How to Build Muscle: The Definitive Guide to Building Muscle
May 29th, 2008 by Mehdi Posted in Build Muscle
Build Muscle. Image: Ron Fedkiw.
The biggest mistake when building muscle is imitating Pro Bodybuilders. Most of them don’t train naturally, are genetically gifted and never started training that way. Doing their routines won’t make you build muscle fast.
The average person needs a different approach. One that builds muscle fast and prevents physical & mental overtraining from doing too much, too soon. Here’s how to build muscle: the definitive guide to building muscle.
1. Get Stronger. More strength is more muscle. Get into strength training. I recommend weight lifting because it allows you to start light and add weight endlessly. Body-weight exercises work too.
- Weight Lifting. Start with an empty bar. Learn proper technique. Add weight each workout to keep pushing your body out of comfort zone.
- Calisthenics . Push-ups, Pull-ups, Dips, Pistols, Reverse Crunches, etc. Switch to harder versions or add weight when they get easy.
2. Use Free Weights. You can lift the heaviest weights using barbells. More weight is more stress, thus more muscle. Dumbbells are great for assistance exercises, but not for your main lifts. Stay away from machines.
- Safe. Machines force you into fixed, unnatural movement patterns which can cause injuries. Free weights replicate natural motions.
- Efficient. Free weights force you to control and balance the weight. This builds more muscle than machines, which balance the weight for you.
- Functional. Strength built on machines doesn’t transfer to free weights or real life. No machine balances the weight for you in real life.
- Versatile. You can do hundreds of exercises with just 1 barbell. Saves a lot of money and space, especially if you want to build a home gym.
3. Do Compound Exercises. Don’t imitate Pro Bodybuilders. Isolation exercises are ok once you’ve built base strength & muscle mass. But if you’re starting to build muscle, exercises that hit several muscles at the same time are better.
- No endless Biceps Curls -> Pull-ups, Chin-ups & Barbell Rows
- Also no Triceps Kickbacks -> Bench Press, Overhead Press, Dips
- And definitely no Leg Extensions -> Squats & Deadlifts
4. Train Your Legs. Squats work your whole body, they’re the most important exercise. You’ll look totally different once you can Squat 1.5x your body-weight. That’s a free weight Squat with hips coming lower than knees.
All your muscles tense when doing Squats & Deadlifts. They work your body as 1 piece and let you lift heavy weights. Don’t lose time with Biceps Curls. When you can Squat & Deadlift heavy weights, you’ll have bigger arms.
5. Do Full Body Workouts. Don’t compare to Pro Bodybuilders. 3rd time so this gets into you. Body part splits with isolation exercises is fine once you’ve built a foundation. That’s once you can Squat 1.5x your body-weight.
You can’t Squat that much or never did Squats? Check StrongLifts 5×5. It takes 3×45mins/week and includes compound exercises like Squats, Deadlifts, Bench Press, Barbell Rows, Overhead Press, Pull-ups, Dips, etc.
6 Get Recovery. Pro athletes workout 5-6 times per week. But they didn’t start that way. They added workouts as they got stronger & bigger. You’ll overtrain if you jump into their routines. As a beginner you need more recovery.
- Rest. Muscles grow when you rest, not when you workout. Start with 3 full body workouts per week and focus on intensity, not gym time.
- Sleep. Growth hormone releases when you sleep, building muscle. Aim for 8 hours sleep. Nap post workout if your lifestyle allows.
- Drink Water. Avoids dehydration and helps muscle recovery. Drink 2 cups water with each meal, and sip water during your workout.
- Eat. “Eat like a horse. Sleep like a baby. Grow like a weed”. Your training is useless if you don’t eat plenty of whole foods. More below.
7. Eat Whole Foods. You’ll achieve a lower body fat, so the muscles you’ve built show better. And the vitamin & mineral content helps recovery. Stop eating food coming from a box. Eat whole foods 90% of the time.
