Bodybuilding Tips and Tricks

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.

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.

I like to perform these near the end of my biceps routine. They hit the biceps from a different angle than other exercises and will really help bulk up your forearms.

Performance: Stand upright with your back and head straight, knees slightly bent. Grasp a barbell with an overhand grip about a shoulder width apart. Slowly raise the weight with your elbows tight into your body, feeling the contraction in your biceps and forearms. Once the weight has reached the top, slowly lower it with control back to the starting position. These can also be performed using an E-Z curl bar if your wrists bother you.

Muscle Emphasis: brachioradialis, brachialis, biceps brachii

Here, in my opinion and in no particular order, are the 6 most important bodybuilding supplements you can take. If these aren’t a part of your supplement regimen, you should seriously consider adding them in to maximize your training and development.

Arginine - Boosts growth hormone and is readily converted into nitric oxide. Nitric oxide increases the blood flow to muscles, allowing better delivery of nutrients and oxygen to muscles. Dosage: 3-5g in the morning, before workouts, and at bedtime. Take on an empty stomach.

Creatine - One of the most popular supplements around, creatine provides quick energy for powerful muscle contractions and allows muscles to hold more water, making them fuller and stronger which leads to more growth. Try a titrated form of creatine if the standard form causes bloating and/or digestive distress. Dosage: 3-5g before and after workouts

Whey Protein - One of, if not the most, important bodybuilding supplement, protein provides the amino acids you need to build muscle protein, whey protein is fast-digesting and a good source of branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine, isoleucine, and valine. Dosage: 20g before workouts and 20-40g after workouts; additionally, aim for 1-1.5g of protein per pound of bodyweight per day

Glutamine - Aids in recovery and muscle growth, buffers the fatigue-inducing chemicals that form during intense exercise, essential for normal digestion and immune function, protects muscles from being broken down for fuel (particularly useful on a “leaning down” diet). Dosage: 2-3 g initially, then work up to 5g taken in the morning, before and after workouts and at bedtime.

Multivitamin/Mineral - A relatively unglamourous, but still very important, supplement, a good multivitamin helps provide you with the adequate amounts of vitamins and minerals required to build muscle. Dosage: take one does with food two times a day (you may also want to try taking some extra B vitamins and/or the antioxidant vitamins C and E in addition to the multivite)

Fish Oil - Reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke, prevents muscle breakdown, helps regenerate and grow muscle, enhances joint tissue rebuilding and encourages fat loss. Dosage: 1-3g twice a day with food