You've tried various diets and perhaps even spent some time in the gym trying to reshape your body. If you've met with little success for all of your effort, it may be time to reconsider your approach and learn from the best when it comes to building a lean and muscular physique: bodybuilders.
Nutrition
Before you lift a single barbell, you'll need to get your nutrition dialed in. According to John Romaniello, a New York-based strength coach and owner of romanfitnesssystems.com, if you are trying to gain muscle mass, set your protein intake at 1.5 grams (g) per pound of current body weight and carbs at 1.5 to 2 g per pound of lean body mass (not body weight). For fat, aim for 0.5 g per pound of current body weight. Also get into the habit of eating five to seven meals a day and focusing strongly on nutrition before and after your training session.
Weeks 1 Through 12
During the first three months, Romaniello suggests using full body workouts, three times per week. Focus on using both compound and isolation exercises, primarily with free weights. "You should be focusing on about 80 percent compound movements, as they are incredibly effective and provide the most stimulus for muscle growth," says Romaniello.
A sample routine for Monday would be back squats, bench press, barbell row, military press, deadlift and triceps extensions. Wednesday would include leg press, cable flys, pull-ups, calf raises, hanging leg raises and biceps curls. On Friday, you would work deadlift, lat pull-downs, decline bench press, dumbbell lateral raises and abs.
All exercises are for three sets of eight repetitions. Once you can complete, in good form, all eight repetitions on each of the three sets, it's time to add more weight.
Weeks 13 Through 24
For the next three months, Romaniello advises transitioning to an upper/lower split in which you work your entire upper body on one day and your lower body on another. This is also three days per week for 12 weeks.
An upper body split could include exercises such as the dumbbell shoulder press, bench press, decline bench press, incline bench press, barbell rows, pull-ups, bicep curls, close-grip bench press and dumbbell side lateral raises.
A lower body split could include exercises such as the back squat, overhead squat, front squat, leg press, deadlift, hamstring curl, good mornings, calf raise, hanging leg raise, and crunches.
Weeks 25 Through 36
At this point, your training can be fine-tuned, and Romaniello suggests using body part splits. A typical training week would have you training chest and biceps on Monday, quads and calves on Tuesday, back and triceps on Thursday, hamstrings and shoulders on Saturday. The other days would be rest days.
Mind and Muscle
"With new bodybuilders, there is often a lack of what we would call mind-muscle connection," says Romaniello. "They don't really know how to tell when they're using their muscles."
For example, when doing a bench press, most people simply press the weight up without focusing on the chest (pectoralis) muscles that are being activated. As a result, they will see lackluster results and possibly experience some muscular imbalances.
To remedy this, Romaniello advises using isolation exercises such as cable crossovers or dumbbell flys. "With these movements, the trainee can really feel his pectoralis muscles during the exercise." Being able to feel and more consciously activate these particular muscles will increase the trainee's ability to do the same for compound exercises and sharpen his sense of progression over time.
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