarly to a cam in that they both vary the resistance and increase it when the lifter is in the strongest position. Think of a barbell squat: after getting out of the bottom position (the “hole”), the lifter encounters a brief sticking point. When he moves past the sticking point—thanks to leverage—the perceived load gets lighter (anyone who’s ever done a squat before knows that you can partial-squat a whole lot more than you can full squat, since the sticking point is eliminated).
However, when bands are added to the squat, they increase the resistance as they are stretched. This forces the lifter to push hard against an ever-increasing load through the entire range of motion (ROM), thus dramatically increasing the overload effect.
While bands do not eliminate the sticking point, they do very little to increase the load until after the lifter has pushed through it.
By now, the benefit of bands relative to bodybuilding should be obvious. Bands allow the lifter to fully work the involved muscles in nearly all barbell movements. The increase in size and strength when using bands can be dramatic.
My personal experience with their use plainly illustrates this fact.
I recently began to incorporate bands into my leg training. I did so primarily by using them with box squats to varying heights (normally parallel or below). The bands my training partners and I most commonly used provided 200+ pounds of resistance at the top of the squat. Because of the way they were secured, they provided little resistance at the bottom of the movement when we were on or near the box. Starting a few inches above parallel, the bands began to “kick-in,” providing progressively greater resistance as we neared lockout.
Here is a video of the morning crew at Westside Barbell, Box Squatting with Resistance Bands:
The difference the bands made in our training was staggering. For instance, when un-racking the barbell and walking out with the weight, the pull of the bands forced us to use tremendous effort just to control our movement, much more so than with just a barbell on our backs. In addition, when we worked up to a fair amount of barbell weight (450 pounds +), the load on our backs in a standing position was nearing or exceeding 700 pounds. Getting used to this load made our return to squats without bands incredibly easy in that 400-500 pounds of pure barbell weight now felt like nothing on our backs.
The use of bands for just a couple of months forced my upper legs to grow over 2 inches. I literally grew out of my work slacks and added nearly 20 pounds of body weight during the same period. The growth was explosive, as was my increase in strength. During my stint with band training, I also experienced the most amazing pumping of my quads that I have ever felt! This pump was the result of a superset of leg extensions and regular (not box) squats with bands. The combination was lethal, with the bands increasing the intensity exponentially. In truth, the pump was so ridiculous–and painful–that we could only get through the superset once.
One of the basic tenets of muscular hypertrophy is time under tension (TUT). Meaningful TUT involves both time and stress. In other words, in order to optimally stimulate hypertrophy, the musculature must be stressed with a relatively heavy load over a period of time. Bands increase the TUT with all barbell exercises by maximizing the stress to the involved musculature over a greater portion of the ROM on each and every rep. Therefore, a given number of reps with bands equates to more work done by the muscles. Bands increase both efficiency and intensity, which are two of the most important factors in increasing muscular size.
If you’ve never used bands, the idea of adding them can be a bit intimidating. The first question most lifters have is how to secure the bands. I think the best way to become comfortable with using bands is to begin with simple exercises, like squats and bench presses.
Below is a video demonstrating how to properly set up a pair of bands with a typical squat rack:
Below is a video of my training partner Justin Tooley and I speed squatting last week - 10 sets of doubles for me with 420 lbs on the safety squat bar and green bands:
Training with bands places a tremendous amount of stress on both the musculature and connective tissues. As mentioned above, you should incorporate the bands within the parameters of conjugate variety.
Conjugate variety involves alternating exercises by body part weekly, bi-weekly, or every three weeks. The idea is that even a small variation in a movement has a very different effect on the nervous system, and CNS burnout is a prime driver of overtraining. Altering exercises regularly allows you to train at a higher intensity level consistently. This will help to optimize your results and prevent overuse injuries.
The following routine can be followed for a three-week period. After three weeks, you should switch the primary exercises. The primary exercise (by body part) is indicated by a star after the name (e.g., Bench press*). The use of bands will be noted by the word “bands” after the exercise name (ex. Bench press – bands).
The exercise name is followed by the number of sets and reps as follows: Bench press – bands: 10/10/10*/10*
Each number is the number of reps to be done for that set. Sets are separated by a slash. Sets with an asterisk after the rep count should be taken to concentric failure. So, in the above example, 4 sets of 10 reps of bench presses (using bands) are to be performed with the first two sets as warm-ups and the last two taken to concentric (or positive) failure.
Squat* – bands: 10/8/8*/8*Leg Press: 20* (perform these in a slow and controlled manner with a full ROM)Hamstring Curl: 10/15*/15*Stiff-Legged Deadlift (off a 2-4” platform for a greater ROM): 10/20*Ab Crunches: 20*/20*Standing Calf Raises: 15*/15*Bench Press* - bands: 10/8/6*/6*Incline Dumbbell Press: 20*/20*Superset Triceps Pressdown & JM Presses (see video for JM Presses): 15 reps not to failure on the pressdowns (choose a weight with which you could get 20 reps) followed immediately by 8 reps to failure on the JM Press. Do this for 3 cycles with about 2 minutes rest between cycles.Curl Grip Chins: 2 sets to failure with body weightOne Arm Dumbbell Rows*: 8/8/15*/15*Seated Cable Rows: 12*/12*Dumbbell Shrugs: 15*/15*Standing Ab Crunches Using an Overhead Cable: 20*/20*Seated Calf Raises: 10/15*/15*Seated Dumbbell Shoulder Press*: 10/8/10*/10*Superset Dumbbell Lateral Raises with Bent Over Raises: Perform 15 reps to failure of each exercise with no rest between. Do the side laterals first. Perform two cycles of this superset.Standing Barbell Curl: 10/10/10*/10*Dumbbell Hammer Curl: 15*Two Arm Overhead Dumbbell Extensions: 10/15*/15*
By now, you’ve seen the power of bands, what they can do for your strength, and how they can help you build muscle quickly. Like many workout-related things, bands are simply a training tool (albeit a very effective one) and should be used as a change of pace to provide variety to your workouts and to help you hit your muscles in ways that simply aren’t possible with barbells, dumbbells, or cables.
Finally, although they can be a bit intimidating, the sheer size and strength gains you can achieve by using a few rubber bands is worth the learning curve. So swallow your pride and do yourself a favor by picking up your bands here (Westside Barbell) and get to training!
And, as always, if you have any questions, feel free to ask them in the discussion thread below!
Written by Chris Mason
Discuss, comment or ask a question
If you have a comment, question or would like to discuss anything raised in this article, please do so in the following discussion thread on the Wannabebig Forums - Building Muscle & Size with Resistance Bands discussion thread.
About Chris Mason
Chris Mason is an author, trainer, and nutritionist. He has published articles in Iron Man, Athlete, Planet Muscle, and Powerlifting USA magazines as well as several online websites including Crossfit.com.
In addition, he has worked with top flight professional strength athletes on both their nutritional and training regimens. Chris is also the co-founder of AtLarge Nutrition. He is actively involved in all aspects of the business to include product formulation.
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