- Proteins. Meat, poultry, fish, whey, eggs, milk, …
- Carbs. Brown rice, oats, whole grain pasta, quinoa, …
- Veggies. Spinach, broccoli, tomato, salad, carrot, …
- Fruits. Banana, orange, apple, pineapple, peers, …
- Fats. Olive oil, fish oil, real butter, nuts, flax seeds, …
8. Eat More. You need food for energy and for muscle growth & recovery. More frequent meals also boosts your metabolism, helping fat loss.
- Eat Breakfast. Get calories from the first hour. Read how to build the habit of eating breakfast. Try these 7 breakfast recipes.
- Eat Post Workout. Get proteins & carbs post workout to help muscle recovery & replenish energy stores. Try this post workout shake.
- Eat Every 3 Hours. 6 meals/day. Gives your muscles a steady intake of protein, speeds up muscle repair & recovery, boosts your metabolism.
- Eat BW in lbs x 18kcal. Track your daily calorie intake using FitDay. You need at least your body-weight in lbs x 18kcal to maintain weight.
9. Gain Weight. You’ll never look muscular weighing 140lbs at 6″. No matter how much training you do. Check the guide on how to gain weight for skinny guys. Here’s the most important part.
- Eat Calorie Dense Foods. 100g raw spinach is 25kcals. But 100g raw rice is 380kcals. Eat pasta, oats, olive oil, mixed nuts, etc.
- Get Stronger. Increase your Squat to 1.5x your body-weight. Increase your Deadlift to 2x body-weight. More strength is more muscle.
- Drink Whole Milk. If you don’t bother gaining some fat, drink 1 gallon whole milk daily on top of your current food intake. Gains of 40lbs in 6 months are do-able when combining this with 3 weekly Squat sessions.
10. Get Protein. Proteins have the highest thermic effect. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight daily to build & maintain muscle. That’s 160g of daily protein if you weigh 160lbs/72kg. Eat whole proteins with each meal.
- Red Meat. Ground round, steaks, deer, buffalo, …
- Poultry. Chicken breast, whole chicken, turkey, duck, …
- Fish. Tuna, salmon, sardines, mackerel, …
- Eggs. Eat the yolk, it’s full of vitamins.
- Dairy. Milk, cottage cheese, quark cheese, yogurt, whey, …
If you weigh 160lbs: 1 can of tuna at lunch, 300g quark as snack, 300g meat at dinner and 500ml milk through the day gets you 160g protein. Read also how to get your daily protein when you’re a vegeterian/vegan.
Persist. Get stronger, track progress and persist until you’ve built the muscles you want. You’ll see the biggest change in physique after following this method for 2 months. For a free muscle building guide, get StrongLifts 5×5 eBook.
Although I agree with you that free weights are better for weight lifting than machines, I think that machines are definitely safer. They lock you into a movement so there is less risk of muscle tear and virtually no risk that you will drop the weight on yourself.
Machines are designed to be safer and easier, but they do not give you as good of a workout because you do not have to stabilize the weight yourself. Use free weights over machines as much as you can.
Question on “6 Get Recovery.” I’ve started the 5×5 program but I’ve found that one day is not enough for my muscles (especially the front muscles of my upper legs from squats) to completely recover from soreness. Should I wait until all soreness goes away before training again? Sometimes it takes 3 or more days for the soreness to completely go away (and it’s usually the worst on the 2nd day).
I love reading a nice and tight recap of the info available in more detail on stronglifts. The true trick is sticking with this…if you do - you’ll be strong. Thanks Mehdi.
@Tony
When does that happen “dropping the weight on yourself” & “torn muscles”? Lots of fear for something that in practice never happens if you know what you’re doing and started light.
@Ben
You’re probably on the program since 1-3 weeks, and I assume you didn’t started too heavy. Soreness will decrease after a few weeks. Workout as planned, training muscle again is best solution for soreness (flushes blood into muscles, helping recovery).
