can i get like bodybuilder body with fullbody compound.

i train like 4 times a week

sunday, tuesday, thursday, saturday,monday,wenesday,friday and back 2 sunday again.

everytime my workout i used :

squat
benchpress
pulldown
military press
lat pulldown.

my weight is increase 5 kg in just 3 weeks. before 60 and 65 and now is 70kg.

iam very happy with this. am natural no milk. just eat breast chicken, egg, green peanut, fish, and meat. juice and vegetable.

am i right? or not? can i continue my training or go for split workout??

i want like john cena and the rock he2x..

please advice me …

thanks

Indra

I don’t recommend any particular workout program on this site. I believe most people benefit from experimenting and developing their own personalized workout plan. Start with a 3×5 program of the type found all over the ‘net; I don’t have a ‘secret’ workout plan that is better than anyone elses’. Good luck.

I have been working out for almost a year, was 150 in june now am 175. Ate like crazy and took high calorie protein shakes. I’m 6’1 and still look skinny but with some muscle definition, and a “tiny” bit of fat on stomach. How do you get rid of the stomach totally for a six pack? They say cardio is out since I have a very high metabolism. And i need to eat alot in order to put on mass. I could be over working muscles also, so I will stop the isolation and do compound. I guess I feel like I’ve hit a plateau. I also only have time to work out 2 days a week. Any extra tips would be great

thanks

Now, I want to stress to you that working out isn’t what makes you grow. You grow by eating. If you are not eating enough food to gain weight steadily, your workouts won’t make you any bigger — especially since you’re currently “skinny as a stick”. Let me put it another way: YOU MUST EAT A LOT!

I have articles on this site that show you how to estimate the number of calories you need to put on weight at a steady rate. Find them and read them. (Start with this one: How to design a bulking diet)

Once you know how many calories you need to accomplish your goals, you’re still not done. Now you need to keep accurate records of everything you eat so you know whether you’re reaching your calorie target. And you’ll need to determine — from your nutritional records — if your macronutrient profile is suitable. This is important because while you may eat enough to provide your desired number of daily calories, you still need to be properly nourished to fuel muscle growth. For example, you can eat a gallon of lard every day and get a ton of calories, but if that’s all you eat you’ll be malnourished and you won’t grow more muscular.

Once you’re sure you’re eating enough to gain weight healthily at a steady rate (perhaps a pound per week), you’re still not done.

Now you have to lift according to a good workout plan. This means regularly adding weight or intensity to your lifts. If you lift the same weight (or lift at the same intensity) every time you work out, your body will adapt to the workouts and you will cease to get more muscular. Eating a caloric excess without increasing the intensity of your workouts only makes you fat.

Additional points:

You say you do sets of 8. Read How many reps to build muscle to double-check that you understand what a “set of 8″ really means.

Please, add some leg workouts to your routine. Consuming a caloric excess without working your legs is a recipe for a fat belly.

Good luck!

great article, it winds me up to see guys at my gym waste their time with pointless isolation exercises, then they wonder why they never get big!

I do a full body workout routine 3 times per week and it only consists of the “golden five” and one night a week I add cleans for 3 sets as its good to get some power work into my routine to keep me on my toes.

I’ve been doing full body 3x a week for the past 3 months and have gotten some moderate gains. My question is would a 3 day split be more beneficial vs. full body? The reason I thought I would change my routine to a split is because I’ve been increasing weights per workout and the increased amount has been a bit taxing on my body. I thought if I split up my routine, I would do less sets with heavier load.

Thanks in advance.

Workout 2 back and legs:
Squats with barbell 4 sets
bent over dumb bell row 4 sets
Deadlifts 4 sets
Pullups 4 sets to failure on each set
Lunges 4 sets

Workout 3 Arms:
Biceps curl 4 sets
Dumb bell curl 4 sets
close grip bench press 4 sets
skull crushers 4 sets
wrist curls with bar or dumb bell 2 sets to failure

My current approach is to use a starting weight that I can lift for 7 reps, but by the last set or 2 cannot do 7 reps i.e. lifting to failure on last set(s) with less than 7 completed reps (this would not apply to squats or deadlifts which I do not do to total failure–too risky). Once I can do 4 sets x 7 reps the weight is increased. My current body weight is 157 lbs at 5 foot 8″ tall. My goal tentatively is to lose around 5-7 lbs. of body fat, and gain 10 lbs. of muscle by one year–to be a lean 160-165 lbs.
I know some people would say the running may be a hindrance. I will switch to cycling (road and MTB) as an alternative during the summer but dropping aerobics is not an option, as it has been an integral part of my fitness program/goals for many years. I would be interested in any tweaks you might suggest on the lifting side of things in light of my current goals. My present approach will of course be modified as the coming year goes by. Thanks for any advice.
**A quick note on diet–I am currently eating around 1.7 grams of protein/Kg. of body weight or around 125 grams a day to maybe 150 grams tops. Am reducing fat intake with almost 0% saturated, but have not figured out a percentage of total calories from fat yet. I take a protein shake with whey protein and carbs after all workouts–weights and runs. Any thoughts on what my total daily calories should be?

