Day 1: Chest, triceps, shoulders
This is part one of a full body hypertrophy (muscle building) workout. Visit the Working out page for more information on hypertrophy routines. This first video is chest, triceps, and shoulders. This workout, which is part of a three day routine, is not for beginners. If you are a beginner, and looking to put on some muscle fast, follow the directions below but skip one to two exercises for each muscle/muscle group. Also, unlike the veterans, rest between each day instead of training for three days straight and then resting.
Here is this videos wokout routine:
Incline dumbell press 8-12 reps. x3
Bench press 8-12 reps. x3
Chest fly 8-12 reps. x3 Dumbbell press 8-12 reps. x3
Close grip press 10-15 reps. x3 Tricep pushdowns 10-15 reps. x3 Dips 8-12 (or max if you cant do 8.) x3 Lateral raises 10-15 reps. x3 Front raises 10-15 reps. x3
Upright rows 10-15 reps. x3
Reverse fly 10-15 reps. x3
Rest 30-60 seconds between each set.
stretch afterwards.
Tips: When doing chest exercises, especially when bench pressing, make sure you have good back and shoulder posture. try standing up as straight as you can - thats the shoulder position you want. If you really want to target your pecs, you can pinch your shoulder blades together even more. Do not roll your shoulders forward because you will hurt them. Some body builders do this in order to target their deltoids more, but you want to be able to keep benching through your old age.
For tricep exercises, especially the tricep pushdowns, make sure your elbows are immobile. For tricep pushdowns, keep your elbows glued to your sides.
And lastly, when doing your shoulder exercises do them slowly, don't jerk them up and down. As you probably noticed, you want exercises that target your shoulders to relatively greater repetitions. If you find that you aren't feeling the burn, but don't want to add more weight because you won't be able to do enough repetitions, pause for a second or two and the top of each shoulder exercise.
Note: The front raises were mistakenly cut out of my video in my editing process. When doing this wokrout don't forget front raises.
This is the second day of your full body hypertrophy workout. This routine is going to hit your back and biceps hard. As with this entire 3-part routine, this is not for beginners. I put back and biceps together because whenever you are doing an exercise that is targeting your back, you are almost always using your biceps. The only exception that comes to mind are simmers (straight-armed pulldowns.) This being said, people who work out their biceps and backs on different days are more often then not overtraining their biceps.
Here is the full routine (this one is particularly easy - all hypertrophy ones are:)
Rest 30-60 seconds between each set, and for every exercise do 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions.
Pull ups (do your max if you can't do 8 or more) Bent over rows Lat pull downs Rows (staggered stance) Reverse grip lat pull downs One arm rows Concentration curls Full range of motion bicep curls Hammer curls Stretch
Day 3: Legs and Abs
This is the final day of the 3-part workout. This last routine will focus intensely on your legs and abs. Because your quads and hamstrings are such large, strong muscles, it takes a lot to tire them out. Therefore, this workout is strenuous and, in some ways, repetitive. Here are the workout instructions:
Rest 30-60 seconds between each set.
Squats 8-12 reps. x2 Power squats (wide stance) 10-12 reps. x2 Front squats 10-12 reps. x 2 Lunges 10-15 reps. for each side. x3 (alternate without rest.) Romanian deadlift 12-15reps.x3 Hamstring curls 20-25 reps. superset with hip adductions 20-25 reps. (this means to the two exercises in a series with no rest between the two. Rest 30 seconds between each full set (both exercises.)) One-legged calf raises with dumbbell 15-20 reps. x2 Dead-bug crunches (alternating oblique) 25-30 reps. x2 Russian twist 20 reps. x 2 Toe touches 20 reps. x2 Stretch