@Scottymouth
Thanks!
I had rotator cuff repair surgery about a year ago and have been slowly easing back into weights with zero results. It’s tough swallowing my pride and lifting light to get back into the swing of things. I’ve noticed my right arm and shoulder are significantly weaker than the other side, and overhead press movements are still uncomfortable. Would you recommend sticking to a machine for just these overhead movements, or going ulta-light with free weights for all movements?
Machines are actually not a safer alternative. Many have reported injuries caused by machines. For example, bench pressing using the smith machine has been reported to be resposnsible for many shoulder injuries. They just force your body to move in a way it is not designed to, combine that with heavy weights and you have a recipe for a disaster.
Question for Mehdi, when you say ” … when you are able to squat 1.5 x your body weight ” or ” deadlift 2x your body weight” do you mean just for 1 rep, or for 5 reps ?
Thanks for the amazing website and newsletter. I have been an enthusiastic reader of your articles but have also been silent all the time. This is my first comment.
I am stalling on my presses. or maybe not !?
on the 5×5 i can not get a full five on round 4 & 5. yesterday i got 3, racked the bar, then got three more on each round.
my 1rm max on the press is 165 - i am using 120 in the 5×5! should i move up to 125 to stick with 120 until i get em all?
Also, i do assisted dips in between the sets. is this to much?
(i have a very small window to get my work out done, that is why i double up)
Thanks,
Alex
@ Mehdi, That’s what I’m talking about. For beginners who do not know what they are doing, machines are safer because these people don’t know how much weight they should lift or how to do the exercises properly. This is not something that never happens, beginners often hurt themselves or drop weights because they are too heavy…
I’m not saying I think machines are better. I definitely do not. Free weights are the only way to go if you are looking to pack on serious muscle mass and gain strength.
Excellent post once again Mehdi. Thanks!
BTW, the picture you’ve picked for this article is roughly how I want to look like by May of 2010.
I’ve already gained 10 pounds of muscle in 3 weeks with your diet and StrongLifts plan, so I’m quite sure it will happen :).
On topic questions people. There’s a forum for questions not related to this article.
@Jason
Swallow your pride, pride is only good to get injured. I would recommend you start out by rehabbing your shoulder proplerly, check the inside/out dvd. Stay away from the overhead press for now, even benching, stick with push-ups, deadlifts.
@Faisal
At least 1 rep. If it’s 5×5 even better. Thanks for your kind words.
@Alex
Stick with 120lbs until you get the 5×5, then increase weight. Deload after 3 failed attempts. Stop the super/staggered sets, it makes it harder to get all your reps.
@Tony
Beginners do know with how much weight to start: NONE until they get their technique right. You’re trashing the whole philosophy of this blog which is proven to work: lift weights, start light, focus on technique, and add weight each workout. Starting with machines because they’re “safer” is time lost, you don’t learn how to lift with barbells that way. And machines cause injury, cfr fixed movement patterns.
@Andrew
You’re welcome. Myeah I know, your muscle gains have been great, and you’ve got good technique. You’ll hit the 175lbs bw soon.
I understand where you are coming from. I think different philosophies can work well for different people, and I was just contributing my two cents from my knowledge and experience. I don’t think there are any universal truths in weight lifting, we can only offer recommendations and even the best of them do not work for everyone.
Didn’t mean to trash your philosophy at all, sorry for the misunderstanding.
Hi Mehdi,
First of all I would like to thank you for providing us this great resource of bodybuilding. I have been into weight training for two years now and earlier I use to follow body-part split routine and I did gain few muscle and shape but 2 months back I realized that how insignificant my gains were, in comparison to others considering my effort and time . I discussed a question about shoulder workout in few forums and it was during that discussion some people made me realize that how inefficient and uncustomized my routine was. On their suggestion I started looking for 5*5 training program (as I didn’t meet the criteria “able to squat 1.5 x your body weight ” & ” deadlift 2x your body weight”) and this is how I came to know about your website and weblog. I have been using 5*5 for a month now and have observed noticeable gains ..my bies have increased by 1/2 inch and so has my bench and likewise squats. I don’t know whether its because of 5*5 only or a new supplement I have also started taking since I started 5*5. Whatever it is but I am sure that 5*5 does have got something to do with my improvements.
