NOTE: The information presented herein is meant to serve as a general guideline and is not meant to be construed as a recommendation for any one individual personally.

Parts I and II and III of “Laying the Foundation” can be found in the July, August and September issues of Natural Champion. If you missed any of these articles, we suggest you click back to the appropriate issue and start at that point.

As we mentioned way back in July in the introduction to “Laying the Foundation”, one of the most common mistakes beginning trainees make is to try to follow the routines of top bodybuilders as published in some of the more popular ‘muscle mags’. Unfortunately, the average untutored beginner usually fails to realize that (a) only an experienced and/or genetically blessed individual – or one who is ‘chemically enhanced’ - could recuperate from such a program, and (b) the published routines are sometimes either exaggerated, especially in terms of poundages handled, or a figment of some ghostwriters imagination, and as a result more often than not ends up over trained, burned out, and totally frustrated.

What the average beginning trainee should be following is the type of routine the bodybuilder or athlete used in the foundation period, the time when he was building, not refining.

If you are new to the wonderful world of resistance training, here are some tips to help you lay the foundation for muscular size, strength and explosive power.

* Start at a low level of effort and gradually increase.

Use compound movements with free weights as the basis of your workouts.

*Add resistance whenever possible. All things being equal, increased muscle strength translates to increased muscle size and functionality.

Stress good exercise form. As noted above, always strive to increase the resistance but never at the expense of proper exercise performance. Concentrate on every rep of every set and keep the tension on the target muscle or muscle group.

*Be consistent. Taking a killer workout one day and missing the next two sessions just puts you back two steps.

*Be intense. Bring your “A” game to the gym every time and your results will multiply accordingly.

*Learn the value of nutrition, mental attitude, and recuperation.

Now, for those of you who have completed the Beginning and Intermediate Routines, let’s go on to the Advanced Level Routines.

ADVANCED ROUTINES: At the advanced level, training becomes more and more individualized. Some top bodybuilders have found that they make their best gains training a body part every five to seven days while others feel twice a week per body part is best. Likewise, some prefer lower reps – all-time bodybuilding great Reg Park built a multiple Mr. Universe title winning physique and world class strength, drug free, with his 5 sets of 5 reps routine – while others have found that reps in the 8 to 12 range work best. For maximizing results and minimizing sticking points or plateaus, we recommend that intermediate and advanced trainees vary exercise selection and sets and reps.

When it comes to the question of high reps with lighter weights or low reps with heavier weights, Charles Hawkins, Natural Mr. Universe, takes the approach of using heavier weight and high reps! The Hawk feels he gets his best results in muscle size and density from the 12 rep range. He also feels that the higher reps help protect him from injury as the poundages he handles for 12 to 15 reps is naturally less than he would be able to use for 5 or 6 reps and therefore presents less stress to his joints. He notes two things, however:

One is that he goes by ‘feel’ and at times may do lower reps when he has that feeling of power and, or wants to gauge his strength, and at other times he goes to even higher than usual reps to get a super pump.

The other thing the Hawk notes is that striving to use maximum poundage with maximum reps is flat out hard – but it flat out works!

ADVANCED ROUTINE #1?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

This is a split routine based on a 4-day per week training schedule, working each muscle or muscle group once per week.

MONDAY: CHEST/SHOULDERS, ABDOMINALS.

Bodypart Exercise Sets Reps

Chest: Incline Press 4 6 to 8

Incline Dumbell Press 3 8 to 10

Low Incline Flyes 3 12

Shoulders: Seated Smith Machine Press 4 6 to 8

Seated One Arm Laterals 4 12

(hold a dumbbell in each hand; perform 12 reps with one arm, then, with no pause, 12 reps with the other arm, continuing without pause or releasing the dumbbells until 4 sets of 12 have been performed with each hand)

Abs Weighted Knee-In 3 15

Weighted Crunch 3 15

TUESDAY: BACK/TRAPS/NECK

Bodypart Exercise Sets Reps

Back Deadlift 4 6

EZ Bar Row 4 6 to 8

(use an EZ Bar with an underhand, or curl grip)

Seated Cable Row 3 8 to 10

Front Pulldown 3 12

Traps Dumbell Shrugs 4 6 to 8

Neck Neckstrap 4 8 to 10

THURSDAY: BICEPS, TRICEPS, FOREARMS

Bodypart Exercise Sets Reps

Biceps “21” curl 3 21

(perform 7 reps from the starting position to the upper abdominal area level, 7 reps from the upper abdominal area level to the contracted position, then 7 full reps)

Seated Dumbell Curl 3 8 to 10

Cable Curl 3 12

Triceps Close Grip Bench Press 4 6 to 8

Rope Extension 3 8 to 10

Pressdown 3 12

Forearms Double Reverse Curl 3 12

(Each rep consists of a reverse curl combined with

a wrist curl)

FRIDAY: THIGHS, HAMSTRINGS, CALVES

Bodypart Exercise Sets Reps

Thighs Squat 4 6 to 8

Hack Squat 3 8 to 10

Leg Press 3 12

Hamstrings Stiff Leg Deadlift 4 8 to 10

One Leg Leg Curl 3 12

Calves Calf Machine 5 8 to 10

Donkey Calf Raise 3 12

As always, make haste slowly. Take your time and get the feel and balance of each exercise before adding weight.

Arley Vest