Bodybuilders in The Weightroom

Bodybuilders in the Weightroom

When it comes to training, there are certain things that a body builder must do to look the way a bodybuilder has to look. It requires countless hours, multiple workouts per day,  doing exercises that target large muscle groups and small muscle groups proportionately. Without these smaller muscles showing their definition,  shows would be pointless. While the size of the body builder matters, it is the proportion and muscle definition that win the grand prize.

The average bodybuilder trains 5-6 days per week using a body-part split routine. This entails  dividing your weight program into different days. For example, you would do chest on monday, bis and tris on tuesday, shoulders on wednesday then legs thursday and keep repeating the routine in that order. Now there are some differences in the way a bodybuilder trains during the season and offseason. An offseason workout would be broken up like this:

• Used four to five exercises per muscle group – 74%
• Mainly used 7-12RM loads – 77%
• Lifted heavier loads occasionally for variation – 85%
• Do three to six sets per exercise – 95%
• Rest 61-120 seconds between sets – 69%
• Used some advanced overload techniques with some exercises – 83%1

Then look something like this for precompetition:

• Similar guidelines to those in the off-season (within their five to six days per week body-part split). However, there were a few changes.
• Perform three to four exercises rather than five to six. So, there is a slight tendency to reduce the number of exercises per muscle group during the pre-competition phase.
• Increase reps and decrease rest periods during the pre-competition phase.1

So now that we have covered the jist of training like a bodybuilder, there a few quick tips to follow when training for the physique of a bodybuilder.

• Isolate body parts
• Do several exercises for each body part
• Do a high number of sets
• Vary your repetitions
• Train hard. Recover long.2

References:

1How Do Bodybuilders REALLY Eat and Train? (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2016, fromhttp://www.elitefts.com/education/training/bodybuilding/how-do-bodybuilders-really-eat-and-train/

2How to Train Like a Bodybuilder. (n.d.). Retrieved February 14, 2016, from http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/health-fitness/exercise/how-to-train-like-a-bodybuilder

What Do You Consider 'Old School' Strength Training? (2009). Retrieved February 14,

2016, from http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/old_school_vs_commercial_training.htm