I once again thank you for your selfless effort and this website..God bless you…
P.S - Sorry for being too verbose but this is my first comment here so…:)
I’ve been using 5×5 for a full month now. My goal is to lose body fat (I’m 200lbs, 5′10″) and get stronger. I don’t care about muscle mass so much, but it would be nice to be bigger. After one month, my weight and body appearance are the same, but I am definitely stronger. I’m increasing loads so that I struggle to finish workouts, but I’m not sore the next day. I’ve been avoiding cardio on my off-days to ensure proper rest, but now I’m considering starting back up with a moderate running program to facilitate weight loss. Is this ok as long as my lifting is not suffering?
I would also appreciate any tips you have to overcome boredom. I get bored easily and doing squats three times a week is getting old fast. Is it ok to alternate squats and deadlifts. Instead of 5 x squats and 1 x deadlift, I could do one day a week with 5 x deadlift and 1 x squat. I think this would shake it up enough to keep me mentally on track. Besides, I feel I’m missing out on some of the benefits of deadlift (like grip strength, which is weak).
Thanks for the great article!
The 5×5 seems to work for me - I’m making more progress than I used to, and I fully agree that machines is guarantee for safety…
My original program was put together by a trainer at my gym, but it was completely free of exercises that hit brachialis much. At some point I started feeling I could handle more exercises, and so I added overhand lat pulldowns, and tried some pull ups, with the result that my arms were aching (not sore muscle aches, but pounding pain) for a week. I tried easing into them, same thing.
It took a few months before I started reading up properly, and finally realized that biceps aren’t “just biceps” but several different muscles. With pull ups in particular I’d exhaust my brachii quickly because my brachialis was so weak (in proportion anyway), and then the pain would hit as they suddenly took my entire body weight….
I still get occasional twinges, but changing my program around has helped tremendously in getting a better balance. My only problem is that my gym doesn’t have a squat rack (seriously) and it’s the only one nearby (there’s one not too far from my office, and I need to consider swtiching..), so I’ve had to do front squats and get the bar up with power cleans. That’s worked well so far, but it’s slowed my progress a bit (I’ve just had to take a few weeks to focus on power cleans to get the bar up safely for each squat set, for example).
But I have one gripe: Seriously, the 18 x your weight in lbs does NOT work for everybody. I’d have to consume 3600kcal/day to match that, and my maintenance level is an average of about 2000kcal/day (somewhat more on exercise days, somewhat less other days) - I made months worth of notes of every damn thing I put into my mouth (down to things like sugar free chewing gum, which is actually pretty high in calories, so no, I’m not leaving out anything).
So while I don’t doubt that it might be a good rule of thumb for people, I’d recommend another approach: Take notes of every calorie you consume for a few weeks and weigh yourself. If your weight is not going in the direction you like, adjust the intake accordingly. That’s how I ended at that level.
Medhi, thanks man I’m a huge fan of your 5×5 Workout program. I have been following it strictly for over 3 weeks now and can see improvements in strength in all body parts.
I haven’t had to deal with much DOMs effect or post-workout soreness in my legs due to squatting except for my lower back. It seems to get very tight the following day and stiffens up quickly if I want to do some light jogging on my off-days. Could this be due to a form problem with squats or should I concentrate more on stretching post-workout? Thanks!
Seriously dude? The whole point is that it’s a starting point, the 18x bw in calories. He also says in several places to add or take away 500 calories at a time to see what happens to your weight.
