This is one of the most common questions that floods my e-mail inbox on a daily basis. For people who are just getting started with a bodybuilding workout program the whole process can be a mind boggling experience. There is so much conflicting advice out there about weight training and exercise that you really don't know who or what to believe anymore.
I know what you are going through and how frustrating it can be, everyone goes through the same thing when they start working out. People always have a tendency to make things more complicated then they really are. But when you put aside all of the hype and get down to the basics you can see that building muscle and getting in shape is not very complex.
Don't get hung up on having the perfect training routine, with the precise number of sets and reps, or following the perfect eating plan, etc. Just get started and do it. You can figure out the details and find ways to improve as you go.
I am going to outline a good beginners bodybuilding weight training program that you can follow. You do not need to have any fancy exercise equipment. In fact you could follow this routine with a basic home gym set up. But if you have the option, I would recommend that you join a commercial gym. In a commercial gym you'll have access to top quality fitness equipment and you'll also be able to feed off the energy of other fitness minded people and this will help keep your enthusiasm high. And this will help motivate you to stick to your workouts and make improvements.
Start off by working out every second day. This will give your body plenty of time for recuperation and muscle growth. Lifting weights will cause minor damage to the muscles and then the body reacts by building the muscles bigger and stronger in order to handle the demands that are being placed upon them. You do NOT build muscle while you in the gym; you build muscle while you are resting. Once you workout you have to give your body time to repair and build the muscles. Then you simply repeat the entire process of working out and resting.
A common mistake that a lot of novice bodybuilders make is thinking that the more they workout, the better results they will get. This is not true because what happens is the muscles get broken down, but they never get a chance to build back up. This is what is referred to in bodybuilding as "over training". When you over train your body can't build new muscle and you may even lose some of the muscle mass that you have now.
Here is a good solid workout routine that you can follow. With this routine you split up your workouts by exercising your upper body during the first workout, and then exercising your lower body during the second workout.
WORKOUT 1: (upper body)
Bench Press 3 sets of 10 reps (for the chest)
Lat Pull Downs 3 sets of 10 reps (for the back)
Seated Shoulder Press 3 sets of 10 reps (for the shoulders)
Bicep Barbell Curls 3 sets of 10 reps (for the biceps)
Triceps Push Downs 3 sets of 10 reps (for the triceps)
WORKOUT 2: (lower body)
Leg Press 3 sets of 10 reps (for the quadriceps)
Leg Curls 3 sets of 10 reps (for the hamstrings)
Leg Extensions 3 sets of 10 reps (for the quadriceps)
Standing Calve Raises 3 sets of 15 reps (for the calves)
Abdominal Crunches 3 sets of 25-50 reps (for the abdominals)
With this routine you workout every-other-day and alternate the two workout routines. So for example: Perform Workout 1, Take a day of rest, Perform Workout 2, Take a day of rest, and then repeat the cycle with Workout 1.
Prior to each exercise do 1 or 2 light warm up sets using about half of the weight that you would normally use for your working sets. Start off with light weights for the first couple weeks, you should be able to do all the sets and reps without much struggle. Then gradually, over time increase the amount of weight that you are lifting.
A good goal would be to add 5 lbs. to each exercise each week. For bigger exercises like bench presses, pull downs, leg presses, etc. this will be fairly easy to do, but for smaller exercises like bicep curls and tricep push downs you may not always be able to make those 5 lb. jumps in weight. There is a big difference between adding 5 lbs. to a 250 lb. leg press compared to adding 5 lbs. to a 25 lb. bicep curl. So just keep that in mind and do your best to increase your strength whenever possible.
When you are just starting out, keep it simple, do not complicate things. Just focus on consistency with your workouts. The biggest factor with success in bodybuilding is to just stick with it and focus on making small frequent improvements overtime.
"inch by inch life is a synch... yard by yard life is hard"
The answer is simple, but because the market is flooded with so much garbage all you hear or read about is either the latest supplement or "advanced" exercises. If real, solid, steel-like muscles are what you want then anytime you are introduced to a "new" or "advanced" way of performing an exercise, you'll do yourself a world of good by throwing it out the window.
Too many times do I see curious skinny gym members look over at the "gym buff" doing some funky exercise upside down on an exercise ball with one leg up flailing a pair of light dumbbells around thinking that if they learned how to perform that exercise they can look like him. Forget about it. Whether it works for him or not is irrelevant, the bottom line is that this type of exercise or anything like it will NOT work for hardgainers.
