In this world, time is the ultimate resource. You can always make more money, meet new friends, and find just about another resource through a combination of good luck and hard work. Time, however, is the one thing that is ultimately finite for all, and eventually, unfortunately, we will all run out of it! Barring all of this serious stuff, bodybuilding training is also affected in a major way by our time limitations. Sure, we have all seen the clips of professional bodybuilders training for two hours per day. Toss in time for cooking meals and taking showers, and you wonder how any of them have time for a job or social life! The truth is that many of these men don’t hold regular 40-hour per week jobs, which affords them the luxury of training ...

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Do you have an extremely poor back? Has it cost you a few spots’ worth of placing in shows? At the local and regional level of shows, it is usually conditioning and structure that wins shows. At the national and professional levels, most bodybuilders already have superior shape and structure, and conditioning is usually pretty similar among the top 5 or 7 athletes in each class. At the lower levels of bodybuilding, having an excellent back is a rarity, as many people just getting into bodybuilding have spent their first few years of training focusing upon the showcase muscle groups of chest and arms. It’s never too late to make back a focus if you wish to go far in the sport of competitive bodybuilding, but the time to act is now. If your ...

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Do you possess fairly solid back development, but lack biceps and forearm development of which to be proud? If this is the case, you may want to consider the use of back and biceps supersetting to help spurn new arm growth while keeping the back growth steady. Here is a sample workout.   Deadlifts Let’s start simple. Complete four sets of deadlifts, as you would start your workout. This is no time to get fancy. You will want to complete this heavy compound work as you normally would, nail down a solid compound movement for the back first. Aim for 8 to 12 repetitions for each set.   Barbell Rows, supersetted with barbell curls Complete a set of barbell curls using a range of 10 to 12 repetitions, then immediately drop the bar and pick up a pre-positioned barbell or EZ-curl ...

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Training back can be quite a challenge for new bodybuilders who aren’t all that aware of which exercises target which muscle groups, and which set and rep schemes work best. Many will bounce around the gym, tinkering around with different movements, never quite getting a grasp of what makes a solid back workout. Never fear. Here is an easy plan for setting up your back day training. Choose exercises to your liking from the groups listed below, and train your hardest. Manipulate the poundage you use for the movements to hit the designated set and rep scheme below. Good luck! Select a lower back movement Hyperextensions, deadlifts, or rack deadlifts should always start your back day. This will be the most weight you’ll move today, and probably all week! You might as well hit this ...

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Many bodybuilders find success with brief, high intensity training. They discover the magic secrets to feeling peak contraction, and can manage to elicit some growth despite only using a few sets. For steroid users, this sort of success is easy with low-volume, extremely heavy training. For naturals, it can be much harder. Meeting peak intensity and training to actual failure isn’t always possible, especially when training without a spotter. For this reason, many bodybuilders resort to higher volume training. Hitting that peak failure point or achieving absolutely perfect repetition tempo isn’t as necessary, when you hit the muscle group with enough quality sets. Let’s look at a sample back day utilizing high volume training. You don’t have to train to failure on any set, although it is productive to toss that method ...

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Back in the day, training the back for width was simple. Bodybuilders focused on lots of heavy sets of exercises which targeted the outside lat muscles. It was simple, ugly, and it got the job done. Let’s check out such a routine! Body weight chins Start simple and heavy. You will need to complete 40 repetitions. It doesn’t matter if you can do it in 2 sets, or if takes you ten sets. Get all 40 repetitions done, and you will have given your back a foundation of muscle stimulation necessary for growth. If you are inexperienced with this movement or possess a higher body weight making them tough, just keep working through it with many small sets of low repetitions. In just a few weeks, your body will become stronger to adapt to this new ...

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Many bodybuilders frequently notice that their back workouts hamper their ability to perform as well as needed on leg day. It’s true that some back exercises do require the hamstrings remain fully flexed while supporting a great deal of weight. Deadlifts are an extremely heavy compound movement which forces the trainer to keep the hamstrings fully flexed throughout. Hyperextensions are another movement which results in the hamstrings briefly receiving the brunt of your body weight (along with any plate you are holding as well), which can leave the hamstrings very pumped at the end of back day. Your initial reaction might be one of optimistic surprise. After all, who wouldn’t want to add a quick pump to their hamstrings to see some new progress? Training them twice a week means they’ll grow twice as fast, ...

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Many bodybuilders tend to ignore the importance of including back training in there training regimen. The back is very important and as such it needs to be adequately trained. There are various types of exercises which can help a bodybuilder work out the back muscles. Most novice bodybuilders and even some veteran bodybuilders are not aware how to perfect these techniques of exercising the back. In order to train the back you need to lie down on your back and then put your hands on an outstretched position with the palms of your hand on the floor. While looking upwards you need to lift your left leg as well as your right leg a few inches from the ground. You should ensure during this time that your thighs and the arm which is not touching the ground are still raised during the ...

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There are essentially two ways to train the back to add muscle. First, you can opt for the traditional type of training performed by trainers at most gyms in America. These workouts usually involve 4 sets of four exercises, in which your repetitions span from 8 to 15. You train for muscle, but mainly for the pump as well. This type of training is fairly effective, but you are probably aware (if you’ve been training in this manner for years) that you’re not going to see a lot of changes in your physique from week to week on it. There is a second method of training the back, and while the goals parallel those of bodybuilders (to gain muscle mass), the means by which this is achieved involve lifting in a method consistent with powerlifting. You keep ...

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Many bodybuilders find that while the movement is hardcore and a great deal of fun, the deadlift just isn’t for them. Perhaps they are too tall and have long arms, which can make for a very awkward lift. Maybe they lack low back flexibility, or have sustained an injury at some point in their career. Whatever the reason, if deadlifts are out, then dumbbell rows most definitely have to be in. They are nearly as efficient for back thickness as deadlifts, with much less chance of injury. Completing dumbbell rows is simple. Place your knee on a bench, secure your position with your same-side knee, and grab a dumbbell hanging from your free arm. Slowly bring the dumbbell up to your highest position, flexing your back at the top. Then, lower it back to ...

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