There is nothing like watching a bodybuilding competition and seeing some 'Perfectly Proportioned' or symmetrical Bodybuilders. Or even just going to the gym or walking around school and seeing someone with a nice V-taper. Maybe they haven't even weight-trained, but their shape is excellent.
As bodybuilders, our goal is to put on as much muscle as possible while maintaining this natural, proportioned physique. What this means, is training EACH AND EVERY Muscle Group Extremely Hard EACH AND EVERY Workout. This is hard to most, as even the best of us dread working out our backs and legs. I had a particular experience that changed the way that I felt about my proportions.
During my third bodybuilding competition, I realized that I was unproportioned. I placed second to a guy that was much smaller than I.
I conversed with the judges and we decided that I had trained certain body parts sufficiently, but had neglected others. I had neglected the other body parts enough that it costed me winning the show. It was then, at that moment that I decided to lift for proportionality, rather than for what I like doing or for strength.
With the help of the judges, I decided that my strong points were my biceps, quads, abs, chest, forearms, and neck. We decided that my weak areas were everything on the backside. This kind of surprised me. I figured that it was because I couldn't watch myself in the mirror, but then I realized that I don't watch my form on the bench press. Then it suddenly struck me, my stupid high school football coaches didn't instruct us to train our back at all, or calves.
No wonder why I hadn't built a good foundation for them! I then came to a conclusion, either keep lifting how I am and lose competitions, or change my training to be proportioned and win shows. Obviously I took the second choice and have already made good progress.
I have changed my workout routine. I used to train each body part once a week. Now, I train my underdeveloped body parts twice a week, and the stronger, more developed ones once a week. I don't go all out on my strong body parts when working out, but push myself hard on the weaker parts twice a week. This unproportioned training is making me more proportioned. So, my current breakdown looks like this:
Monday: Triceps (Heavy), Biceps (Medium), Lats (Heavy), Calves (Heavy)
Tuesday: Delts (Heavy), Traps (Medium), Neck (Medium)
Wednesday: Hamstrings/Glutes (Heavy), Quads (Medium), Calves (Heavy)
Friday: Back (Heavy), Chest (Medium), Triceps (Heavy) Abs (Hard)
Saturday: Hams/Glutes (Heavy), Forearms (Heavy)
This is my workout current workout schedule and when I become proportioned to my liking, I will go back to once a week but working out Extremely hard each time. I will vary the exercises used for the weak body parts so that I am not doing the same exact exercises or weights twice a week. As I have said time and time before, Variety is the Key!
l During this time of "Double Workouts," I am eating like a wild beast, devouring every healthy morsel of food that I can clench my teeth into. Even though I am eating more, because I am working out harder, I am not gaining fat. It is awesome how the body works and it's metabolism. I have fun experimenting with how much muscle I can build at a time without gaining fat. Like many previous bodybuilders have said, gaining muscle has more to do with what you do out of the gym than just lifting hard. Proper rest, and nutrition is a must.
Mike Murphy is an expert in the fields of exercise and nutrition. He is a bodybuilder and highly sought after personal trainer and online personal trainer . You can get customized help from Mike at his Online Personal Training website.
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