If an exercise is "new" I can almost guarantee it is far less effective then the simple, basic muscle mass building exercises. Why? Because all of the best exercises for maximum muscle growth have already been accounted for years ago. They have and always will be the number one exercises for the single purpose on how to gain muscle weight fast. Nothing compares and they will never be bested.
Basic or compound exercises allow you to lift more weight, and the heavier weight you can lift, the bigger you will be. With that in mind, what are compound exercises and which are the best for maximum muscle mass? Compound lifts, or multi-joint lifts, are weightlifting exercises that force you to use more then one muscle group, preferably 3 or more.
For example, the bench press is a compound lift because although the primary muscle used is the chest muscle, your shoulders and triceps are also helping to lift the weight. Tricep pushdowns, however, are what's called an isolation or single-joint exercise. Since this exercise just isolates a single muscle, your triceps, it doesn't stimulate nearly as much muscle growth as a compound lift would. Though there are many different compound exercises, you must focus only on those that stimulate the most amount of muscle and allow you to lift the heaviest amount of weight.
Here are the granddaddy of all compound muscle mass building exercises that you MUST include in your workout if you expect to build maximum muscle mass in the least amount of time:
1) Squats (quads, hamstrings, calves, and also has an effect on most of the upper body)
4) Shoulder Press or Military Press (shoulders and triceps)
5) Bent-Over Rows (back, biceps, lats)
6) Pull-Ups (back, biceps, lats)
7) Bar Dips (chest, triceps, shoulders)
If your workout programs to gain muscle don't include any of these exercises, then don't expect to grow very much, and don't expect to grow at all if you are a hardgainer. Try starting your workouts out with one of these exercises first, before you do any other exercises for that same muscle. This will ensure you exert most of your energy into the most important exercises, the ones that will be most responsible for your growth. For example, if you are training your shoulders, start off with the barbell shoulder press before you do any laterals, shrugs, or any other isolation exercise.
A couple of months ago, a friend asked me why he wasn't gaining any weight and getting any bigger. So I asked him to tell me about his workout. You can probably guess what it was. Sure enough, he was doing about five exercises for each muscle group, mostly isolation exercises. He wasn't doing any lower body exercises whatsoever, and the only compound exercise he was doing was everybody's favorite: the bench press.
So here is what I did: I gave him a simple but proven workout program for fast results that consisted of ONLY compound exercises, which in fact doesn't look much different from the list of muscle mass building exercises above. I told him to just do a few sets of each exercise a few times a week and to focus on just adding weight to the bar every week. Did he grow? About five weeks later he e-mailed me back and told me of his improvements. He weighed 18 pounds heavier and added around 20 to 30 pounds to each of the compound exercises I told him to do.
Is this a common result? Those who are willing to work hard on just a few compound exercises can expect results like this, even hardgainers. Was it easy? No. He worked hard, just like everyone else who got results like this. No fancy supplements or advanced exercises, just hard work on the key muscle mass building exercises, lots of clean food and plenty of rest.
Now that you know the key muscle mass building exercises for maximum muscle growth in record time, I want you to use them! If you haven't tried any of them before then you will be in for a treat. They're tough, they're demanding, they take sweat and grit and everything you got. They're not the type of exercises you can do while you hung-over or on 3 hours of sleep. You have to have lots of energy, be properly warmed up, and completely focused if you want to get the most out of them. But they will bring you more results then all of the other exercises put together.
Both Lee Hayward & Derek Manuel are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Lee Hayward has sinced written about articles on various topics from Build Muscle, glutamine & cysteine and Fat Loss. Lee Hayward has committed his life to studying fitness and nutrition and living a healthy bodybuilding lifestyle. He practices what he preaches and has been actively competing in bodybuilding competitions for the past 12+ years. Lee's main training focus. Lee Hayward's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.
Derek Manuel has sinced written about articles on various topics from Build Muscle, Bodybuilding Supplements and Build Muscle. Derek Manuel is the author of the best-selling, How to Gain Weight and Build Muscle for Hardgainers. If you want to learn how you too can gain 20 to 30 pounds of solid muscle in as short as 8 weeks, or if you just want more quality informati. Derek Manuel's top article generates over 6600 views. to your Favourites.