Weekly Workout Schedule

After growing out of beginner exercises and a body builder enters into the intermediate level of bodybuilding, workout must change. A marked characteristic of such workout transformation is of course increased intensity levels. The body builder must begin to lift bigger weights, perform more reps per set in each exercise and even graduate to some exercising routines that are more demanding than during the beginner days.

Workouts get tougher and muscle gains become more gradual and limited. In the intermediate level of body building, muscle growth requires more intensive stimulation than ever before. The increased intensity also makes injury and overtraining more of a risk than during initial training stages. A basic requirement of intermediate workouts is that the body builder allows more resting and recovery time corresponding to the increase in intensity levels. There is no need to increase the session duration of workouts if the intensity is reviewed upwards and efficiency ensured during the exercises.

It is a requirement that any intermediate level body builder knows his or her body enough to identify what works and what doesn’t in respect to his or her own body. This enables the body builder to redesign the beginner level training schedule to suit personal abilities and priorities constrained within the overall training objectives. The following workout schedule is a sample that can be adopted or revised to suit individuals, especially those who have just graduated into the intermediate level of body building.

It is split in a three-day weekly program allowing for 24 hour rest periods in between the one hour training sessions. On Monday, you can target the chest, triceps and the shoulders. For the shoulders, 3 sets of front military presses done to for five reps each are adequate followed by dumbbell lateral raises of two sets each 5 reps. This can be amplified for isolated shoulder training with bent over dumbbell laterals of two sets of at least 6 reps. For the chest, incline dumbbell presses of three sets each six reps are recommended. Pec deck flyes also help workout the pectorals. The triceps can be trained in isolation with four sets of dips repeated for at least ten times each set. Dips work the triceps and also compounds in recruiting both the shoulders and the chest.

On Wednesday, you can target the back, forearms and the biceps. Front lat pulls repeated for ten times in four sets help work both the mid-back and the biceps. Deadlifts are an ideal compound exercise that recruits the back and the quads while also working out the hamstrings, glutes and the calves. In training the back it is always advisable to incorporate dumbbell rows and shrugs. Dumbbell rows target the mid-back, biceps and the lats while dumbbell shrugs exclusively target the traps. For the biceps, dumbbell biceps curls repeated in four sets of six repetitions each can be complemented by dumbbell hammer curls of four sets of at least six repetitions each. Forearms are best trained with barbell wrist curls of ten reps in three sets.

Friday can be dedicated to the lower body specializing in 10 repetitions of squats and leg presses. Three sets of these compound exercises target the quads, glutes and the hamstrings. Other useful lower body exercises that can be incorporated in the Friday session include leg extension for the quads, leg curls for the hamstrings, standing calf raises for the gastrocnemius calf muscle and even seated calf raises for the soleus calf muscle. All these are better done in ten repetitions of two or three sets each.

Dane Fletcher is the world’s most prolific bodybuilding and fitness expert and is currently the executive editor for BodybuildingToday.com. If you are looking for more bodybuilding tips or information on weight training, or supplementation, please visit www.BodybuildingToday.com.

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