Muscle Building 101: How to Build Muscle with Bodybuilding Workouts- Part 3

In part 2 of Muscle Building 101, you read about building muscle and bulking up with proper muscle building nutrition.  Now, let's move on to the more exciting part of bodybuilding... exercise.  Exercise in the form of strength training and weight lifting.  Strength training is the second stimulus (the other being nutrition),  that contributes tremendously towards the muscle building process.

If you don't strength train or train using some form of resistance in one way or another, you won't build muscle.  Strength training is absolutely important to the bodybuilding process. You lift weights to build muscle.  Simple concept.

And lifting weights is probably the most exciting part of bodybuilding for you.  After all, if you're thinking of building muscle, the first thing on your mind is probably weight lifting.  But I have to say that most of us are too eager to jump right into weight lifting without knowing the basics for proper planning and program creation for real results.  To understand the importance of proper exercise planning and programming, let me outline a scenario.

Insanity at the Gym

As an observation you see guys at the gym who train the same muscles every single day using the same workouts.  They train what you would call the "mirror" muscles...the biceps, chest, and abs while neglecting the back and legs (which happen to make up over 80% of the b ody's musculature so it would be downright stupid not to train the legs and back).

They do the same exercises and lifts using the same number of reps, sets, and weight on the bar day in and out.  And 6 months later, they still look the same. Haven't gained a single pound of muscle.  But yet they still train the same way and will continue to do so for many years.

Another scenario I see is that they might start looking at muscle magazines and copy the routines of professional bodybuilders (most of these routines aren't actually the same routines the pros use, rather they're ghostwritten routines by freelance or staff writers who've probably never picked up a dumbbell in their lives).  They train with these heavy duty/ultra high volume routines and workouts that the pros use supposedly.

After a few short weeks, they become overtrained without any positive results.  They become weaker with all that volume.  So they go back to the muscle mags to find a new routine, only to discover that new routine is similar to the old one.  They might try the new high volume routine...only to experience zero results in6 weeks and the cycle repeats.

They do this for years without gaining an ounce of muscle.  If that's not insanity, I don't know what is.  Many eventually quit.  A few stay on and learn proper exercise programming and training.

Insanity is doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results!

Walk into the gym and 9 out of 10 guys will all look the same after years of training.  So there's a lot to be said for proper exercise programming and knowing how to work out for maximum muscle gaining results.  This is another case of acquiring knowledge and then applying that knowledge to reach your goals.  You're going to avoid these scenarios and train the right way.

But I do admire their tenacity and motivation to go on and train without missing a single workout despite not getting results.  However, if you're going to train and take this bodybuilding game seriously, you should train properly to get results.  These guys are very motivated and dedicated, which is something you'll also need, but if only they knew the correct principles and proper program creation to build muscle.

Now there are really thousands of different ways to train with weights.  There's no such thing as a perfect program for everyone all the time.  Stop searching for that magic program because it does't exist.  There are only fundamental training principles.  Understand and apply them to your workouts and you'll do fine.

Training properly goes a long way to seeing results quickly.  Why bother training if you're not going to get results from it.  First I'll lay out the strength training principles, then you'll be given guidelines on how to incorporate and use them to build muscle in the next part with action steps to put this all together.  So this section will be about what, how, and why of working out.

Specificity

The first training principle is specificity.  I'll keep this brief without getting too technical.  Your training must be geared towards your fitness goals and objectives.  Your training must be "specific" to your goals. In other words, if you're going to run a marathon, then running long distance would make up most of your workouts.  The marathon runner wouldn't spend 3 hours in the weight room every day.  A baseball player would be spending most of his time batting, hitting balls, pitching, catching, and sprinting.  He wouldn't spend a lot of his time swimming.

If you want to get good at  a sport/game, artistic, or technical skill, you train specifically in ways that will allow you to be good at that particular event.  You won't improve your free throw percentages by spending all your free time playing chess.

For the purposes of building muscle, you will spend most or all of your workout time in the gym lifting weights.  Weight lifting is of primary importance.  Strength training is the exercise modality you'll be using.  This leads to the discussion of strength as the foundation of fitness.

