You can find a lot of bodybuilding programs online and in muscle magazines and fitness books. But how effective are they? How do you know what to look out for before deciding to following a bodybuilding program or routine. There are really just 4 main things to analyze and decide if that bodybuilding program is right for you.
These are methods of strength training progression, type of training split for weight workouts, strength exercises used, and a proper bulking nutrition plan. By evaluating these 4 criterias you can decide if a strength training program for building muscle and strength is effective.
1) Methods of progression
Progression is extremely important for building muscle. If a program doesn't have an outline or offer a method of progressing through the workouts, stay away from it. Progression means that you must continually make your workouts harder over time. This is an absolutely necessary since it is used to first build strength. The body is a machine of adaptation. It adapts fairly quickly to repeated stresses. The stress applied is weight lifting. If you're lifting 100 lbs now, would you expect your body to continue building strength and muscle 6 months from now if you're still lifting 100 lbs? Of course not.
If you use the same weight, your body will not adapt any further and get stronger. It has no reason to since you're still using the same weight. Habituation to the same workouts results in a plateau. You have to continually challenge your body with either of the following progression methods,
- increasing weight of each exercise
- increasing frequency of workouts for each exercise and/or muscle group
- increasing volume by increasing the number of sets and reps you do each workout
- decreasing the rest periods between each set
If the bodybuilding program doesn't have at least one of the following progression method, stay away from it.
2) Type of training split
There are 3 main training splits you can use for maximum muscle and strength gains in a routine. These 3 splits are perfectly suited for all beginners and those new to weight lifting,
- full body split where you train the entire body at least 2-3 times a week using compound exercises; every muscle group is then trained 2-3 times weekly which gives it plenty of stimulation for strength and muscle mass gains
- body part splits where you focus on 1-2 muscle groups per workout, training each muscle once per week; each muscle group is trained at least once per week allowing for more direct stimulation and exercises used per workout
- upper and lower body splits where you break the entire body into halves and work the upper body on one day and the lower body on another day
Overall, there should be a good balance between training each muscle group about one to two times a week. The maximum times to train each muscle is twice a week for beginners. Three times a week is fine for beginners doing a full body routine.
3) Exercises Used
An effective and result-producing bodybuilding program will incorporate mainly compound free weight lifting exercise movements into the workouts. Compound exercises are free weight lifts that uses barbells and dumbbells to work more than 1 major muscle group at the same time. These multi-joint movements will allow you to move heavier weights to building a good basic strength foundation. By building that foundation you'll be good to go on building more muscle later on. I've never encountered a muscular guy who was weak on the major compound lifts. Focus on heavy mass compound exercises. Get strong on them. Lift heavy and you'll build muscle.
Here's a list of the most effective compound exercises,
* squats, front squats, hack squats
* deadlifts, suitcase deadlift, rack deadlift, stiff leg deadlift
* bench press, dumbbell bench press, close grip bench press
* parallel bar dips
* chinups and pullups
* military press, dumbbell shoulder press, dumbbell arnold press
* barbell bent press
* barbell and dumbbell rows
4) Muscle Building Nutrition
Muscle building programs will require you to eat a lot, at least 300-500 calories, and sometimes even more, over maintenance to gain some quality muscle. If the program does not factor this calorie surplus in their laid out diet plan, you'd have to adjust the diet to meet the energy demands of lifting weights. Eating more than your burn off is actually the one of the most important part of building muscle. So make sure you do slap on some calories above what you're currently eating.
You have to eat a lot to gain a lot of muscle. Eating a lot should be made a priority. Without that calorie surplus, you will not have a positive energy balance. And without being in a positive energy state by the end of the day before you go to sleep, you will not grow. It's as simple as that.
Food is fuel and the catalyst for building muscle mass. The engine is your body. If you don't provide that fuel, the engine won't respond. The body will not grow new muscles. So keep a proper muscle building nutrition in mind. 500 calories above maintenance or what you currently eat is recommended by worthy bodybuilding programs. Many hardgainers and especially those with ultra-fast metabolism often require much more than a calorie surplus of 500 calories. They might need over 800 more calories to build muscle.
So these are the 4 main factors you can use to judge whether a bodybuilding program is worthy of doing. The training programs I recommend here all follow these 4 factors to help you get real world results in muscle growth, strength gains, and overall improvements in physical fitness.
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
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