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Bodybuilding
Program Basics
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Training Muscle Groups
Push Pull Bodybuilding Routine by
Scott Jameson
When I speak of a bodybuilding routine in this article I am talking about the order that the muscle groups are trained. In this routine, we do not mix the different muscle groups.....in other words a muscle group like chest is trained to completion before starting another muscle group like shoulders. Depending on order that muscle groups are worked you can maximize your gains and minimize your time in the gym. So how do we do this? Let's first identify the major muscle groups. They are:
Chest
Shoulders
Triceps
Back
Biceps
Legs (quads and leg biceps (also called hamstrings)
Calves
Abdominals
Chest, shoulders and triceps all have one thing in common, they are excercised by pushing and all require the tricep muscle to extend. For example when you bench press for chest development, the tricep plays an active roll in pushing the weight. When you do a seated press for shoulders again the tricep plays an active roll. Frankly, if the tricep is tired both your chest and shoulder workout will suffer.
The push portion of this routine lumps the Chest, Shoulder and Triceps in the same workout. Hold on now before you say this is too much. Consider this, if you work your Chest first (largest of muscles in this group), the chest along with the tricep will be trained. This order of doing chest first is critical because if you did triceps first, the tri's would be shot by the time you got to chest. Do your basic chest movements first... like bench presses and incline presses. Do your isolating exercises like cable or dumbbell flies last. These isolating exercises will give your triceps a breather since they are not active. Okay now on to shoulders.
The shoulders are the second largest set of muscles in this routine. Again, start with the basics exercises like seated front, military or dumbbell presses which involves the tricep. This will enable the shoulder to be worked to peak while the tricep is fresh out of recovery from the isolated chest movements. Next give the tricep a rest but blast the shoulders by doing isolated shoulder movements like front and side lateral flies. I will define a variety of shoulder exercises but that is save for other articles.
Now move to triceps, the last and smallest of the muscle groups. Basically, the triceps should be pretty much exercised with the heavy movements and now all you have to do is polish them off. Do few light weight pumping exercises to flush the muscle with blood. Good exercises would be tricep cable pushdown, overhead dumbbell extensions and dumbbell tricep kickbacks.
So there you have it! In day 1, do the muscle groups in the order of Chest, Shoulders and Triceps. Of your time spent on this day, allocate 50% of your time to Chest, 30% to Shoulders and 20% to Triceps.
Okay lets go to day 2 of the Pull routine.
The Pull Routine includes the Back and Biceps. Both of these body parts are movements by pulling the weights and contracting the bicep muscles. As was with the Chest, Shoulder and Tricep routine, the bigger muscles group, the Back, is worked before the smaller, the Biceps. Different than Chest, the Back has very few isolating exercises that exclude bicep activity. Therefore the Bi's are going to be hit pretty hard on the Back routine.
Start your Back with the basics exercises, like wide grip chin ups. wide grip bent over barbell rows, T Bar rows, and cable rows. Include the isolating exercises like one arm dumbbell and cable rows at the end. Notice like I said before, the Bi's are taking their fair share of work. The back is the largest upper body muscle group, so don't be afraid to have 6 or more different exercises. (I know...me too, the tendency is to spend more time on Chest than Back...but it is the other way around.) By the way, I'll give you more on good back exercises in other articles but for now let's just stick to the Push Pull routine.
Now once you have finished the back, polish off the biceps. Do a basic movement like standing barbell curls, or heavy alternating dumbbel curls. A heavy blast here won't hurt you even though you just did back. Next, move to the lighter isolating exercises like one arm concentration or a machine curls. All total do 3-4 different exercises with 3-4 sets. All said and done, spend about 75% of your time on Back and 25% on Biceps
Let's call quits for day 2 with just Back and Biceps.
Legs which includes quads, hamstring (leg biceps) and calves are separate from upper body push pull routine. So where do they fit. Whenever I worked all of legs on one day I got great results. This can be a grueling routine because if done with intensity legs takes more out of you than any other muscle group. My experience is that Quads and Leg Biceps can wipe you out by themselves. But a great set of "wheels" on your body is what separates the conscientious bodybuilder from the guys that just want to show off chest and arms.....know what I mean!
For Quads do basic exercise first free bar squats, front squats and/or hack squats. If you ain't squattin' you ain't bodybuilding those legs. Do leg extensions, machine presses and/or sissy squats as finishing excercises.
For Leg Biceps, do good leg curl machine. I always wondered what the guys did in the old days for this muscle group before machine were invented. There are several machine each actiing a little differently....do several machine until fatiqued.
Since the Quads and Leg Bi's are so draining, work the calves first. They are a small muscle group and are not likely to impair the bigger Quad and Leg bi workout. Spend about 50% time on Quads, 35% on Leg Biceps and 15% on Calves.
The last muscle group that we need to include is the abdominals or abs. Guys this is your showpiece. You can have great chest, arms and legs but when you strip off the shirt if you don't abs, you just blew the most important body part. Since the intent of abs is not size but rather definition, the routine should be high repititions and low or no additional weight. Also, you just can't do enough abs. Let me say that again.....you just can't do enough abs. Therefore, do them everytime you hit the gym. It's just like brushing your teeth, do them repeatedly and regularly. Also abs are great exercises to loosen up on, so do them first...they won't drain you to do the heavy stuff.
So lets summarize this basic 3 day routine.
Day 1 (Monday)
Chest
Shoulder
Triceps
Day 2
Rest
Day 3
Back
Biceps
Day 4
Rest
Day 5
Calves
Quads
Leg Biceps
Day 6 / 7 (Weekend)
Rest
Do Abs first before each of the above workouts.
Give this Routine a try and see how you can efficiently exercise the entire body in just 3 days!
"Sweat eventually hardens to Muscle"...Scott
This article is property of Bodybuilding Program Zone and may not be reproduced without written permission from Scott Jameson. Besides it wouldn't be right....Scott
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