At first when i looked at pic I thought it’s old article
I used to think you weren’t stressing enough on “Get Recovery” part but you nailed it here. Excellent article.
Eat Exercise Rest
I myself gained 10lbs in 1 month on 5×5 + milk and still going strong for 2nd month results.
I think it is THE biggest mistake most of us make following pro-builders routines. I myself wasted 1yr. Damn!!
Great job getting all this info together.
Very educational/motivational.
Im sure i’ll be following it.
5stars, thanks Mehdi.
Mehdi, Why have you not included Power Cleans in your program? No point substituting power cleans with barbell rows, its not the same thing.
Great post.
I agree with most of the suggestions. The biggest thing most novice’s don’t realize is that the ‘body builder’ whether amateur or professional usually are at the gym 5-6 days a week, 1-3 hrs per day, doing segmental training.
Glad you pointed out proper technique. It will make or break your workout. Far too many times I see ‘newbies’ lifting too much, going to fast, or having horrible technique just so they ‘look’ strong.
@Tony
No problem.
@Saurabh/Manny/Strong One
You’re welcome. Thanks for the kind words.
@Soldat
You write you want to get bigger, but then write you want to do cardio for weight loss? I suppose you want to lose the fat. Add cardio, and focus on getting stronger/cleaning up the diet.
Boredom. Put strength goals, and work on achieving them. 200lbs Squat should be your 1st goal then 300lbs (5×5 or 1 rep, whatever a goal is a goal), work towards it. Don’t increase deadlift frequency, it’s much harder than squat.
@Vidar
Over-weight people often cut calories way too much trying to lose fat that way. On the other hand skinny guys say they eat a lot until they start tracking everything. No-one can tell you how much calories you need. But the 18x bw is a good rule of thumb to give people a guideline. I don’t know how much you way, but 2000kcal/day still sounds low, even a 70kg/150lbs (light-weight) would need more.
@Brendan
Make sure you lift correctly, check the posts on lower back pain, check glute activation, work on hip mobility, etc. You shouldn’t care about soreness, care about increasing your strength. Adding weight on the bar means progress, focus on that.
@Hemram4u
There was a how to build muscle guide before, one of the most viewed articles on this blog, so I re-wrote it completely. Only the pic/title are the same. Good progress, keep it up.
@Brendon
You can add power cleans to the program instead of barbell rows. Check the program’s faq (or ebook) for more info.
Mehdi,
I’m around the 92kg mark, and currently reasonably lean (still got a bit extra around the belly). I was at 105kg before I started lifting. I started by writing down what I ate.
At the time I had been continuously adding fat, and was at less than 3000kcal most of the time (I’d occasionally splurge and drag it higher some weeks, but rarely - I probably added most of my fat with more than that, but 3k was still enough to keep me gaining weight). I gradually dropped my intake, and I didn’t start seriously shedding any weight until I got down to an average of around 1700kcal at which point I was losing around 0.5kg a week.
I tried estimating at some point, but I found it didn’t work. Unless I wrote down every single item I put in my mouth and went to extremes such as weighing my cereal etc. to ensure I didn’t take larger portions than intended, I’d make no progress, so I’ve been extremely thorough during the periods where my goal has been to drop weight.
I’ve always been like this - when I was in school there were periods where I’d eat only one small meal a day, and my weight would still be stable at a healthy level for my height (I’m 6′2). It was when I started eating “normally” for my size that my weight started going up.
I got down to a low of 84kg, despite adding a lot of muscle during the time (it wasn’t just increased definition - my bicep measurements etc. increased quite a bit). Then I increased back to about 87kg, and stabilized there when I adjusted my intake to about 2000kcal.
At some point earlier this year I realized I’d stalled completely. After dropping the weight I massively reduced cardio, but my old weight program was not doing me any favors, though I had added a bit more muscle. Over the last year or so I got up from 87kg to 92kg - not a huge amount, but I’ve been hesitant to increase my intake much out of worry that I’d end up adding too much fat - it was hell losing it in the first place.
