Moving From Beginner To Intermediate Level Bodybuilding
by Rick
Mitchell
zone3
By now you've made significant progress in your bodybuilding career.
For the past three to six months you've learnt how to perform the core
lifting exercises in a technically correct manner. You've also conditioned
the body and developed sufficient core strength to prepare yourself for a
whole new level of intensity. Hopefully you've also built some rock solid
muscle! But that's only the beginning.
In recent weeks your
workouts have probably lost some of their effect so, even though you're
lifting bigger weights, your muscles now need even greater stimulation to
generate maximal growth. Don't expect miracles though - from this point
onwards, every little bit of improvement will take even greater and more
intensive work than before.
Because you'll be working your muscles
more intensively, they'll also need more recovery time to adapt and grow
and that's why you'll be reducing your workouts to three a week. Each
primary muscle group trained will now need one full week to recover. After
being used to whole body sessions and more workouts per week it may seem
as if you're not doing enough but the point is, you'll be working your
muscles very, very intensively and making better use of your
time.
As you gain more experience you'll be able to tweak or
re-design your basic muscle building program to suit your own individual
needs, but the program described here should provide a useful starting
point. What I'm proposing is basically a 3-split of the body on Monday,
Wednesday and Friday.
MONDAY (Chest, Triceps, Shoulders)
1.
Chest Exercises
Incline dumbbell press - this is a compound
exercise that targets the chest but also works the triceps and shoulders
to a lesser extent.
Pec-deck flye - this is an isolation exercise
that works the pectorals.
2. Triceps
Dips - this compound
exercise targets the triceps but also works the chest and
shoulders.
3. Shoulders
Front military press - this compound
exercise targets shoulders but also works the triceps.
Dumbbell
lateral raises - this isolation exercise works the shoulders
only.
Bentover dumbbell laterals - this isolation exercise works
the rear delts.
WEDNESDAY (Back, Biceps, Forearms)
1.
Back
Front lat pulls - compound exercise that targets lats but also
works the biceps and mid-back.
Deadlifts - compound exercise that
targets the back and quads but also works hamstrings, calves and
glutes.
Dumbbell rows - compound exercise that targets mid-back but
also works biceps and lats.
Dumbbell shrugs - isolation exercise
that works traps.
2. Biceps
Dumbbell biceps curl - isolation
exercise that works the biceps.
Dumbbell hammer curls - isolation
exercise that works the biceps.
3. Forearms
Barbell wrist
curl - isolation exercise that works the forearms.
FRIDAY (Lower
Body)
1. Legs
Squats or leg press - compound exercise that
targets the quads but also works the hamstrings, calves and
glutes.
Leg extension - isolation exercise that works the
quads.
Leg curls - isolation exercise that works the
hamstrings.
Standing calf raise - isolation exercise that works the
gastrocnemius calf muscle.
Seated calf raise - isolation exercise
that works the soleus calf muscle.
You could start this program by
aiming for two sets of 8-10 reps per exercise but as your strength and
size increase you should really introduce techniques that boost the
intensity even further. This can be achieved in a number of ways including
the use of pre-exhaustion, super sets, partial reps, isometric
contractions and forced reps. These techniques are covered in detail
elsewhere in this series of articles.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rick Mitchell is the creator of the bodybuildingadvisor.com website
that provides guidance and information to athletes at all levels of
bodybuilding experience. Go to Bodybuilding
Advice to learn more about the issues covered in this
article.
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