Incorporate activity into your daily routine. For natural athletes, we want to take advantage of muscle protein synthesis rates that remain high 48 to 72 hours after training. Training everything around twice a week is optimal. For larger muscle groups, such as the chest, back and legs, 10 to 12 sets of exercises per workout are enough to grow.
I know that some people love doing high-volume routines. The average athlete doesn't need 20 to 25 sets of chest exercises twice a week. I guarantee that the guy who works up to 500 pounds in squats or 350 pounds will have better CSA (transverse area of a muscle) than the type who strives to work his larger muscle with internal, external, superior, medial-lateral, lateral insertional and insertional insertion. Improve your movements and you'll get stronger.
Get stronger and you'll build muscle if your nutrition is right. I recommend at least one type of extension movement for your triceps every time you train them. The long head of the triceps originates from the scapula and helps with shoulder extension. Movements such as French presses, rolled-up dumbbell extensions, and looped cable pressures are good options.
In the same way, every time you train your biceps, I advise you to perform an inclined flexion movement or a movement that ends with a shoulder flexion of 20 to 30 degrees, such as the push-up with a barbell. Don't forget common sense when you train. Squats deeper than 100 degrees of knee flexion are not of greater benefit to strength or hypertrophy. The same goes for any shoulder pressure or flat pulls behind the head.
Repeat the template for days 3 and 4, replacing exercises as needed. The main work (3 sets of EACH of the options listed) is independent and is added to anything else in the template. Good article, though a question. The first two points are training twice a week and using 10 to 12 sets of work, so when you set it up, are they 10 to 12 sets per week or per workout? So if it were for training, would you do 20 to 24 sets per week? The article actually says 10 to 12 per workout.
That personal trainer you worked with a few years ago made you do incredible exercises, but now that you're starting out on your own, you might have no idea how to create your first training program without someone else telling you what to do. But now you have to make sure that you're progressing from one workout to the next, otherwise you'll be stuck. If you want to gain muscle mass, you probably won't design a program focused on steady-state running (although integrating running into your weightlifting program isn't a bad idea if you know how to do it). If you're not recovering from your workouts well enough to tackle the next workout with intensity and focus, it's likely that you've intensified the challenge too soon.
