Bodybuilding is a sport and energetic pastime that requires regular, consistent and intense strength training workouts combined with a controlled diet. Bodybuilding workouts are not easy, and if you have had a break from training you should not rush back into a full high-intensity schedule too quickly. Doing too much too soon can result in severe muscle soreness and also increases your chances of suffering a serious injury.
Full-body Workouts
Most bodybuilders use split routines so that they can dedicate an entire workout to a small number of muscle groups. After a layoff, your muscles will be very deconditioned, and this type of training volume is unnecessary and may be too much for your currently limited recovery abilities. Instead of using a split routine, perform two or three whole-body workouts that include one exercise per major muscle group. This reduced volume but increased training frequency will allow you to reacquaint your muscles with regular workouts without exposing them to excessive training volume.
Higher Reps and Lighter Weights
Lifting heavy weights is a necessary part of bodybuilding training. While heavy weights are effective for muscle building, they also place a lot of stress on your joints, tendons and ligaments. Rushing back to training with heavy weights is likely to result in injury. Instead, for your first few workouts at least, focus on lifting lighter weights using higher repetitions until your muscles become accustomed to regular workouts. Do 15 to 20 repetitions of your exercises initially, and gradually increase the weights and reduce the reps until you reach the bodybuilding repetition range of six to 12.
Focus on Compound Exercises
Many bodybuilding workouts use a high volume of single-joint or isolation exercises to target each of your muscles in turn. While this is an effective strategy for muscle growth, isolation exercises do not improve intramuscular coordination and are not very effective for improving general strength and conditioning. For the first month or two after a layoff, build your workouts around compound exercises such as squats, dead lifts, bench presses and pull ups before gradually reintroducing additional isolation exercises as you get stronger.
Limit Use of Training Systems
Bodybuilders use training systems such as drop sets, super-sets and pyramids to raise the intensity of their workouts. These training systems purposefully manipulate the training variables to make an exercise or workout much more demanding. While an advanced and regularly training bodybuilder will benefit from this approach, if you are a beginner or you are returning to training after a layoff, you will find these exercise intensifiers are too much for your limited work capacity and recovery abilities. Focus on straight sets for the first few months of training and then slowly introduce training systems as your fitness, strength and exercise tolerance improves.
References
- "Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding: The Complete A-Z Book on Muscle Building"; Robert Kennedy; 2008
- "Bodybuilding Anatomy"; Nick Evans, M.D; 2006
- "Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning"; National Strength and Conditioning Association; 2008
Member Comments