As a bodybuilder, your goal is to have a well-balanced, symmetrical physique. To achieve your goal, you need to train your entire body throughout the week. Your workouts should be structured so that each muscle group gets a minimum of 24 to 48 hours to recover. Generally, you should use free weights for the majority of your exercises. Consult with your doctor before beginning any new workout routine.
Beginners
As a beginner, you want to train all your major muscle groups three days each week. You should perform two to three sets of each exercise, with each set consisting of eight to 12 repetitions. The first set of each exercise should be a warm-up, so use relatively light resistance. An example of beginner exercises would be thigh extensions, thigh curls, leg presses, calf raises, bench presses, incline presses, shoulder presses, lat pulldowns, biceps curls, tricep pressdowns, ab crunches and hyperextensions. Complete your routine by performing static stretches on each muscle group.
Four-Day Splits
A four-day split routine involves training the muscle groups that perform pushing movements and muscle groups that perform pulling movements on different days of the week. For example, Mondays and Thursdays, you would train your chest, shoulders, and triceps. Tuesdays and Fridays you would train your back, legs, and biceps. An example of your Monday/Thursday workout would be barbell bench presses, barbell incline presses, barbell decline presses, dumbbell military presses, dumbbell side laterals, triceps pressdowns, dumbbell kick-backs and ab crunches. Your Tuesday/Friday workouts would consist of thigh extensions, thigh curls, leg presses, calf raises, squats, lat pulldowns, one-arm rows, preacher curls, hammer curls and ab crunches. You should perform three to four sets of each exercise, with eight to 12 repetitions per set.
Six-Day Split
This type of program allows you to perform more exercises with each muscle group while still giving your muscles adequate time to rest. Your six-day split routine would consist of training your chest, shoulders, and triceps on Mondays and Thursdays. You would train your back, biceps and abs on Tuesdays and Fridays, and your legs and calves on Wednesdays and Saturdays. You would train using the same exercises as the four-day split, and add one additional exercise per muscle group.
Five-Day Split
As your legs become stronger, you might want to consider a five-day split routine. A five-day split is the same as a four-day split, except you only train your legs on Wednesdays, not on Tuesdays and Fridays. This type of routine allows you to perform more exercises for your legs than a four-day split. You could add lunges, for example, to thigh extensions, leg curls, leg presses and squats.
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