But here is a typical compound-exercise routine that’s very similar to the “starting strength” routine(s) that I like…:

• Week One
1. Monday

Squats 5×5
Bench Press 5×5
Rows 5×5
Pullups 3xfailure

2. Wednesday

Squats 5×5
Overhead Press 5×5
Deadlifts 3×5
Dips 3xfailure

3. Friday

Squats 5×5
Bench Press 5×5
Rows 5×5
Pullups 3xfailure

• Week Two
1. Monday

Squats 5×5
Overhead Press 5×5
Deadlifts 3×5
Dips 3xfailure

2. Wednesday

Squats 5×5
Bench Press 5×5
Rows 5×5
Pullups 3xfailure

3. Friday

Squats 5×5
Overhead Press 5×5
Deadlifts 3×5
Dips 3xfailure

For pullups, concentrate on hand over with shoulder width or wider. Of course, you can and should mix it up a bit.

Two times per week is fine. Many good programs have you lifting 3 times per week, but they’re designed as a “split” cycle that specifies different lifts on different days and/or weeks. Once you start to find that you are no longer making steady progress — in terms of adding weight to the bar regularly — then you can look into a more advanced program. Good luck.

Please rate my workout routine.

2 days a week (Mon and Thurs)

squats 3×6-8
bench press 3×6-8
pull ups 3×8-12
barbell rows 3×6-8
military press 3×6-8

I rotate exercises every 2 weeks, ex) first two weeks I would start with squats then after two weeks I would start with bench press, etc.

Thanks.

Thanks: Mike

I won’t promise that you can lose the belly fat while also adding muscle mass. Some athletically-gifted people may be able to do that, but most folks can only reach one of those goals at a time. Good luck!

Many thanks for this great article. I will definitely do more compound exercises .
I have a question. I was 215lbs (lots of body fat and out of shape) I started exercising 7 months ago, doing cardio and basic weight. I have advanced in my cardo and weights. Initially I dropped down to 196 lbs then when i progressed with weights I got to 202lb. I still have fat, especially around the belly area (although it went down). I really want to get my weight (fat) down while gaining muscles as well. I am getting confused, I feel I am stuck at this weigh for 2 months now. I go to the gym 3 times a week, 30 mins cardio and 50 mins weights. and 2 days a week i do 45 mins cardio. What do you think would be the most effective way to lose all the fat and bulk up on muscles?

Thanks!

PS – There have been some successful vegetarian bodybuilders (‘though they used anabolics), so it’s possible to gain significant amounts of muscle mass without using large quantities of animal proteins.

I just wanted to know, by doing these compound movements in my bulking stage will I see a growth with regards to my chest. Coz I really want a huge ‘arnold’ chest.

(On the other hand, dumbbells can be useful for developing power. One-handed DB snatches are fantastic for this sort of thing.)

Thanks, David

Thanks for the comment. It’s great to hear about your lifting success.

Brooks Kubik — via his Dinosaur Training books and videos — was an inspiration to a generation of web-savvy weight lifters. He was the first guy on the internet who showed how conventional wisdom about weight lifting (bodybuilding-style workouts) wasn’t right for everyone. His back to basics style appealed to a lot of guys who wanted to get as strong as possible. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for the lessons he taught us in an era where marketing hype often seemed to trump common sense.

But he has his detractors too. His ultra-hardcore lifting style is very hard on the body; many folks complain that Dinosaur-style training isn’t sustainable over the long-term. In fact, Brooks acknowledges that he made mistakes in his younger years. His shoulder joints are very unhealthy now, and I think I heard him mention that he also has back problems. Last I heard, he now trains mainly with bodyweight exercises.

Brooks was (and still is) a talented weight lifter and an intelligent, articulate teacher. But he was a lawyer, not an athletic trainer. Unlike someone like Ripptoe, Kubik didn’t watch hundreds of different kids get stronger and more powerful over a period of several years. Kubik’s lifting philosophy was shaped by what worked for him in the moment. He erred when he assumed everyone was just like him. Furthermore, he erred when he assumed that his body would last forever under a workload that would kill an ordinary man.

So I guess what I’m trying to say is: everything in moderation. We can’t go 100% all the time. When designing a program, rest, recovery, and an off-season should be given just as much attention as diet and lifting. In his early days, Brooks Kubik de-emphasized rest and recovery while over-emphasizing year-round ultra-intense heavy lifting.

I’ve devoured all of Brooks’ books and vids and I loved every word of them. They’re very inspirational. But I wouldn’t give them to a kid that was just starting out.

