Legs And Back
Which leads me nicely up to the importance of leg and back training in particular. The previous paragraph should've convinced you that isolating one or two bodyparts is a daft idea - by the way, I've just realised another popular excuse for just doing bicep work "My arms are a weak bodypart"; if you've only been training two weeks how the hell do you know that? Train your whole body for two years and THEN decide whether you have weak bodyparts, before you start messing about with bicep widowmakers or some such nonsense which'll just get yourself hurt.
Now, legs and back. The hips, glutes, legs and lower back are what I call a body's 'power base' - nearly all heavy lifting should go through these bodyparts. When you were lifting stuff as a boy, didn't your dad ever say "Lift with the legs son, not the arms!". I remember mine did, when I was lugging bags of concrete around for him (my mum was - and still is - into landscaping, much to my chargrin). He was right, lifting with your arms is the best way to give yourself a hernia. Your arms are just the grippers, your fingers are the hooks, the claws, whatever - the actual lift goes through the back and legs.
It's much the same with bodybuilding, the two big lifts (squats and deadlifts) all go through the legs and back. And the big lifts is what gets you big. Do you think your body will have much incentive to grow if all you tax it with is a few sets of bicep curls? No, and if I was the body I wouldn't grow either. But then you suddenly ask me, the body, to put 400lbs on my back and squat it for 6-10, every week, then I'll go into panic mode and try and grow as fast as bloody possible, because squatting is difficult and painful, and I'm a bit of a wimp really, the body, I'll adapt to whatever I have to do to cause me the least discomfort possible. This is how the body 'thinks' - if it has to lift a heavy weight, it'll adapt itself in strength and size to lift that weight on a regular basis. By making this lift progressively heavier every two weeks you're making sure that the body KEEPS growing.
The strain a squat or deadlift puts on the body is immense. Have you ever felt dead from doing dumbbell kickbacks? Of course not. On the other hand, deadlift 500lbs for ten and then tell me whether you want to die or not - this is a trick question actually, you'll be too out of breath to tell me anything at all.
Leg and back exercises are what will kill your body and make it grow, not arm exercises. The legs and back are the biggest muscles in the body, once they get big and strong, you'll find the rest of the body has followed suit. Think of it as the bigger muscles bullying the little ones into growing. A rear lateral raise won't make your back grow - but a deadlift will make your back AND your rear delts grow.
For the more biological-minded of you, consider this: the body builds muscle with the presence of the Growth Hormone, right? Your legs are your biggest muscle group, imagine how much growth hormone they'd release, compared to how much your triceps would release doing kickbacks. More growth hormone = more muscle growth, all over. A while ago I knew the science of this exactly, I've forgotten it now but maybe I can find a nice article for you guys ..
Again, that piece by Stuart McRobert also explains why it's impossible to get a big upper body without having a big lower body (or powerbase) first. If Ted,JustAdmitIt can dig the link out again, he can have a steak on me. That's worth a read, if I haven't just convinced you of the importance of power training for big muscles all over.
By now, you lot should be a lot wiser, and know that big arms are grown in the power rack, not the preacher station.
Oh, and if any of you guys tell me that 'my legs are as big/strong' as I want them to be, then you're missing the point entirely and need to either read above again, or take up needlework. By not working your legs (in the fear you're gonna get freakish thighs like Coleman? you won't, I assure you.)
Use Compound Exercises
Exercises (for any bodypart) are either isolations or compounds. Isolations work only the muscle in question, and my earlier writings should have convinced you to avoid these wherever possible (unless you're an advanced lifter and feel you should isolate a weak bodypart, but train consistently for 3-5 years first before deciding this).
Compound exercises work more than one muscle. Take the deadlift for example. As well as the lower back, it works the biceps, forearms and rear delts to name just three more muscles, as well as the abs which stabilise the trunk, the traps if you pull your shoulders back at the top of the lift. That's like doing six isolations in one exercise - okay, not EXACTLY the same but can you see why a compound exercise is so much more preferable to an isolation exercise?