Strength as a Foundation

More specifically, strength is the foundation of building muscle.  You'll be focusing on functional fitness.  Strength matters a lot for building muscle.  Some guys will tell you that strength isn't that important.  They might say it's all about the pump, the tension, the contraction of the muscles, or the speed of the lift.  But think of it this way. If you can bench 400 lbs, squat 500 lbs, and deadlift 600 lbs, I guarantee you'll have the big muscles to show for.

You're not going to see a skinny 135 lbs kid bench, squat, and deadlit that much without having a lot of muscle.  Not in this physical world.

If you can do a weighted chinup with four 45 lbs plates (180 lbs) strapped to a weight belt around your waist for sets of 8 reps, you'll have big biceps.  If you can row 300 lbs for a set of 5,  you'll have a big/wide back.   And you'll find that the strongest guys in your gym are often the biggest guys.  So strength is important.  Very important.  Your workouts will be focused on building strength through methods of progressive overload.

Get stronger and you'll build muscle...by using compound exercises

Compound Exercises

Now, to gain the most strength, do compound exercises.  Compound exercise lifts are multi-jointed movements that work multiple muscle groups at the same time.  For example, the barbell back squat will work the quads, hamstrings, abs, lower back/entire core area, traps, and calves.  That movement, alone, works over 200 muscles within your body.  By using compound exercises you will be activating multiple major muscles at once, allowing you to build more strength and muscle.

Here's a list of the best compound exercises and the corresponding muscles worked,

• barbell back squats; quads, buttocks, hamstrings, lower back/abs (basically a total full body exercise)

• deadlift; entire back, biceps, hamstrings, calves, lower back/abs (another total full body exercise)

• barbell military press; triceps, shoulders, forearms/grip, core

• dumbbell shoulder press; same as military press

• pullups/chinups; entire back, grip/forearms, biceps

• dumbbell or barbell bench press; entire chest, grip/forearms, triceps, shoulders

• dips; same as bench press

• stiff legged deadlift; lower back, abs, hamstrings, calves

• barbell push press; shoulders, triceps

• barbell or dumbbell clean and press; entire full body movement, primarily stresses the hips, shoulders, triceps, and core/abdominal/lower back, also an explosive exercise improving overall core strength and power

• barbell or dumbbell bent-over rows; overall back/traps, biceps, forearms

• bench dumbbell rows; same as dumbbell rows

• t-bar rows; same as dumbbell rows

Each of the above main movements also have variations you can use,

• squats: front squats, single leg squats (weighted), dumbbell squats, barbell hack squats

• deadlift: dumbbell deadlift, one arm deadlift, rack/partial deadlift

• shoulder press; arnold press

• pullups: ring pullups/chinups, pullups/chinups with different width grip placements

• dumbbell rows: bench dumbbell rows, one arm dumbbell rows, T-bar rows, bb rows with supinated grip

• bench press: wide grip bench press, close grip (v-palm) bench press

For exercise descriptions, instructions and video demonstrations check bodybuilding.com's exercise database or the exercise video database here at Project Physique.  The exercise database here is constantly updated so be sure to check it out.

I also recommend picking up the following books for visual/pictorial descriptions of dozens of different compound and isolation exercises and use them as references throughout your bodybuilding and strength training career (available at amazon.com),

• Arnold's New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
• Bodybuilding Anatomy, Nick Evans
• Insider's Tell-All Handbook on Weight Training Technique, Stuart McRobert
• Bill Pearl's Keys to the Inner Universe

Take a look at this clip by trainer Mike Roulston of Mode Athletics on building muscle with compound movements,

Isolation Exercises

So take note of the above exercises because the majority of your workouts will be made up of these compound movements.  Then you also have isolation movements which stresses the smaller muscles like biceps, calves, forearms, and abs.   These are the dumbbell and barbell bicep curls, calf raises, crunches, and barbell/dumbbell wrist curls.  Your workouts will also consist of these isolation movements but they will be used to supplement and "round off" the compound lifts to ensure a well-rounded strength training routine.

Bodybuilding Repetitions

Next, what are the target rep ranges conducive to building muscle.  Should you use 3 reps, 5 reps, or 10 reps on each exercise?  Different rep ranges will target different training objectives.  Lower rep ranges are geared towards pure strength while higher rep ranges will target strength endurance.

