Come train with the legend Arnold Schwarzenegger - Training & tips for more strength

Train like a triathlete from time to time, and your strength and size will benefit in the long run.

Success in bodybuilding is not about the weights. The goal is not to see how many pounds you can lift, but to use weights to develop and shape your physique. Of course, you're also getting stronger through training, but that's not the most important thing.

Strength training sculpts the body differently than bodybuilding. While strength athletes often train quite a bit of bodybuilding elements, they generally focus most of their training with the heaviest possible weights for a low number of reps - threes, twos and ones. This approach targets maximal strength but doesn't produce the same size and symmetry as conventional bodybuilding training. Bodybuilder physiques are the result of medium to heavy weights, higher repetition counts (commonly somewhere between 8 and 15), and a program that targets all the major muscle groups and their specific areas.

Article Content:

• Heavy training
• Let's go heavy

Heavy Training

The upside of strength training is the density you can only get with very heavy weights. I never wanted to lose that muscle density, so about once a week I always picked one body part and avenged it with heavy sets.

In my chest workout, I always warmed up, and then did heavy sets on the bench press. I ended up doing three, two, and one reps (with a spotter, of course). I did the same for my legs on squats and my back on deadlifts.

Heavy training and low reps once in a while stimulate growth. For the same body part, I then recommend a few days of rest and a much lighter workout, with a higher rep count.

Here are a few rules I follow when training with heavy weight:

1. Choose a bodypart and multi-joint exercise (like the bench press) for a very heavy workout (1-6 reps, 4-6 sets).
2. Warm up first, start light and get to heavier weight within 3-4 sets.
3. Practice 2-3 more exercises per body part, 3-4 sets for each exercise.
4. Give the chosen body part a full week off before the next workout.
5. Keep track of your loads in a training diary. Your ability to lift heavier weights over time will lead to greater gains in muscle mass.

Let's go hard at it

This is an example of a heavy chest workout that will help you build both size and strength.

* Start light and add weight until your last warm-up set is just a tad lighter than your first work set.

Source : www.flexonline.com