Now I alternate between a few weeks of a couple of hundred kcal below 2000 and a few weeks of a couple of hundred above, averaging out at almost exactly 2000 over time, and that’s what seems to work best for me. My weight is reasonably stable, but I’m making a lot of progress in terms of strength, and I do see slow increase in definition so I’m clearly shifting some fat still.
The trick for me was largely to learn to eat only when I’m actually hungry. I absolutely love food, and love eating, but if I eat only when I’m hungry and stop when I’m full I naturally end up around the 2000kcal level - often when I eat that much I won’t even be remotely hungry the next morning until 10am-11am. Starting to exercise regularly made that a lot easier - I rarely get any strong cravings that ruin things any more.
This is what makes me annoyed when some people joke about how fat people must eat so much, because I know how far down I had to drop in intake before I started losing _anything at all_, despite significantly increasing the amount of exercise I took at the same time.
I don’t like it when fat people make excuses to avoid sorting themselves out - they will still lose weight if they eat little enough - but for some people “little enough” is surprisingly low, and the effort it takes to start losing is more significant for some people than others.
I’m now perfectly healthy despite (or rather because of) my low calorie intake, according to my doctor. Even when I was bordering on obese at my heaviest, my doctor couldn’t find much wrong, but did have some early signs of increasing insulin resistance, though it was still within normal levels, and that was a large part of scaring me into fixing things. That’s completely sorted itself (in fact it’s better than it was when I was a teenager).
Mehdi is that you flexing your iron on the picture?
@Philip
Nah, it’s Ron Fedkiw. Former competitive power lifter. More pics about him here, at the whole bottom: http://physbam.stanford.edu/~fedkiw/
Read also about his career: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Fedkiw
Thats really impressive for professor of computer science.
I really think that working with weights helps you lose weight faster. I am just starting to workout with weights. I would say it’s going great!
Thanks.
isnt squating 3 times a week a bit much?? im guessing something like mon/wed/fri?
Squatting three times a week is a lot. However, the point is to focus on proper form while increasing strength and muscle-mass. If you read farther up the thread, I had an issue with this method because I became bored with squats after a month. I also felt I was missing out on the opportunity to improve deadlift, which I enjoy more than squats.
I switched my routine so that one day a week was a single set of squats and five sets of deadlifts. Needless to say, my squats suffered the next week! I’m sticking with the plan, over-coming my boredom, and seeing great results. I recommend reading the free e-book and digging around the forum if you want more detail.
Surely skimmed milk is better for you than whole milk?
@ Jason
Definitely stick to light free weights. you need to rehad the shoulder so that you can do the normal movements again comfortably, and you arent going to get the normal motion from a machine. Plus, after surgery, you dont need to go for strength, you need to work the stabilizer muscles. it will come back, but it will just take some time.
One thing you might want to add is “lose the fat”.
It won’t build muscle, but you’ll look more muscular (so does getting a tan).
