Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks

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.

Incline Barbell Press - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 12, 12, 10, 8
Flat-Bench Dumbell Press - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 6, 10, 12, 12
Decline Bench Press - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 6, 8, 8, 10
Pec-Deck Flye - 4 sets; Rep Scheme: 10, 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.

“Running the Rack” is an advanced technique which will totally fry your targeted muscle group. To “run the rack”, you’ll perform multiple sets back to back with no rest in between. For each set, you’ll go to failure, then decrease the weight and immediately do another set to failure. You’ll repeat this process until you’ve completed your prescribed number of sets. As an example, someone doing alternating dumbbell curls might start with 50lbs (in each hand) and work to failure, go immediately to 40lbs. to failure, and then drop to 30lbs. and finally 20lbs. to finish up. You just need to determine how many sets you want to complete beforehand so you know what weight to start with and how much to decrease it by each set. This is an excellent technique to employ if you want to really “feel the burn” but, like most advanced techniques, running the rack should only be attempted by experienced lifters and should not be performed every workout (this will help you avoid overtraining).

Many people (myself included) find working out to be an awesome, stress-relieving experience. Not only does exercising get those euphoria-inducing endorphins flowing, it can also clear and focus your mind. Problems that seemed huge and unweildy before you entered the gym may seem insignificant and easily solved post-workout. Even if the problem’s still a doozy once you’re through working up a sweat, at least you were able to take your mind off of it for a short time.

Despite these stress-relieving effects, some people find the gym to be downright stress-inducing. Going into a gym, especially as a beginner, can be very intimidating. Maybe you’re not totally happy with the way you look or you feel out of place. Maybe you’re unsure of what you should be doing or how to use the equipment and you’re afraid you’re going to make a fool of yourself. Or maybe you’ve got your whole workout planned out when you go into the gym, but it’s usually crowded and someone seems to always be on the piece of equipment you want to use and it’s driving you nuts! If you can relate to any of these examples, I’d like to offer you some techniques to make yourself and your workout better.

First, if you’re nervous, try to focus on your goals. In other words, the reason you joined the gym and decided to start working out. Remember, most things that are worth having in life take a lot of hard work to achieve and a great body is no different. Don’t let a case of the nerves screw up your long-term goals for a better you. Stay focused. On a more practical, less cerebral level, get educated. The more you know about working out and the equipment around you, the more comfortable and confident you’ll be. Read books and magazines and check out websites (like this one and many others) to become as knowledgable as you can. Think about any test you’ve ever taken…when do you feel more comfortable and confident? When you know the material like the back of your hand or when you haven’t studied at all and have no idea what you’re doing? In my proper form article I talk more about educating yourself on any exercises you’d like to work into your routine, but the bottom line is: the more you know, the better you’ll feel.

If you’re a person who’s very organized and likes to plan out their workouts ahead of time, congratulations. This is definitely an important part of bodybuilding. However, if, as I mentioned earlier, you get very stressed out when another person is on the machine you had planned to use, let me offer you this advice. If someone’s on “your” machine, don’t stress about it. Just look at it as something that will add variety to your workout. You should be mixing things up as much as you can anyway, and this will provide you the perfect opportunity to do just that. The best way to go about it, and what I personally do, is to have a sort of Rolodex of alternate exercises for each bodypart (or parts of bodyparts) in the ol’ noggin (once again becoming knowledgable comes into play bigtime!). Let me give you an example using a chest routine. I’ll list the “preferred” exercise order with just some of the alternative exercises that could be swapped in and out if need be.

Incline Barbell Press
Alternatives: Smith Machine Incline Press, Hammer Strength Machine Incline Press, Incline Press with Dumbbells, Circuit Incline Press, Push-ups with feet raised

Flat-Bench Barbell Press
Alternatives: Smith Machine Flat-Bench Press, Dumbbell Flat-Bench Press, Hammer Strength Seated Press, Circuit Chest Press, Push-ups

Smith Machine Decline Press
Alternatives: Dumbbell Decline Press, Push-ups with hands raised

Dumbbell Pectoral Flyes
Alternatives: Cable Flyes, Pec-Deck Flyes

As you can see, if you encounter any problems with a member of the gym clientele beating you to your intended destination, you can quickly and easily substitute another exercise into the routine in it’s place without effecting the efficacy of your workout in the slightest. It’s as easy as 1, 2, 3. Hope these strategies help and here’s to bigger, badder, and more stress-free workouts!

