Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks

Squats are quite possibly the best lower-body exercise around and also, in my opinion, one of the most difficult. However, once mastered, you are well on your way to building huge, powerful legs. In addition to their ability to build a strong, muscular lower body, squats are also an awesome movement for stimulating a full-body, anabolic metabolism which of course is always a plus.

Concentrate on getting comfortable with proper squatting form before going too heavy; it’ll be worth it in the long run. You also might want to start out using the Smith Machine when you perform squats. The Smith will make things a bit easier and help you get the feel of the movement down.

Performance: Stand under the bar with your feet in a comfortable shoulder-width stance. With your eyes straight-ahead, place the bar across your upper back and trapezius. Keeping your head up and your body tensed, slowly bend at the knees At the point where your thighs are parallel (or a little past) to the floor, reverse your direction, driving forcefully through your heels to a standing position.

Muscle emphasis: Primary stress is placed on the quadriceps, glutes, and lower back muscles; secondary stress is placed on the hamstrings, upper back, and abdominal muscles

Lying French Press (Skull Crushers) - 5 sets; Rep Scheme: 12, 8, 8, 10, 10
Triceps Pressdown - 3 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 10, 12
Close-Grip Bench Press - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 8, 10, 12
Seated Overhead Dumbbell Extension - 3 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 10, 10
Dumbbell Kickbacks - 3 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 8, 10

Rest time between sets: 1-2 minutes
Be sure to do 1-2 warmup sets or 5-10 minutes of cardio (or both) before beginning the first exercise.

Here are some commonly used bodybuilding abbreviations; some obvious, some not. I’ll be adding to this list periodically.

Bi’s = Biceps
Tris = Triceps
Traps = Trapezius
Glutes = Gluteus (large muscles of the buttocks)
Hams = Hamstrings
BCAA = Branched Chain Amino Acids

Performance: Stand holding a dumbbell in one hand with your arm at your side. Hold onto a solid structure or another dumbbell with your other hand for balance and support. With your elbow in fixed position, slowly raise the weight until your arm is parallel to the floor, pause for a moment, then return to the start. Repeat for reps. These can also be performed with both arms at the same time or alternating right and left until the desired reps are completed.

Muscle Emphasis: Medial head of the deltoid.

Overhead Barbell Press - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 6, 8, 10, 12
Dumbbell Shoulder Press - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 6, 8, 10, 12
Wide-Grip Upright Row - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 8, 12, 12
Bent-Over Lateral Raise - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 12, 12, 15
Dumbbell Lateral Raise - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 6, 12, 12

Rest time between sets: 1-2 minutes
Be sure to do 1-2 warmup sets before beginning the first exercise.

Barbell Curls - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 6, 10, 12, 12
Dumbbell Preacher Curls - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 10, 10, 12
Hammer Curls - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 10, 10, 12, 12
Reverse Curls - 3 sets; Rep Scheme: 8, 10, 12

Rest time between sets: 1-2 minutes
Be sure to do 1-2 warmup sets or 5-10 minutes of cardio (or both) before beginning the first exercise.

Lat Pulldowns or Pull-ups - 4 sets; Rep sheme: 8, 8, 12, 12
Bent-Over Barbell Row - 4 sets; Rep sheme: 6, 8, 10, 12
T-Bar Row - 4 sets; Rep sheme: 6, 10, 12
Barbell Shrug -4 sets; Rep sheme: 12, 10, 8, 8
Straight-Arm Pulldown - 4 sets; Rep sheme: 10, 12, 12

Rest time between sets: 1-2 minutes
Be sure to do 1-2 warmup sets or 5-10 minutes of cardio (or both) before beginning the first exercise.

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.

The Cable Crunch is an extremely effective upper ab exercise that’s a bit tricky to master but well worth the extra effort. As with all cable exercises, the constant tension provided by the cables make these a great exercise for feeling “the burn”.

Performance: Attach a rope attachment to a high pulley on the cable apparatus. Grasp the two ends of the rope and kneel down about a foot back from the weight stack. Allow your body to extend toward the pulley. The “action” portion of the exercise is comprised of two simultaneous movements. You will, at the same time, bend over at the waist until your forehead touches and floor and do a small, pullover movement to bring your arms from an extended position to one in which they are bent at 90 degree angles and your hands are near the floor. Your hands should remain just in front of your head throughout the movement. As you perform the exercise, forcefully exhale all of your air. Hold the contraction for a second at the bottom of the movement and then return to the starting position. Repeat for the desired rep count.

You may have noticed certain amino acid supplements with the letter “L” stuck on to the front of them (i.e. L-Glutamine, L-Carnitine, L-Arginine, etc.). What does the “L” mean? The “L” stands for Laevorotatory, and refers to the stereoisomer that rotates plane polarized light to the left. Regardless of that chemical mumbo jumbo, the bottom line with these things is still to take them regularly as part of your bodybuilding training regimen. But now you have some obscure knowledge to impress your friends with.