to the gym. You should be well rested on those days, which makes them perfect for training hard and geting in some very productive sessions. During the week you train only two days a week and rest on the other three. That should really help with your recuperation. I also suggest switching around the muscle groups you work together so that you don’t overlap by indirectly training a bodypart two days in a row. Right now, you’re training chest and biceps at workout 1, shoulders and back at workout 2 and legs and triceps at workout 3. If you do workouts 3 and 1 back to back, you’ll end up training triceps the day before you train chest. That could lead to overtraining the triceps, or it could interfere with your chest workout if your triceps are sore. Also, if you do workouts 1 and 2 back to back, you’ll train your biceps the day before your back session. I recommend that you train your legs in between your two upper-body days to eliminate the overlap described above. Here is a better schedule: Workout 1: Chest, triceps, biceps Workout 2: Legs, abs Workout 3: Shoulders, back The only overlap is that you train shoulders the day before you train chest when you do workout 1 on the day after workout 3. When that occurs, you can switch things around a little—work back and biceps together, and then the next day train chest, shoulders and triceps. For example:
For smaller muscle groups like triceps keep sets at six to 10.
A: That’s a great question because recuperation is so important when it comes to growing muscle. Many people concentrate on their training routine without considering how much rest they need between workouts to maximize their muscle growth. I recommend that you modify your program so that you train on the weekend. You can keep your current program of splitting up the body over three days with five days, which gives you five days of rest between muscle groups: Monday: Rest Tuesday: Workout 1 Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Workout 2 Friday: Rest Saturday: Workout 3 Sunday: Workout 1 Schedule begins again; continue cycling the workouts.
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Monday: Rest Tuesday: Workout 1 (chest, triceps, biceps) Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Workout 2 (abs, legs) Friday: Rest Saturday: Workout 3, modified (back, biceps) Sunday: Workout 1, modified (chest, delts, triceps) Monday: Rest Tuesday: Workout 2 (legs) Wednesday: Rest Thursday: Workout 3 (deltoids, back) Friday: Rest Saturday: Workout 1 (chest, triceps, biceps) Sunday: Workout 2 (abs, legs)
I recommend doing a moderate number of sets. For bigger muscle groups like chest, back and legs, perform as many as 10 to 15 sets. For your deltoids and traps, do 10 to 12 sets. For smaller muscle groups like triceps, biceps, calves and abs, keep the sets at six to 10. Good luck! Editor’s note: John Hansen has won the Mr. Natural Olympia and is a two-time Natural Mr. Universe winner. Check out his Web site at www.NaturalOlympia.com, or send questions or comments to John@NaturalOlympia .com. Look for his new DVD, “Natural Bodybuilding Seminar and Competitions,” along with his book, Natural Bodybuilding, and his training DVD, “Real Muscle,” at his Web site or at Home Gym Warehouse, www.Home-Gym.com. You can send written correspondence to John Hansen, P.O. Box 3003, Darien, IL 60561. IM
That schedule has you training on the weekends, when you don’t have to deal with working a full day before going
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