Muscle Building Information

Moving From Beginner To Intermediate Level Bodybuilding


By now you've made significant progress in your bodybuilding career. For the past three to six months you've learnt how to perform the core lifting exercises in a technically correct manner. You've also conditioned the body and developed sufficient core strength to prepare yourself for a whole new level of intensity. Hopefully you've also built some rock solid muscle! But that's only the beginning.

In recent weeks your workouts have probably lost some of their effect so, even though you're lifting bigger weights, your muscles now need even greater stimulation to generate maximal growth. Don't expect miracles though - from this point onwards, every little bit of improvement will take even greater and more intensive work than before.

Because you'll be working your muscles more intensively, they'll also need more recovery time to adapt and grow and that's why you'll be reducing your workouts to three a week. Each primary muscle group trained will now need one full week to recover. After being used to whole body sessions and more workouts per week it may seem as if you're not doing enough but the point is, you'll be working your muscles very, very intensively and making better use of your time.

As you gain more experience you'll be able to tweak or re-design your basic muscle building program to suit your own individual needs, but the program described here should provide a useful starting point. What I'm proposing is basically a 3-split of the body on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

MONDAY (Chest, Triceps, Shoulders)

1. Chest Exercises

Incline dumbbell press - this is a compound exercise that targets the chest but also works the triceps and shoulders to a lesser extent.

Pec-deck flye - this is an isolation exercise that works the pectorals.

2. Triceps

Dips - this compound exercise targets the triceps but also works the chest and shoulders.

3. Shoulders

Front military press - this compound exercise targets shoulders but also works the triceps.

Dumbbell lateral raises - this isolation exercise works the shoulders only.

Bentover dumbbell laterals - this isolation exercise works the rear delts.

WEDNESDAY (Back, Biceps, Forearms)

1. Back

Front lat pulls - compound exercise that targets lats but also works the biceps and mid-back.

Deadlifts - compound exercise that targets the back and quads but also works hamstrings, calves and glutes.

Dumbbell rows - compound exercise that targets mid-back but also works biceps and lats.

Dumbbell shrugs - isolation exercise that works traps.

2. Biceps

Dumbbell biceps curl - isolation exercise that works the biceps.

Dumbbell hammer curls - isolation exercise that works the biceps.

3. Forearms

Barbell wrist curl - isolation exercise that works the forearms.

FRIDAY (Lower Body)

1. Legs

Squats or leg press - compound exercise that targets the quads but also works the hamstrings, calves and glutes.

Leg extension - isolation exercise that works the quads.

Leg curls - isolation exercise that works the hamstrings.

Standing calf raise - isolation exercise that works the gastrocnemius calf muscle.

Seated calf raise - isolation exercise that works the soleus calf muscle.

You could start this program by aiming for two sets of 8-10 reps per exercise but as your strength and size increase you should really introduce techniques that boost the intensity even further. This can be achieved in a number of ways including the use of pre-exhaustion, super sets, partial reps, isometric contractions and forced reps. These techniques are covered in detail elsewhere in this series of articles.

Richard Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this article.

  


MORE RESOURCES:

Wodraska: Get on the ball to build strength
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Trainer Trisha DeHall helps her clients, many of them middle-aged women, lose body fat and gain muscle through a system she calls “controlled confusion.” Her specialty at Fit Body Boot Camp in Blue Ash is a 45-minute structured, group session that ...

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Burn fat, build muscle
Cincinnati.com
Trainer Trisha DeHall helps her clients, many of them middle-aged women, lose body fat and gain muscle through a system she calls “controlled confusion.” Her specialty at Fit Body Boot Camp in Blue Ash is a 45-minute structured, group session that ...

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Well with Michelle: Lifting weights a winner
The News-Press
These principles will teach you how to make sure you're using enough weight, determine your sets and reps and insure you're always progressing in your workouts. 1. Overload: To build muscle, you need to use more resistance than your muscles are used to ...

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GigaOm

Cloudscaling wants to make OpenStack webscale
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The company, which has helped build public clouds for the likes of Korea Telecom and Internap, is putting its consulting muscle behind a new OpenStack-based software platform that is built with webscale in mind. For the uninitiated, OpenStack is a set ...

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Build Muscle Memory on the Go with Pocketstrings
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The idea is to work on chords and build muscle memory, not to mention some handy calluses, in places where having an actual guitar would be inconvenient. There is no way to strum though and no prerecorded “correct” chord sounds, so it's truly only a ...



More evidence big football players face heart risks
Reuters
Often, professional athletes' muscle mass can make for a high body mass index (BMI), a commonly used measure of weight in relation to height, and Baron said there was an argument that a high BMI based on muscle is not so bad.

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Strength Training Circuit Challenge
San Francisco Chronicle
The Strength Training Circuit Challenge is an intense, total-body workout centered around compound weight lifting exercises. This workout will build muscle, burn fat, and challenge your resolve. Think you can make it through all 3 rounds?



Massage Improves Post-Workout Recovery
Men's Fitness
Other studies have shown that treatments for sore muscles—such as ice baths and anti-inflammatory medications—can reduce inflammation. These tend to block muscle repair and growth. Massage, however, appears to not only make you feel better, ...

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Evidence big football players face heart risks
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Often, professional athletes' muscle mass can make for a high body mass index (BMI) -- a measure of weight in relation to height. And there's the argument that a high BMI based on muscle is not so bad, Baron pointed out in an interview.

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