Weight Training Routines
Posted on September 24, 2008
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In my experience the best weight training routines are the ones that you can stick to with consistency and that leave you with a little bit “in the tank” each week to avoid burnout.
Certainly, a full body workout to failure 4 times a week is a surefire recipe for central nervous system burnout – you can expect to lose strength, muscle and probably get pretty ill before your first month is over.
On the other hand, here’s a selection of the sorts of programs for different goals that do work well.
Weight Training Routines for Strength
The goal of a strength program is, quite clearly, to build strength. But what is strength? Well, technically it’s your capacity to produce force. This basically translates into your ability to lift a lot of weight.
Usually, a strength trainee will be getting strong for something. Usually as an aid to athletic performance, strength training in the weights room should be fine-tuned to your ultimate goal – be that rugby, shot-putt or arm-wrestling.
So how is strength built? Well, it’s not as simple as “build bigger muscles”. In fact, that’s a very sub-optimal way of getting strong quickly. While it’s true that larger muscles mean more muscle fibres which means more force production, the biggest factor in your ability to lift weight is your central nervous system.
Most of the day, we never ever use more than about 10% of the muscle fibres of any given muscle. Even in 1-rep-max lifts, we’re using only a small fraction of the muscle fibres available. Effective strength training trains the nervous system, and builds the neural pathways that recruit muscle fibres. If you can go from using 10% of your chest, delt and tricep fibres to 20%, you’ve just doubled your bench press… pretty impressive.
With this in mind, strength training routines should be designed to train the nervous system.
What does that entail? They usually have the following qualities:
-Heavy weight – low reps in the 3-5 range
-Staying WELL away from failure – stopping the set as soon as barspeed slows
-Training FREQUENTLY – i.e. hit each muscle group 2-3 times per week
-Utilise heavy compound lifts (squat, deadlift, bench) and functional movements – e.g. kettlebells and sled-dragging
Stick by these core principles and watch your strength shoot up week after week.
Weight Training Routines for Mass
This is classic bodybuilding fare. The standard bodybuilding model is to train in the 8-10 rep range, go pretty close to failure, and do a split-bodypart workout whereby each muscle gets trained 1-2 times per week.
This is a fairly decent weight training routine for building mass, and if your diet and sleep-schedule are in check, you’ll gain well. One thing I would add is that I’d say in general, bodybuilders probably do go a bit too close to failure. Sure, your goal is to break down muscle fibre, but if you’re benching the same weight week in week out for months at a time, something is wrong. You’ll gain more in the long run by dropping the weight for a couple of weeks and keeping reps in the tank – it’s a good strategy for busting through plateaus.
Another thing to bear in mind is the importance of compounds over isolation. I still maintain that the absolute best bicep-builder is the close-grip chinup, but I may be championing a lost cause. It’s definitely fair to say that most bodybuilders over emphasise isolation with cables and machines, when they could be growing a lot quicker all over with emphasis on squats, deadlifts, pull-ups, shoulder presses, etc. Isolations should be complementary to the “big ones”, not the main event themselves.
Still though, bodybuilding weight training routines as a whole are pretty well laid out in this day and age (as long as you steer clear of muscle mags), and if you get yourself on a basic workout split and eat enough, you’ll be sure to see your muscles grow.
Weight Training Routines for Size
Posted on September 16, 2008
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The sheer volume of information on muscle-gain programs can be somewhat overwhelming. There are so many ways to engage in weight training for size– high intensity, high volume, full-body, bodypart split, low rep, high rep… there’s a lot of information out there.
Here’s a breakdown of a couple of the most well-proven muscle-gain protocols in vogue these days. Honestly, if you follow either one of these with consistency and dedication, and take steps to ensure your nutrition and rest are in order outside of the gym, I guarantee you will see good gains.
Weight Training Routines for Size: Full Body Workouts
Full body workouts can be an excellent choice for beginners or anyone short on time in the gym. It’s possible to gain much strength and size from as few as two full-body free-weight workouts per week. They do require a good level of focus and determination however, as it’s not always easy to train hard through 18 sets of weight lifting that might include squats, deadlifts, pullups and pressing movements. Still, if time is an issue or if you just prefer to train this way, full body workouts can yield some great results.
Weight Training Routines for Size: Bodypart Splits
A bodypart split usually involves training only 1-2 muscle groups per workout. The idea of a split is that you train different muscles each day, and by the end of the cycle (usually a week or ten days) you’ve trained every part of the body. One advantage of bodypart splits is that you can go harder and heavier on any one muscle group, and give it a longer period of time to recover – sometimes it will be up to a week until you train that particular muscle again. This can be advantageous to experienced lifters whose body’s have adapted to the frequent but moderate intensity of a full-body workout.
These are the two main types of workout that you’ll be interested in with size as your goal. Stay tuned for more information on weight training routines for different purposes.
Weight Training at Home
Posted on September 16, 2008
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Weight training at home can be as easy or complicated as you want to make it. If you’re serious about working out at home then there’s a few pieces of equipment you’ll want to invest in.
For anyone just looking for a quick arm and shoulder workout from time to time, a pair of adjustable dumbbells is all you need. Bicep curls, tricep extensions, shoulder raises (front and side) and standing shoulder presses will cover your bases.
If you’re looking to get a full body workout with free weights, then you’ll need a little bit more. To train your legs and back, you’ll almost certainly need a barbell, some plates and a fair bit of space. A barbell alone opens up a whole new realm of possibility – you’ll be able to do Deadlifts, Cleans, Front Squats and Hack Squats. If you invest in some sort of rack as well – a power rack or just a “Vulcan” stand – then the king of exercises, the back squat, becomes a possibility and you’ll be able to rack up some serious weight with your lifts.
Ideally, you’ll also want some sort of bench as well. A great combination is an adjustable bench that goes from flat to vertical, and an adjustable Vulcan rack. This means you can do bench press, incline bench and seated shoulder presses, and be able to rack the barbell with ease. Take the bench away and you’ve got yourself what amounts to a fully fledged squat rack.
Another good piece of equipment for weight training at home is the chin-up bar. From what I can tell (although I haven’t tried it yet), portable bars like the PowerBar are ideal. They fit in most doorways without screws or attachments and don’t leave marks. If you throw in a cheap dipping belt, then you’ve got yourself a means of adding weight to your chinups and pull-ups.
So, clearly with a few choice pieces of equipment, it IS possible to build a home gym with everything you need for some serious weight training at home. When I finally get around to buying my own place, a Vulcan rack, adjustable bench and Olympic Barbell are pushing top of the list of first purchases, right up there with the blender, George Foreman Grill and wheelie-bin full of Whey powder 