It was once suggested that just by squatting (since squats work nearly every muscle in your body) you could get huge. I've never tried it myself but am very inclined to believe it, since I reckon that for more advanced trainers no direct arm work is actually needed, the heavy weights pushed by their deadlifts and squats will see to these muscle groups quite sufficiently - and if they've got anything in the tank to do bicep curls after a widowmaker squat set then they're not working out hard enough.
So yes, always compound exercises if you can make it. Some isolations can be good but this is individual - some people swear by db flyes to put mass on their chest, it never worked for me. But show me one person who barbell inclines 400lbs and doesn't have a huge chest.
Making Up Your Routine - The Generic 3-Day Split
Safe in the knowledge that you should work out all your body and use compound exercises, we can start putting our split together. A 3way split - Monday, Wednesday and Friday - is an exellent start, allowing you to work all your muscle groups over the three days, with enough recovery time in between workouts plus the weekend free for socialising or whatever you like.
A 3day split is traditionally Chest/Shoulders/Triceps, Back/Biceps and Legs (push/pull/legs) OR Chest/Triceps, Back/Biceps, Legs/Shoulders, the latter being better for beginning lifters who need to build a good strength base and whose shoulders might give out having done Chest/Triceps beforehand (most chest work involves delt action too).
Exercises: I'd say two for the big muscle groups, and one for the smaller ones - an exception being quads, because you shouldn't be able to do anything else with your legs having just squatted your arse off. For back I'd recommend one back width exercise (chin-ups or pulldowns or something similar) and one back thickness/mass exercise (deadlifts, rows, etc). For chest choose two presses, but don't make them both flat or both incline, do one incline and one decline, one flat and one incline, etc - mix it up.
There are no right or wrong exercises really, like I said, if you choose isolations you'll find you'll get stuck quickly and gain no muscle off them, so you'll have to change to compounds then anyway BUT there are some exercises which look and feel if they work, but are in fact either dangerous or just a waste of time.
A few, off the top of my head (anyone else feel free to chime in): tricep kickbacks (ARGH!), cable crossovers (useless), upright rows (dangerous), flat bench (an ego exercise more than anything, and the number of pec tears from flat bench is amazing, but I've yet to meet someone who's torn his pec from db or incline pressing - these will also put more meat on your chest than flat bench), anything which uses pink dumbbells, trying to isolate every cross-section 1234131231 of your brachialis upper slowfast twitch tickle fibre by extending the pinkie when curling your dumbbell.
Okay, now we know how many exercises per bodypart (roughly, this is a starting point remember) and how often to train, let's make a sample split.
Sample 3day Split
Back, Biceps (I prefer back/biceps on Monday because I get two full days of rest after squats on Friday)
Standing Barbell Curl
Hammer Curl
Lat Pulldown
Deadlift
Chest, Triceps
Flat Db Press
Incline Barbell Press
Close Grip Bench or Skullcrushers (I prefer CG bench)
You can do some abs here too if you like.
Legs, Shoulders
Military Press or DB press
Sumo Leg Press or Hamstring Curl
Calf Raise
Barbell Squats
Sets/reps: 3 sets of 8-12 reps on each exercise (15-20 for calf raise), make it 3x8 for floor deadlifts depending on the weight you push (if it's heavy you can do 3x6 or 3x5), squats 3x6-8.
Progression And Expanding Your Split
We want to progress, keep taxing our body to make it grow more. This is achieved by adding weight to our exercises; if not every week then every two weeks. Once you can do 3x10 easily on an exercise then it's safe to add weight I'd say. Learn to love those 2.5lb plates, it's these that will keep you progressing steadily. Remember to keep good form!
The split listed above is a very basic outline, intended for the novice or someone who thinks they've hit a plateau or whatever and want a solid split to be getting on with. In time, you'll be able to 'feel' if the split is working for you, and you can chop and change as necessary.
Monitor over time, take measurements and check again in 2 or 3 months' time. Maybe you need to increase the reps to 12-15 on your bicep exercises if they're not getting fried enough, maybe the lat pulldown is too easy and you want to do chins instead, whatever. It's all individual, you've just got to find out what works and what doesn't.
Couldn't find this thread anywhere, but I had it saved to disk, so.. here you go.