Hi,
I have just started on a strengths training regime ……. roughly 4 days a week, which includes squats but no deadweight lifts (as yet)……. My upper body is just about ok and I have strong legs as I used to be an athelete ….. However I have gained some fat on my abdomen …which I am finding difficult to get rid off even though I do a significant amount of swimming…. My diet consists of three heavy meals a day which include a lot of meat and cheese … though I have started avoiding fried stuff, (and pizzas and burgers) ….. Could you suggest some exercises for my abdomen, apart from crunches, cross crunches and sit ups …. My height is 6′1″ and I weight around 83 KG …. Also should I avoid eating cheese and butter
Thanks and Regards
Sid
P.S. you have a great blog …… This is the first page I saw and am immensly impressed
How goes it,
I am 5ft 9 and aprrox 175lbs. Got back into weight training 7 months ago. the first 4/5 months went great but I have really seemed to have hot a plateau fo rthe last 8-12 weeks. I am eating and sleeping well and taking whey after a workout. I am training 5 times a week (weights 4 times and one cardio). This is obviously starting to frustrate at this stage, any help, much appreciated
33 Hookster. Change up your basic movement every 3 weeks ie[bench,squat,deadlift,pullup and all of their variations. Heres an example for upper body. Weighted chins and BB overhead press for 3 weeks. Then the following 3 weeks do DB rows and db bench press.Then the following 3 weeks do Power cleans and dips.Make sure you beat your previous weeks numbers.Training like this, you can constantly make progress on ALL of your lifts and get strong at everything.Doing different exercises that work the same muscles will make all of your lifts better.Always pick antagonists to work together.ie push/pull.Same for lower body also.Good luck brother
Hookster, one more thing.If your training 4x week,do 1 heavy [low reps] and 1 light [high reps] workout for upper and lower.Example,Monday- heavy lower,tue- light upper,thurs-light lower,fri or sat heavy upper.Get crackin…….
I need some advice…..
I have been working out for about 3 years. When I first entered a gym and started working out I was about 12 stone, however I started eating everything to bulk up and within about 2 years I had gone up to 15 stone.
However I was carrying alot of body fat and was not satisfied at the way I looked. Now i have trimed down and am fairly ripped- thanks to excellent quality cardio sessions on the treadmill and also watching the food that I eat.
I would now like to bulk up some more but at the same time want to stay ripped and lean. Over the past 2 to 3 months I feel I have come to a stanstill at the gym. I eat about 5 times aday and have 3 protein shakes aday . SO any advise on how to do this greatly appreacited.
Mike
i have always luv 2 have muscles,but my muscles tremble when i am exercising.wat can i do.I also get tired too easily.Pls what can i do.My email address is attached.Hope 2 hear frm U.watson
Hey guys, I’ve been working out for some time now and I’ve seriously damaged my adductor on my right legs - I know this is vague but can anyone give me any advice on how to recover, I play a lot of rugby and it’s hindering my performance as I can’t run continuously for very long, thanks in advance, Mike.
Mehdi-
It’s been a while since I’ve wriiten, but in that time I’ve developed (or discovered) an iguanal hernia, thus I have decided to do as much body weight exercise as possible, as that does not aggravate the condition. I would appreciate a critique of this workout based on the exercises in beginner 5×5:
Workout A
Squat or Bulgarian Split Squat
Push Up/Decline Push Up
Bodyweight Row
Dips/Pike Dips
Workout B
Walking Lunge or High Step Up
Pike Push Up or Handstand Push Up
Hip Extension or Superman
Pull Up/Chin Up or Pike Pull Up
Any advice on rep/sets/tempo combinations?
Also, beyond a general cardio 5 minute warmup, are mobility exercises/dynamic warm-ups necessary with bodyweight training?
Thanks again and congratulations on your continued success!
1st of all hello to all. Im a beginner but this site pumped the f&@# out of me. Im 4sure gonna stick to the program. Ill keep you posted eventhough you guys prob dont give a f*&^ about my gains. But…
To Steve
its been awhile since he posted but i hope u take care of that hernia
be4 anything. I know u didnt ask me shit and its none of my biz. But I had a hernia myself but im not sure if its the same as urs. But I know the pain 1st hand. If ur not gonna have surgery then keep ur workouts light and quick. 4 workouts a day seems like torcher 2me. But ur prob not a pussy like I was. However, dude I doubt ur ever gonna reach pro-athlete statis, cus heavy and hard lifting shit even cardio is gonna be pure pain and discomfort 4u. I hope the homie Mehdi can better help u out. But in my opinion from personal experiance take care of that hernia 1st. 4 those of you who never had a hernia its like having the case of meeeen blue balls and have a donkey kick them everytime u stand up or try and walk.