One of the most important elements of a bodybuilding training regimen is variety. There are many ways to keep things fresh and prevent your gains from hitting a plateau (I’ll be adding more articles on these in the future). Today, let’s look at altering our workout routines over the period of roughly 4-6 months. Considering the following plans:
Cycle 1
Whole Body
Cardio
Whole Body
Cardio
Whole Body
Cardio
Rest
Cycle 2
Chest, Triceps, Shoulders
Cardio
Back, Biceps, Calves
Cardio
Hams, Glutes, Abs
Cardio
Rest
Cycle 3
Chest, Triceps
Back, Biceps
Cardio
Legs, Abs
Shoulders, Traps
Cardio
Rest
Cycle 4
Chest
Back/Cardio
Triceps/Cardio
Biceps/Cardio
Legs/Abs
Shoulders, Traps
Rest
Stick with each of these cycles for 4-6 weeks or until you feel that your gains have plateaued, then move on to the next cycle. As you can see, in each cycle the amount of bodyparts worked (and how often they’re worked per week) changes from program to program. So, we start with Cycle 1 working the whole body a few times a week and move onto Cycle 4 with only one bodypart being worked per day, once a week. In order to keep things logistically practical, you should alter the number of exercises you are performing per bodypart depending on which cycle you are following. Thus, when I’m doing a whole body routine, I will typically only do 1 exercise per bodypart while Cycle 4’s routine will find me doing 4 or even 5 sets per bodypart. These are of course just sample routines to illustrate the principle; you can make up your own combinations and decide where and when you’d like to fit in your cardio as you see fit.
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