Schwarzenegger Arnold, Dobbins Bill The New Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding Book 2

TRAINING PROGRAMS

Chapter 1

To look like a bodybuilder, you must train in a bodybuilding program. Athletes such as soccer players, wrestlers, and weightlifters build a large amount of muscle mass, but only bodybuilders have the sculpted, well-proportioned, fully developed muscular bodies that we associate with competitive bodybuilding. If you want to look like a bodybuilder, or even if you want to look a little like a bodybuilder, you need to master the training wisdom discovered by trial and error over the past fifty years. Just like the hitting technique in tennis or the shooting technique in basketball, there is a specific strength training technique that is the most effective means of building muscle.

It takes years of hard, hard work to develop great musculature, but that's not enough. You need to train smart, and that requires mastering the fundamental principles of bodybuilding. They must be learned and practiced from the very beginning. It is much easier to learn something correctly than to get out of the wrong learning and start all over again. As you develop, you will be introduced to more and more complex approaches to training, but at the beginning of the journey, this is not something to worry about. The Encyclopedia is designed to introduce you to new ideas step by step and move you from one level of difficulty to the next.

INDIVIDUAL NEEDS

Of course, different people have many different reasons for bodybuilding. Some people want to strengthen their bodies in order to look good and feel better. Others want to improve their performance in various sports. And, finally, others are interested in the development of proportional, relief and impressive muscles for bodybuilding competitions.

As far as proper teaching is concerned, some basic methods and principles are suitable for everyone; others must be adjusted to personal needs through trial and error, sometimes over time. Everyone, regardless of personal reasons for visiting the gym, should master the basics and learn the principles of compiling a training program. But the most most importantly, everyone should learn to perform the main exercises, since they retain their value at any level of difficulty.

I well understand that people are arranged differently. Body type, fast or slow muscle building, metabolic rate, weak areas of the body, and time needed to rest and recuperate are just a few aspects that can vary greatly from person to person. In this encyclopedia, I have tried to cover all the main variables of the training process, so everyone can find here the information they need to develop the type of muscle they need.

In golf, many champions can't hit the ball as well as Tiger Woods, but on every first-class shot, the face of the club must make contact with the ball at the only correct angle. Not every skier uses the exact same style as Olympic gold medalist Hermann Mayer, but some basic moves must be done in exact sequence or you'll never cross the finish line. When you walk into a gym where professional bodybuilders train, it becomes clear that many of them use a variety of training methods.

They say that no two bodies are the same, and this is true in its own way. But on the other hand, all bodies are generally similar, so focus your efforts on mastering the basic principles and let your body tell you over time what individual additions and techniques are needed to fully realize your potential.

PROGRESSIVE LOAD

Your muscles will only grow if they are overloaded. They don't react to less. Muscles don't get bigger or stronger unless you force them to. When you force your muscles to contract at a level of stress they are not used to, it will eventually force them to adjust and become stronger. But after they adapt sufficiently, development will stop. When this happens, the only way to continue to grow muscle mass is to further increase the load. And the main role here is played by the increase in working weight during exercise.

Of course, the increase in load should be gradual. Too sudden and rapid weight gain allows you to perform exercises technically correctly and increases the risk of injury.

REPETITIONS

A repetition is one complete cycle of movement during an exercise - a contraction of the muscle, followed by a stretch, say, when lifting the weight and lowering it. A series is a group of repetitions. The number of repetitions in a series is highly dependent on which series you are performing. For example, it has been proven in theory and practice that bodybuilders achieve their best results when they lift between 70% and 75% of their maximum single effort; that is, the maximum weight at which they can perform one complete cycle of a given movement. If you are working with 70-75% of your maximum weight, you will usually find that the following series are available to you:

- 8 to 12 repetitions for the muscles of the upper body;

- 12 to 16 repetitions for the leg muscles.

Of course, these are approximate figures, but they can be used as a guideline.

Why can a person do more repetitions of exercises for the legs than for the upper body? Because when doing a series of repetitions, fatigue in the muscles of the legs builds up more slowly, and the muscles of the upper body simply do not have the same endurance. But in both cases, the working weight is from 70 to 75% of the maximum single effort for a given muscle or muscle group.

Sometimes it can be helpful to work with less weight (and do more reps), but there are other very useful series with more weight (and fewer reps) designed to develop "explosive" strength. However, the basic parameters are suitable for most bodybuilders, especially for beginners.

MTBF

"MTBF" in bodybuilding does not mean training to exhaustion. This means that you continue the series until you can no longer perform repetitions with a given weight without taking a short break. What is the reason for rejection? Basically, this is a gradual increase in fatigue of the muscle fibers involved in the exercise, and the inability of the muscle to bring new fibers into action. When muscles contract, an oxidation process occurs, which is actually a type of combustion. This is why it is said that you "burn calories" (create heat as energy is released) when you exercise. For oxidation requires a source of energy (in the muscles it is ATP) and oxygen. When there is not enough energy or oxygen, muscle fibers cannot contract until they regain strength during rest.

Another limiting factor is the accumulation of by-products resulting from the release of energy during muscle contractions. The burning sensation in the muscles that you experience during intense exercise is caused by an excess of lactic acid in the tissues of the body area being worked out. When you take a break for rest, the body removes lactic acid from this area, and you can continue training.

Aerobic exercise (i.e. oxygen-assisted) combines high rep rates with relatively low intensity so the body can supply enough blood and oxygen to the muscles to keep them contracting. This happens, for example, during a marathon race or in aerobics classes. Strength training is predominantly anaerobic (without the participation of oxygen): muscle contractions are too intense, and the oxygen supply cannot keep up with them. Therefore, the supply of oxygen in the muscles is depleted, you get tired and rest while the body supplies new blood and oxygen to tired muscles.

Why is MTBF so important? When you perform a rep with less than a single max effort, all the available muscle fibers do not come into play at the same time. You use some fibers, then they get tired, and the body puts in other fibers instead of the tired ones. MTBF is a kind of requirement that all available fibers be used. The moment of failure depends on how much weight you are working with in this exercise. If you are doing an upper body exercise and want your muscles to start to fail after 8-12 reps, then choose an approximate weight. If you find that you can do 15 repetitions, then increase the weight in the next series so that failure occurs within the indicated interval. If you can only do five reps, then you need to lighten the weight a bit to increase your MTBF reps. But you should never stop a streak just because you hit a certain amount. repetitions.

One way to track your bodybuilding progress is to change your MTBF. As individual muscle fibers become stronger, you can use more of them, and your body increases its ability to supply oxygen to the muscles during exercise. As a result, you find that you can do many more reps with the same weight until you hit failure. This is a sign that it is time for you to increase your working weight.

Of course, a person is not a machine, so you should not do the exercises mechanically and mindlessly. Some series require more focus and intensity than others. Here, for example, is a typical set of series for the upper body, which an experienced bodybuilder can perform:

First episode. Warm-up with a relatively light weight; 15 reps or more.

Second series. Добавьте вес, чтобы мышцы начали отказывать после 10–12 repetitions.

Third series. Снова добавьте вес, чтобы наработка на отказ происходила после 8-10 repetitions.

Fourth series. For максимального развития силы увеличьте вес так, чтобы мышцы отказывали после 6 повторений (силовая серия).

Fifth series (optional). Working with the same weight, try to do 6 more reps; if necessary, use the help of a training partner to complete the series (forced reps).

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