When it comes to body building, a personal trainer is an ideal resource. Unfortunately, personal trainers can be expensive. A more wallet-friendly alternative is to put together your own body building plan for free. Every individual has his own needs, meaning he has to develop his own plan. However, all plans address the same factors. An effective exercise plan involves not only picking exercises and equipment, but also a systematic approach to getting enough rest between workouts.
Exercise Choice
Choosing the right exercises is important to your body building plan. According to Stuart McRoberts in "Brawn," the best exercises to pump you up are those that work wide groups of muscles. Bench press, lat pulldowns, squats and dead lifts are good examples of this kind of exercise. Isolation curls, forearms squeezes and calf raises are not good examples.
Equipment Choice
According to Miriam Nelson in "Strong Women Stay Young," free weights are better than machine weights because they engage more muscle groups. A machine stabilizes the weight for you, meaning many of the peripheral muscles don't need to work so hard. By this token, dumb bells are better than barbells. The only exception to this is if you're working out alone. Without a spotter, advises fitness coach Ben Cohn, machines are the only safe way to lift weights heavy enough to help your bodybuilding efforts.
Repetitions
Just as important as what kinds of lifts to do is how many lifts to do during your workout. Cohn advises that the best strength and bulk comes from doing sets of only a few repetitions at high weights. Some specific sets that work well for this include three sets of eight repetitions, five sets of five repetitions and "pyramid sets" where you start with five reps and do one less repetition with each subsequent set.
Rest Periods
Rest is vital to the bodybuilding process. According to Bill Phillips in "Body for Life," the actual muscle building happens while your body is recovering from a workout. To get adequate rest, you should avoid working the same muscle group two days in a row and take at least one day off from working out altogether. Cohn advises splitting your workouts into A and B days, during which you work different muscle groups. This gives you more days in the gym while still giving body parts sufficient rest time.
Rotation
In "Brawn," McRoberts recommends rotating through different workout routines. He advises that you stick with one set of exercises for 10 to 12 weeks, before changing your exercises and/or repetition structure. Between rotations, it's best to take one to two weeks off completely, giving your body plenty of time to rest.
Resources
If you want to put together a body building workout plan for free, you need to take advantage of free resources. Internet resources include body building websites and the web pages for muscle and fitness magazines. You can also go to the library, or strike up conversations with the staff at supplement shops, gyms and sporting goods stores. When getting free advice like this, it's best to confirm anything you hear with at least one independent source.
References
- "Brawn"; Stuart McRobert; 2007
- Ben Cohn; Fitness Coach; Hillsboro, OR
- "Body for Life"; Bill Philips; 2006
- "Strong Women Stay Young"; Miriam Nelson; 2001
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