Ideal 3 Day Per Week Routine?

[arramzy]

[quote]ryno76 wrote:
Some valid points. Regulating intensity and avoiding muscle failure will obviously allow for greater training frequency. A few things I want to point out:

One, you’re 21. That means you are in the age group that your body can take far greater frequency and get far better results than people in other age groups.

Two, while muscles can recover quickly with regulated intensity, joints and tendons don’t always recover as quick. This is something you realize as you get older.

Three, you state you are a powerlifter. Great sport, but the training principles have only so much carry over to bodybuilding. For example, in the workout example you gave in an earlier post, there is no direct arm work and no isolation exercises. This will not lead to a balanced, well developed physique in the long run. That’s fine if you are a powerlifter, but not if bodybuilding is your interest.

My point is this, I do some sprinting for conditioning reasons, but I don’t go onto the Runner’s World forums and tell people to do leg extensions and concentration curls to improve their run times. I also don’t go into the powerlifting forum and give advice on improving someone’s equipped bench press as I have no experience with it despite knowing how to perform a bench press.

I’m not doggin’ you, I’m just saying that I don’t agree with full body being the best way for most people to reach their BODYBUILDING goals and there is no real evidence to the contrary. I’m not saying high frequency full body workouts have no purpose outside of bodybuilding, though.

Anyway, good luck with your training.[/quote]

Thanks. A very fair and polite post. I appreciate people like you on these online forums where most people don’t ever listen and just bitch.

Best of luck to you and your training.

PS: On a sidenote, when it comes to getting the best ‘bodybuilding legs’… This is where I think the bodybuilders need to listen to the powerlifters. My arms might be only like 17.5, but I have 29 inch thighs which most bodybuilders would probably kill for. Remember I am also only 5’7.

[ryno76]

No problem, I try to keep things civil. I am in no way an expert, just a guy that spent the last ten years trying various methods (including full body) as my goals changed. The only one I regret was when I stopped lifting for two years and tried to become a body weight guy. I only regret that because I did not enjoy it like I did lifting and it set me back in the gym.

I definately think you have some valid points. If your stats are legit (not doubting you) then I’d say you have some good genetic potential for natural bodybuilding if you ever decide to go that route. Hell, my weak arm is only a little over 17" cold and I’m no where near 11% bodyfat.

As for me, I had to play a bit of catch up after taking the two years off. I made my best hypertrophy gains on a push/pull/legs or upper/lower/upper split. I like training to failure and at 35 I don’t have the recovery ability to go much higher frequency than that. When I did do a higher frequency approach I found my joints were killing me after a couple of weeks. Once again, I’m not as young as I used to be.