Category: Bodybuilding

Bodybuilding: articles about building muscle (both size and strength) for a more powerful physique.

Full Body Workout Routine

Full/whole body workout routines seem to have fallen out of favor as many trainees try to

Old School

emulate the 5-6 day split routines of professional bodybuilders. But the way genetically gifted, steroid-using professional bodybuilder trains is not relevant for most of us. This is especially true for a genetically typical, natural trainee who walks in a gym with the goal of putting on his first 10-20 lb. of muscle.

A novice lifter should make pretty rapid gains in strength and be able to lift a little more or do a few more repetitions with each session. For this reason it makes sense to train every major muscle group 2-3 times a week. Otherwise you are missing out on opportunities for growth.

I wish I had understood this back when I first started lifting weights. I could have gotten bigger and stronger much faster if I had done a properly designed full body workout routine.

A beginner should stick to a few basic exercises in order to build his/her foundation of strength. It’s pretty simple: you need to train your legs, push, and pull. Balance these three things and you’ll be on your way to safely building muscle.  You should be pulling as much as you push, for example, to avoid muscle imbalances.  You should also not neglect leg training.

A beginner routine may look like this:
1. Squat (or leg press)
2. Deadlift (or rack pull)
3. Bench Press or Dips

Do each exercise for 4-5 sets of 5-8 repetitions. Do this workout 2-3 times a week for a month or two and you’ll be well on your way to building the foundation.

I’d highly recommend you check out some of my recommended training programs if you’re interested in learning more about lifting weights and getting strong. .

Protein Before Workout?

I’ve already written an article on post workout protein/nutrition.  Hopefully this helped you see through some of the supplement hype about taking a “muscle-building” supplement right after you train (you may also want to check out my post entitled: How Much Protein?).

But what about taking a protein supplement before you train?  Is it important?

A study was published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition.  10 males were given either 10 grams of protein or 10 grams of carbohydrates (maltodextrose) 30 minutes prior to a leg workout.  The subjects were tested to see if the protein had any positive muscle-building affect when compared to the carbohydrate taken pre-workout.  Here’s the result:

Conclusion: Ingestion of 10 g of whey protein prior to an acute bout of lower body resistance exercise had no significant preferential effect compared to carbohydrate on systemic and cellular signaling markers indicative of muscle protein synthesis in untrained individuals.1

There you have it: yet another reason not to obsess over the timing of your protein shake or the exact macronutrients in your pre-workout meal.  Just lift the stinkin’ weights!

Note: I’d highly recommend Brad Pilon’s How Much Protein book if you want to read some eye-opening research.

Reference:

1. J Int Soc Sports Nutr. 2011 Nov 8;8:18. Ingestion of 10 grams of whey protein prior to a single bout of resistance exercise does not augment Akt/mTOR pathway signaling compared to carbohydrate.