Here's the breakdown,

• 1-4 reps targets maximal strength when 85-90% of 1 RM is used (RM means repetition maximum meaning the most weight you can lift for 1 full repetition using good form, powerlifters and olympic lifters often train at this range)
• 5-8 reps targets a good mix of building strength and muscle with 70-85% of 1 RM
• 8-12 reps targets the goal of building muscle and strength endurance with 60-70% of 1 RM
• 12 + reps is great for targeting strength endurance and aerobic capacity with less than 60% of 1 RM (many track and distance athletes use the 12-20 rep range to cross train the upper body during offseasons, many combat athletes are also big fans of higher rep ranges for purposes of improving work capacity, GPP; general physical preparedness, and overall cardiovascular conditioning)

If you're just starting out, focus on using 5-8 reps and 8-12 reps.  Now the above are just rough estimates.  You can still build muscle with 1-4 or 12 + reps depending on how you structure your volume of workouts.  Ideally, you will want to spend some time in using all the different rep ranges in your bodybuilding career.  Though when you're starting out, use 8-12 and 5-8 reps to build that strength foundation.

So remember specificity.  Use the rep schemes that are aimed at building muscles, the 5-8 and 8-12 rep ranges.  Remember about building a strength foundation.  Next, you'll be applying progressive overload into your workouts using the specified rep schemes.

Progressive Overload

Progression is probably the single most important aspect of a strength training and weight lifting program. It is the mechanism of introducing ever-increasing stresses to the body. You'll be using progressive overload strategies to allow your muscles to continually respond for muscle growth and strength gains. In other words, you have to make your workouts harder in one way or another over a long term training cycle.

Making your workouts harder is essential for results; building muscle and strength. But why is it so important? Because your body is essentially a machine. It's machine of adaptation. The body adapts quickly and very willingly. It's made to adapt. You were born to adapt to changing circumstances and new situations. This is why change isn't as painful as most of us would think.

Once you introduce a new type of stress, like weight lifting/pumping weights, your muscles and nerves immediately finds a way to cope and deal with this stress. It finds a way to get used to the weights. How does it cope? It copes by repairing the muscles and reinforcing it with thicker and stronger actin and myosin protein filaments, the stuff that makes up the muscle fibers. Your muscles cope by getting bigger, stronger, and thicker.

Once you introduce even tougher, newer, and more intense stressors on a long term basis, your muscles will have no choice but to adapt.   It continues to adapt as you make your workouts harder. You can make your workouts harder by using heavier weights, doing more sets, more reps, and taking shorter rest breaks during the workout itself. But if you just stick to the same weights, sets, and reps, then the muscles have no need to adapt and get stronger, bigger, or fuller.

Progression is the excuse you give to the body to continue improving. It makes your workouts more challenging. And the body caters to the demands of those challenges and adapts accordingly. It adapts to satisfy those challenges you're putting. You'd be surprised at how well your body is capable of adapting and meeting new challenges if you truly put it to the test and accept the changes.

If you want to continue seeing results for a long time, you have to apply some form of progression into your workouts. Progressive overload is really the key to muscle growth, when all other aspects of a proper strength training regimen are factored in.

Now how exactly do we apply progressive overload into our workouts to make them harder over time? There are 6 main progression strategies we can use in our workouts,

Types of Progressive Overload

1. Weight progression ( also called load progression) : increase the amount of weight of an exercise while keeping the number of sets and reps you do constant. An example would be going from benching 100 lbs to 150 lbs. Being able to handle heavier and heavier weights is weight progression. It goes hand-in-hand with building strength.
2. Set progression:  increase the number of sets of an exercise while keeping the weight and number of reps you do constant. For example, you go from doing 2 sets to 4 sets per exercise. This will not be from workout to workout. Likely, this will occur over a long term training cycle of 8-12 weeks.
3. Repetition progression:  increasing the number of reps per set of an exercise while keeping the number of sets and the weight constant. You go from doing 6 reps on an exercise to 8 reps on the same exercise.
4. Rest progression:  decreasing the amount of rest per set of the same exercise and/or rest between different exercises while keeping the number of sets, reps, and weight used constant. If you take 3 minute rests in between sets, then you can reduce that time to 2 minutes.
5. Exercise progression:  using more difficult weight lifting exercises or using movements that you've never done before. For example, you go from doing regular squats to front squats. Same exercises but different variations.
6. Frequency progression: doing more workouts in the same week or working each muscle more than once per week. This increases your work capacity and the ability to work out longer and harder at the same time. Frequency progression is only recommended for more advanced lifters and athletes who've been lifting for at least a year.

