Power lifting is the most common form of bodybuilding. It entails lifting heavy weights on a regular basis to overload the muscles in your body and generate the growth of new muscle fibers. There are many philosophies on what is the best way to achieve maximum results from your time in the gym, however. Some of the most commonly used and effective weight-training programs among bodybuilders are high-intensity training, the three-day full body routine, high-volume training and splits.
High-intensity Training
Arthur Jones, the founder of Nautilus, is often credited with the creation of high-intensity training, or HIT, which ditches traditional lifting ideology in favor of fewer repetitions at higher amounts of weight. According to bodybuilder Gordon LaVelle, HIT is the most efficient way to exhaust your muscles without spending endless hours in the gym overtraining them. For a HIT routine, you select four to six exercises that work a specific muscle group and then perform one or two sets of that exercise at a high enough weight that you reach muscle failure within five to 10 repetitions. This makes workouts short and maximizes your rest time.
Three-day Full Body
According to personal trainer Joey Vaillancourt, the three-day full body workout is one of the most common and appropriate bodybuilding programs for beginners. During this type of training, you work out every other day three times a week. The number of exercises you perform is left up to individual taste, but you should work all of your major muscle groups at least once per week. Vaillancourt states that this program is good for beginners because it has them lifting more repetitions to build base strength and it allows ample recovery time for new muscle growth.
High-volume Training
High-volume training takes almost the opposite approach of HIT. For this type of workout, you perform four or five sets of an exercise for eight to 12 repetitions per set. You must perform the repetitions slowly and focus on contracting your muscles to increase the blood flow to your slow-twitch muscle fibers. This produces what strength trainer Jeff Anderson calls the "pump." The philosophy behind this type of training is that the more you pump up your muscles, the more you will increase their mass instead of their strength.
Splits
Splits are a common training choice among serious bodybuilders. These types of workouts are full-body workouts that are broken up across three to six days per week. Five or six day splits are only recommended for intermediate to advanced power lifters. With this type of program, you select one or two complementary muscle groups to work each lifting day and then train them to exhaustion. The number of sets you perform for an exercise on any given day should be the total number of sets you want to do for that exercise in a week divided by the number of training days. This prevents you from overtraining a muscle group, which is common for the arms, legs and chest in some bodybuilders. This type of workout also gives you more variety, so you are less likely to hit a lifting plateau.
References
- Bodybuilding.com: Author and Bodybuilder Gordon LaVelle Explains Why HIT Might Be the Best Training Method
- Muscle and Strength: The Ultimate Muscle Building Split Reference Guide
- Iron Magazine: Top Three Bodybuilding Routines for Maximum Muscle Gaines
- Underground Bodybuilding Tips: Gain Muscle Mass with High Volume Bodybuilding Training
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