Most gyms I’ve been in have a Smith Machine available for members and the Smith can certainly be a very valuable tool in your bodybuilding routine. Basically, the Smith Machine is a large rack-like apparatus with a barbell attached to the front of it. The barbell is in a slot, on a track, and as such it can only move in the vertical plane (i.e. up and down). There are small knobs or cylinders protruding on either side of the Smith right by the barbell track and hooks on the barbell itself allow you to use the knobs to rack the weight at various points as the bar moves up and down.

The Smith Machine has several advantages and uses. Because of the way the machine is designed, it eliminates the need for many of the stabilizer muscles you normally would have to recruit when performing certain exercises using free weights. What this means is two things: 1) you’ll be able to more effectively *isolate* a particular muscle group and really work it over well and 2) you’ll be able to lift quite a bit heavier using the Smith than when using normal free weights. In addition, an added benefit is that, for all practical purposes, the Smith Machine eliminates the need for a spotter since you can rack the weight easily on your own at anytime during the performance of the exercise.

I find the Smith Machine is excellent for:

- breaking out of plateaus
- lifting heavier weight than you normally would be able to (this is often an integral part of pushing through the aforementioned plateaus)
- isolating a particular muscle group
- getting the “feel” and form down for a particular exercise before attempting it without the Smith
- increasing safety during exercise performance and eliminating the need for a spotter

Some exercises I like to perform using a Smith Machine are:
- Shoulder Presses
- Bent Over Barbell Rows
- Incline, Decline, and Flat Bench Presses
- Squats
- Barbell Shrugs

You can experiment with other exercises on your own as well.

Maybe you’ve been intimidated by the large Smith Machine in the past, but now that you’re armed with some knowledge and some recommended exercises, try working the Smith Machine into your routine. I think you’ll be happy with the results.

Here is a sample routine that will hit all of your abdominal muscles beginning with the lower abs and then moving on to the upper abs and obliques.

Hanging Leg Raises
Exercise Ball Crunch
Twisting Crunch
Side bends With Dumbbell

You should try to keep your reps relatively high, aiming for the 15-20 range. If you can easily perform more that 25, you’re probably not squeezing hard enough during each contraction or you should consider adding some resistance such as a dumbbell between your feet during the hanging leg raises or holding a medicine ball while doing your crunches. This routine can be performed one exercise at a time (3 sets each with around 30-45 seconds rest between sets) or (this is the way I like to do it) as one giant compound superset. You’ll perform one set of each exercise back to back with no rest in between. After you’ve completed one set of each of the four exercises, rest for 30-60 seconds (if you need to) and repeat for maximum burnage.

I put the “like” in quotes because the idea here is not so much that the muscle groups you’re grouping together are similar in nature, but that exercises that work the larger group typically also work the smaller one (at least secondarily). Training the upper body in this manner, you’d group together your back and biceps and your chest and triceps. Nearly all back exercises place at least secondary stress on the biceps and most chest exercises bring your triceps into play. Thus, following the principle of always working the larger muscle group first, you would train your back followed by your biceps one workout and your chest followed by your triceps in a subsequent workout. Here are some sample routines illustrating this idea:

Back/Biceps
Bent-over barbell rows
Lat pulldowns
Close-grip cable rows
One-arm dumbbell rows
Standing barbell curls
E-Z bar preacher curls
Hammer curls
One-arm cable curls

Chest/Triceps
Incline bench press
Flat bench dumbbell press
Pectoral flyes w/dumbbells
Cable crossovers
Skull Crushers (Lying French Press)
Tricep Pressdowns
One-arm tricep extensions