Everyone knows the secret to getting big isn’t that much of a secret at all. Lift heavy, Eat big, and sleep a lot. It isn’t exactly rocket science. The nutrition and sleep aspects may come easily to you. It’s not tough to eat a giant pile of food each meal. And it’s sure easy to sleep each night, if you really want to. But training – particularly training hard and allowing your body parts and entire central nervous system (CNS) time to recover - can be tricking. Here is a solid weekly breakdown which allows you to hit all body parts adequately with maximum training intensity and set volume.
Monday
Let’s start our week with the body parts which, when fully developed, give the bodybuilder a level of thickness that set him apart not only from other humans, but from other athletes are well: the back and shoulders. Train your back using heavy, compound movements such as deadlifts, barbell and dumbbell rows, chins, and cable rows including lat pulldowns. Use 9 to 15 sets total. Shoulders can be torched in 12 sets, as long as you are training heavily enough.
Tuesday
Chest day should follow back day, and will then be followed by a rest day. This means you can seriously “Leave it all on the gym floor” and train to your fullest, knowing you have all of Wednesday off. Twelve to sixteen sets of flat and incline pressing movements, along with a nice addition of flyes, should be adequate.
Wednesday
This is a rest day. Not a day to hit the beach and play two hours of touch football. You need to focus on resting a lot today, as your CNS will not be prepared for Thursday and Friday otherwise. Sleep in, take a nap, and eat a few extra calories in anticipation of tomorrow’s training workload.
Thursday
Welcome to arm day. Begin with triceps (the larger muscle group) and complete10 to 15 sets. Then, move to biceps and do the same. End the workout with 4 to 8 good sets of forearm movements. For upper arms, be sure to include a great deal of compound movements. These include bench dips and skull crushers for triceps, and barbell and alternate dumbbell curls for biceps.
Friday
Today is leg day. Quadriceps should receive 10 to 15 sets of compound, heavy movements for maximum growth. Hamstrings can follow with 8 sets of their own. End the day with calves for 8 sets. Leave it all on the gym floor – you will have two days to recover.
Saturday
This is a rest day which allows you to be a bit active. Take a walk around the block, do a little pedaling, or play on your Nintendo Wii. The goal is to break up the lactic acid buildup in your muscles, and limit the effects of DOMS.
Sunday
This is the “true” rest day. Sleep, work on your tan, or watch the game. But if you want to possess maximum intensity capacity for Monday’s workout, you should do everything humanly possible to avoid any strain to your CNS on Sunday. Soon it will be Monday and you’ll have to start all over again!
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