I’m a beginner to body building and was wondering if somebody could clarify something for me.
I bought the Arnold Schwarzenegger “Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding” book and am about to start weight lifting using his programs. Looking at the content of his workouts he has me confused a little and I am hoping that some of you posters might help clarify the matter.
For example on his Level 1 program “workout #1” if I understand this correctly he wants to give the chest a workout by using both the bench press and the Inclined press during the same workout? I realize that the two excercises would use slightly different muscles but are these two excercises that much different that you would use them during the same workout?
He does the same thing with excercising the upper arms wanting both standing barbell curls and seated dumbell curls used in the same workout. Doesn’t make any sense to me.
I agree that T-Nation is a better source for information but in all honestly especially to a completely new weightlifter Arnolds book is of value introducing movements and such. To answer your question yes its benificial to hit a muscle from several directions during the same workout. Taking the chest for example, doing a flat benchpress hits most of the chest but to really stress the upper chest its good to include some incline work as well. Good luck and welcome.
There are so many workout programs on T-Nation that are better suited to “normal people”. Go to the Article Library, click on Training, and knock yourself out.
I’m currently doing The Waterbury Method and loving it. Had never heard of 10x3 sets before this, but it’s a pretty cool way to hit the big muscles with a lot of work.
IF you’re going to hit the same muscle from multiple directions, you want to do it in the same workout, then give it at least a couple days to recover. If you hit it from a different angle every day, it won’t have sufficient recovery time. But if you hit it several ways, then give it a week off while doing other body parts on other days, your recovery will be much more complete.
jturuk, I would suggest you to start a beginners program fom this site:
Big boy basics by Chad Waterbury. Read carefully this important article !
Then perform ABBH and ABBH2 by the same author.
Have a good time !
Luca