Your website seems to suggest the opposite? I’m trying to bulk up. Help me out here.

If you want to stick to typical isolation exercises for the arms, concentrate on your triceps since they are naturally larger than the biceps. You might also add some hammer curls to your arm workouts; some people claim hammer curls target the brachioradialis muscles which sort of stick out the side of your arm near the elbow.

But mainly, I think you shouldn’t worry too much about what you see in the mirror. Once you add 10 to 15 pounds of overall muscle mass, your arms won’t look as skinny. Good luck and don’t worry about the mirror!

The cruel fact is: when you stop (or slow down) your workouts, you will lose strength. Even the best pro athletes reach a “peak” when they’re at their best. But they can’t peak continuously; they have to back off at some point.

If you want to back off a bit, try working out at 50% to 80% for a while. Doing that, you’ll probably avoid losing strength and mass.

I advise you to avoid getting obsessed with maximums and constant progress. True success past a certain point requires long-term thinking and injury prevention.

Good luck; I wish I could offer a more satisfying answer but I don’t want to pretend I know things that I don’t.

I’d suggest this:

• Figure out your body composition
• Create an eating plan that causes you to gain a pound of body weight per week (unless you’re carrying too much fat already)
• Add a bit of weight to the bar each time you lift

I am not qualified to give you any advice about training with a surgically-reconstructed back. What I do know is that if a person has had back or knee surgery, they’re never going to be as capable as someone who has avoided injury, and they’re going to have to face up to the fact that certain activities will forever be off-limits.

There comes a point in lots of peoples’ lives when their youthful dreams of immortality suddenly disappear with a “pop“. After that, training is best geared towards injury prevention, joint mobility, and quality of life.

Although there are plenty of anecdotes on the ‘web demonstrating how someone was able to deadlift heavy weights after disc surgery, I’m not prepared to ever recommend deadlifting to someone with back problems. I have absolutely no experience in the matter, one way or the other.

Weight lifting — even for young, healthy, athletic people — is implicated in tens of thousands of back injuries every year. According to the US Government’s Consumer Products Safety Commission, in the year 2009 there were 14,734 emergency-room visits just in the United States because of lower-back injury during weight lifting. That figure doesn’t include emergency-room visits by people who hurt their back lifting things other than weights.

Heavy deadlifting should be done only after a thorough warmup, and then only if your flexibility is sufficient to allow you to keep your back/spine oriented properly, and then only once per week. Anyone who is unsure whether they are flexible enough to deadlift heavy weights should read Mark Ripptoe’s Starting Strength. A lot of the weight-training advice on some well-regarded internet sites is simply re-written directly from Ripptoe’s book. In lieu of that, perhaps get some advice from an experienced trainer who has a degree in something like kinesiology or exercise physiology and is a member of a professional organization like the NSCA. For those who want more reading, Krista gives some useful info on how to choose a personal trainer.

Good luck!

My theory is: if you’re going 5 reps to failure in the squat, you’d better have good technique and proper flexibility. If you have bad squatting technique or flexibility problems on that last rep, you’re going to cause trouble for yourself. But at 10 reps to failure, things are a lot more forgiving: you can squat your way into shape and work on technique at the higher rep ranges.

Just wondering about the rep range. Can mass still be put on by using a maximal strength workout (i.e. approx 5 reps/set) rather than a traditional hypertrophy program (8-12 reps)??
thanks

Virtually all compound exercises involve the core (or abdominals). If you add separate ab work, you will probably limit your ability to make progress in the main compound lifts.

You can bulk up with a full body compound exercise routine, or you can isolate the abdominals and build a six-pack, but unless you are genetically gifted and a bit lucky, you can’t do both at the same time.

Just as the arms get a lot of (indirect) work from bench presses, pull-ups, and other compound exercises, so do the abdominals. If your abs (or any other part of your core) are the weak link, compound exercises will strengthen them up just fine.

During a mass-building workout, you are gaining weight and muscle by eating an excess of calories and lifting with a high level of intensity. Your body can’t withstand this intensity year-round. A typical mass phase might be three months at the most. After that, you probably need a period of rest and recovery.

Other than mass-building workouts, you can do sports-specific strength workouts, general fitness and strength-maintenance workouts, rehab workouts, etc. Basically, if you are gaining weight you are in a mass phase, but if not, you are doing something else.

I am hesitant to recommend a one size fits all workout here on this website, but you can see some of the thinking that goes into program design in this article: designing a bodybuilding workout.

The length of a typical routine depends on your level of proficiency with weight training. As long as the gains keep coming, don’t change what’s working. When your results begin to plateau, then you are no longer a beginner and you will need an intermediate or adanced routine.

Many people on the web use and recommend the routines found in these places:

Strength Mill Forum
Sherdog strength and power FAQ

If you like books, here is a good one at amazon.com: Starting Strength (3rd edition)