For almost anyone reading this article, they will have, at some point, been bitten by the bodybuilding bug. That does not necessarily mean that one has any aspirations to step onto a competitive stage. Body building in this sense simply denotes that the trainee had some aspiration to build a better physique along with any improvement in their strength and conditioning.
For those looking for physique transformation, there are no shortage of “example routines” available in the print media – Flex Magazine, Muscular Development, etc have lured in millions with promises of building “Titanic Triceps”, a “Barndoor Back” or even becoming “Quadzilla” if you do enough drop sets on the Leg Extension machine. I hear there are even some bodybuilding routines available on the Internet?
I have to admit, I spent a number of years in my late teens and early twenties combing through the pages of Flex trying to find the perfect routine – the one magical combination of exercises, sets, reps, and scheduling that would explode my physique into comic book proportions. Thanks to some decent genetics and a lot of hard work – I got close.
But I could have gotten closer.
A single article cannot possibly cover every mistake I made while trying to build my physique in those early years. Perhaps when I’m old and can no longer train I’ll sit back and chronicle them all.
However, I think one of the biggest mistakes I ever made was in the organization of my training. Like every physique oriented trainee ever – I focused about 80% of my efforts in the gym on the upper body. Granted the upper body is more complex than the lower body, but for many many years my bias was severe.
I few of my favorite bodybuilding oriented splits looked like this:
Monday – Chest; Tuesday – Back, Wednesday – Legs, Thursday – Shoulders, Friday – Arms
I also spent a lot of time doing this:
Monday – Chest, Biceps; Tuesday – Legs, Thursday – Shoulders, Triceps; Friday – Back
In retrospect, the second schedule always seemed to work better.
The scheduling bias was only part of the big mistake I was making. During my “Leg Days” I considered Squats to be just one exercise as part of a rotation of many many “compound movements” that I rotated through. You have to keep your muscles confused you know?
Squats, Front Squats on a Smith Machine, Hack Squats, various forms of Leg Pressing, etc were all staples of the routine – none treated with any more priority than the next.
To be honest, at the time I really didn’t care all that much about my legs. Most of my shorts were knee length and I genetically have decent calves. Problem solved, right? Well, what I didn’t understand then was the hormonal impact that lots of heavy leg training has on the ENTIRE body, not just the legs. What I didn’t understand was that had I spent the time developing my squat, and practicing the lift with more frequency, I would have had bigger arms, broader shoulders, and a thicker back.
For physique improvement, I’m not opposed to a body-part split. Truth be told, if you want to truly develop your physique to its potential, you have to spend some time working each muscle group thoroughly. Doing just the big compound movements with a program like Starting Strength will build your foundation. But complete development is going to require some more focused physique specific work. Another annoying situation where the “truth” is somewhere in the middle. It ain’t all barbells and it ain’t all pump work. Big chiseled physiques require both.
The solution is what I call “The Body Builders Cure” to training organization. The program is designed for those who just LOVE training the upper body like a bodybuilder. The major change is that there is no “leg day.” Instead, “leg day” is scrapped and instead, each workout starts or ends with Squats. So leg day is every day.
Using my preferred body part split from above, the routine now looks like this:
Monday: Squats + Chest & Biceps
Wednesday: Light Squats + Deadlifts & Upper Back
Friday: Squats + Shoulders & Triceps
A more detailed example plan is below:
Monday:
Squats 5×5; Bench Press 5×5; DB Incline Press 2×10-12, Crossovers 2×15, BB Curls 4×10-12
Wednesday:
Light Squats or Front Squats 5×5; Deadlifts 5RM, 8-12RM; BB Rows 4×10-12, Lat Pulls 3×10-15; DB Shrugs 2×20
Friday:
Press 5×5; Seated DB Press 2×10-15; DB Laterals 2×15; Lying Triceps 3×10-15; Pressdowns 2×15; Squats 3×10-20 (save for last since you’ll be dead afterward)
Is this the most effective routine in the world for maximum strength? Probably not. But I don’t set people’s goals for them. And I know there are a lot of you out there who have physique goals that are just as important to you as your strength goals. This type of routine allows you to do the type of training that makes your time in the gym satisfying and enjoyable. However, if you can start thinking less about “Legs” and more on “Squat training” you’ll be rewarded with a bigger lower and upper body. The hormonal impact of 3 days per week of Squat training is what drives the effectiveness of training programs like Starting Strength, The Texas Method, and Starr’s Heavy-Light-Medium. Squats are unique too in their ability to completely exhaust every fiber of leg muscle that we have. There is no upper body equivalent to the Squat. We truly need at least a handful of exercises for the upper body to completely develop. Leg Extensions, Leg Presses, Hack Squats, etc don’t do anything that Squats don’t.
Wanna get bigger? Squat and Squat often.
