Best Bodybuilding Workouts

Before we get into the real workouts, it is important to understand how the body adapts and how a variety of exercises can develop that quality physique.

Today's bodybuilding techniques have greatly changed to that of 20 - 30 years ago. New information about training, diet and nutrition has influenced how much an individual can push themselves to improve their strength, power and muscle mass.

Simply training with heavy weights will not achieve an overall quality physique. Many sets in a variety of exercises that work not only individual muscles but specific areas within a muscle are required to achieve your aim.

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Any kind of exercise depends on the 'training effect'. This simply means that when the body is put under stress over a period of time, it adapts itself so it can deal with that stress more effectively (just incase you're confused by what I mean by stress, when I say stress I mean the stress on the muscles from exercise rather than stress from work etc, haha).

The body doesn't care what you think you are telling it to do, it will respond to the specific message being sent through the nervous system. What you are trying to do by training your muscles is make them grow. Many people are concerned by how much weight they can lift in order to build strength but this really is just a means to an end. This weight should be seen as what causes the muscles to contract in order for them to change and develop. The bigger the muscles get the stronger you will get. Even though strength is important, it doesn't represent the ultimate goal.

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Muscle's are simple things really, they can only do 2 things. The fibres within them contract all together or not at all. However, after a series of contractions a fibre starts to get tired and the amount of effort it can generate is limited. The amount of weight you can actually lift is determined by 3 thing:

1. How much fibre you are able to recruit
2. How strong the individual fibres are
3. Your lifting technique

Certain people when training, for instance weightlifters, will only do one or two lifts per set with a high weight. Only a small number of fibres can actually be recruited when doing this and because there is so much strain put on those fibres it is only these ones that will get thicker and bigger. In addition to this the weightlifter will only do a limited number of lifts so some parts of the muscle are not even trained at all!!

The best way to train the overall muscle is to use slightly less weight and do more repetitions. Usually this will be 8-12 reps for the upper body and 12-15 for the legs and perform each set to failure (until the muscles are unable to do even one repetition). For a particular body part, it is not unusual to perform 15-20 sets of various different exercises.

Once a muscle has been pushed to its maximum and is exhausted it needs time to recover and grow. For maximum effect it is important not to train the same muscles for 2 days in a row.

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I'm not going to lie to you, to succeed in achieving your training goal will take alot of hard work and dedication. You will need to understand the basic principles, learn different exercises and how to put together routines. However, all this hard work it so worth it when you see yourself beginning to develop your body to how you want it to be. There are a few things which I want you to know just to prepare you for your training.

1. THE PUMP - One of the things you will first experience when you train is that you will notice your muscles will swell up beyond their normal size, this is known as 'The Pump'. It is usually felt after about 4 or 5 sets. When you are pumped you feel better and stronger and it is easier to motivate yourself.

2. TRAINING INTENSITY - The harder you work the more results you will see. Working harder will mean increasing your training intensity. You automatically increase intensity whenever you add weight to exercises in your routine. But you can also create more intensity by training faster, cutting down your rest periods between sets.

3. PAIN - The pain sensation experienced during workouts can often give you a buzz, a feeling that you have done something worthwhile for your body! But it is important to distinguish what is good pain and bad pain. That burning feeling at the end of a set is good pain, however if during a set or a repetition any kind of extreme pain is a point where you should stop immediately what you're doing as you may have an injury.

4. SORENESS - This is common after a heavy workout. Often after the first couple of sessions you may not be able to do alot of things the next day, but you can take pleasure out of this. I remember after my first couple of training sessions I could barely walk or lift up a cup of coffee but I took pleasure in this because at least I could feel like I was getting something out of my efforts. I knew this because without a little soreness I would know I had not trained properly enough, 'No Pain, No Gain' as they say!!

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