So in other words, make your workouts harder over time.  If you're curling 50 lbs now, you'll have to curl more in the following workouts to get stronger.  Your muscles are not going to magically get bigger and sronger if you continue lifting the same 50 lbs.  It has no reason to be stronger if you don't give it that challenge.

Weight and Repetition Progression for Consistent Progress

As a newbie, focus on weight progression and repetition progression.  Here's how you would apply both types of progressive overload into your routine,

Let's take the squat as an example.  Let's say you were doing squats for 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps using 100 lbs,

• workout 1: 100 lbs 12 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps, the goal is to do all 12 reps for each set, here you're only able to to do 12, 9, and 8 reps respectively, so you use rep progression by sticking to the same weight and work on increasing your reps per set first

• workout 2: 100 lbs 12 reps, 11 reps, 9 reps, you've improved from the previous workout

• workout 3: 100 lbs 12 reps, 12 reps, 10 reps, you improved again

• workout 4: 100 lbs 12 reps, 12 reps, 12 reps, you hit the target of 12 reps for all 3 sets, now use weight progression and add weight to the bar, add 5 more pounds, 5 lbs is a good rule to stick with (another option is to add 2.5% by using microloading plates), so workout 5 would look like this,

• workout 5: 105 lbs 11 reps, 9 reps, 8 reps, and you would work your way up to 12 reps again with rep progression, repeating rep and weight progression as you get stronger and build muscle

Now, eventually you will plateau and stagnate, meaning one day you will not be able to add weight to the bar or use heavier dumbbells.  The body adapts to the same routine or stress applied repeatedly.  It's just the way our bodies work.  When it plateaus, it becomes resistant to change and you will not be able to get any stronger.  If the body doesn't stagnate, then we'd all be benching 1000 lbs and squatting 1500 lbs within a year, easily.  The trick to break through a plateau is to cycle the weights back and work your way up again.

Let's take the same example guidelines above and say that you plateau at workout 12, squatting 120 lbs for 2 sets of 11 and 1 set of 9.  The goal is to get all 3 sets of 12 with 120 lbs,

• workout 12: 120 lbs 11, 11, 9, you plateau

• workout 13: 120 lbs 11, 11, 9, plateau again and can't do any more reps

• workout 14: 120 lbs 11, 11, 9, plateau for the third time, now it's time to cycle down by using a weight that's 5-10 lbs heavier than your starting weight for the first cycle above, and then work your way up again to a new personal record, since the starting weight above for the cycle was 100 lbs, you'll start over again with 110 lbs

• workout 15: 110 lbs, 12, 12, 12, now go to 115 lbs for 3 sets of 12, then work to 120 lbs again for 3 sets of 12 and you should be able to make it with ease this time around

The above is a general example of how you can apply weight and repetition progression loading schemes.

Taking all the principles in this article, the most important to keep in mind is to keep everything simple. To keep you from overcomplicating any of this stuff, follow these 3 general rules,

• lift heavy weights to build a strength foundation
• use bodybuilding rep ranges of 5-8 and 8-12
• do compound exercises

In part 4 of Muscle Building 101, you'll find out how to put this all together and structure your programs using 2 simple routines for bodybuilding success.

Let's move on.

• Muscle Building 101: Bodybuilding Equation- Part 1

• Muscle Building 101: Bodybuilding Nutrition- Part 2

• Muscle Building 101: Bodybuilding Workouts- Part 3

• Muscle Building 101: Bodybuilding Workouts- Part 4

• Muscle Building 101: Putting it all together- Part 5

Train Hard.  Train Safely.  Train Smart.

If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com

photo credits:

Army.mil

tinou bao

midiman

Jason.Lengstorf

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Explosive Report from No Nonsense Muscle Building Program: Finally revealed the truth the bodybuilding community and supplement companies hoped you would never discover...

Before, when Vince was taking massive amounts of supplements and blindly following the muscle magazines, he was an embarrassingly scrawny 149 lb twerp.

After Vince discovered the truth, he shot up to an impressive 190 lbs of rock-hard, ripped muscle mass in under 6 months...and became a national fitness model champion!
And you'll do it to with the No Nonsense Muscle Building Program

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