Break Through Your Weight Training Plateau With These Tips

Every bodybuilder that has continued lifting weight for a long enough period of time has experienced a "plateau" - a point where your gains in strength and size seem to completely stop. This occurs even when following nutrition, supplementation and workout routines perfectly. It is one of the most frustrating things about being a bodybuilder. And there are only two options when reaching a plateau: blast through it or give up.

If this is your first plateau, chances are it's time to increase your training intensity. Just doing three sets of 15 reps isn't going to be enough for your body any more. You've already taken your muscles to one limit, now blast through to the next. There are several methods for increasing the intensity of your weight lifting. We've outlined a few of them below.

Take a Break from the Gym

If you've reached a plateau, the first thing you should do is...rest. Studies have shown that weight lifters do not lose a significant amount of muscular strength or size if they stop working out for up to two weeks. Just avoid the gym for one week. You should stay motivated by reading bodybuilding articles on the internet or in magazines, and planning out your new workout schedule. After a week off, you could find that you have more energy because you allowed all your muscles to completely recover.

Also, sleep is very important to your body for recovery, especially if you lift weights. Make sure you are getting at least 7 hours of sleep each night. Just an extra one to two hours a night can make a huge difference in your gains as a weight lifter.

Change your Workout Schedule

If you are currently working out three days per week, increase your trips to the gym to four days per week. If you already go four times, now go five times (if you already go five times, consider going less - maybe you're going too often).

If you're currently exercising different body parts on different days, consider changing the days you do each body part. If you usually do chest and triceps on Monday, try doing them on Tuesday. If you are currently going three days each week, and do different body parts on different days, you will have to reorganize your workouts anyway. Below is an example four day body split routine:

Monday: Back and BicepsTuesday: Chest and tricepsThursday: Thighs and CalvesFriday: Abs and shoulders

Change Each Exercise
First, before adding any more intensity to each exercise, be sure that you are performing each exercise with excellent form. If you are jerking or swinging the weight, simply paying attention to keeping your form strict may be the change you need to start your muscles growing again.

One idea for increasing the intensity is doing what's called a "burn set". Let's use the biceps curl as an example. If you usually use a 50-pound barbell, and you can do 12 reps in each set, as soon as you reach failure on that 12th rep, immediately put that barbell down and grab a 25-pound barbell and crank out as many reps as you can. You'll then see why it's call a "burn set". Throwing this type of crazy pump after a standard set will certainly shock your muscles.

Reaching a bodybuilding plateau can be one of the most frustrating aspects of weight lifting. But you can get through it; you just have to push on through. As long as you don't give up, you won't be disappointed in the results.

"Until the next article "Be Your Best"

Want to get fit quick? Head on over to Men-N-Fitness and get a free 7 day training guide.

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Interval Training to Build Muscle and Lose Fat

Interval training or High Intensity Training (HIT) Is a way to lose fat and build muscle at the same time.

Many people are concerned that if they pursue a workout program like this they will build too much muscle and look like a body builder, though some will want this look.

By using Interval Training you can build muscle and you will look more shaped and well toned. So even if you gain some weight from building muscle you will improve the look of your body and have more energy from the increase in your metabolism. Increasing your metabolism is the key to lose fat and keep it off.

So get the fear of building muscle out of your mind and instead realize that building muscle is an important key increasing your metabolism and to lose fat even if you do not want to get bulked up like a body builder.

So what kind workouts should you do to lose fat and increase your metabolism?

That's where Interval training or High Intensity Training come in. The best part is that it can be done anywhere and requires no equipment except a towel. This is a dirty little secret the fitness industry doesn't want you to know.

Interval training is doing a set 8 to 10 different exercises for you whole body in 20 or 30 minutes total time. You will do each exercise at the highest intensity possible for 30 seconds and then rest for about 15 seconds and then resume the high intensity part again until you have completed that exercise. You will rest again and the go on to the next exercise.

This will recharge you enough to be able to push hard again in the next intense interval. With this system you will not be continuously counting the minutes that you have to chug along at the same boring pace but moving from a period of intense training looking forward to the next break so that you can rest for the next intense interval. This will make your workout more beneficial to you but it will seem to go by faster for you.

Remember each exercise will take only about two or three minutes at the most to complete and you will rest and go on to the next one until you have completed all of the exercises in the workout program.

This type of exercise is great because it is over fast and will not slow down your metabolism like the grinding pounding cardio of running, or biking will do. You won't look like an emaciated marathon runner either.

The best part is that you are exercising your whole body not just your legs or your upper body like many traditional flat lose weight workouts. This will Burn fat, and build muscle in all the right places.

But remember that no matter how good your workouts are they will do you no good if you do not do them consistently. You must do your workouts at least 3 to 4 times per week to achieve your goals. I know this is much easier said than done. But there are some tricks that can make working out much easier.

You must have a fat loss workout that you can do at home. There will always be times when you cannot go to a gym. Just by eliminating your drive time to the gym you'll be saving a lot of the time so you can work out at home.

For complete information on what diet aids help men lose weight and build muscle instead of flab I have created a seven day eCourse that will get you started at http://www.mensfitnessexercise.com/.

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Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains

Home  »  Weight Training Programs  »  Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains By Greg Hayes   |  Comments

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Bodyweight training offers many advantages over a "traditional" gym workout. While many of the classic weight training exercises are isolation motions (take the curl, for instance), bodyweight exercises are compound movements, thereby working many muscle groups simultaneously. Since balance is involved in these exercises, they also build fine muscle control, which makes for practical strength. The result is a stronger, more stable core, with greater overall body control. This reduces your risk of injury during daily activities. Additionally, bodyweight training can be done almost anywhere, which makes it friendly for frequent travelers and those on a tight budget.

And it's hard. The fact is, bodyweight training can build the foundation for huge strength gains. Lets go over 3 of the best body weight exercises you can start using right now to improve your strength.

The ability to lift one's bodyweight in the form of a classic pull-up is one of the most fundamental exercises for measuring and building strength. It's incorporation as one of the three exercises in the U.S. Marine Corp. fitness test is a testament to its value. Put it in your arsenal for big strength gains.

The classic pull-up is done by grasping a suspended bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder width apart. Starting from a hanging position, you attempt to lift yourself, such that your chin rises above the bar. At no time should you rest your chin on the bar. The move is completed by lowering your body back to a hanging position, with the arms fully extended. This completes one rep. In this exercise, the focal point is the latissimus dorsi, with biceps, shoulders, and secondary back muscles also coming into play.

You can bring other muscle groups to bear through a nearly infinite number of variations on the classic pull-up.

A few classic examples include: Widen your grip to bring greater focus to the lats.
Reverse your grip to a classic chin-up to provide an outstanding bicep workout.
Grasp a bar with palms facing together for a neutral grip pull-up, which will bring greater focus on the forearms.

The classic push-up is again, one of the most overlooked exercises in strength training. Yet, properly performed push-ups provide a chest workout to rival a bench workout for most guys. The classic push-up, when properly performed, brings most of the major muscles in the chest, shoulders, and triceps into play. Then there's the added challenge to the stabilizing core muscle groups, including the obliques and abs that are required to hold your body steady to properly execute a push-up.

Much like the pull-up, any number of variations on the classic push-up can be done to bring other related muscle groups into play. Here are a few examples:

1. Elevate your feet for an incline push-up. This works the anterior deltoids, chest, and triceps. For an added challenge to core stability, rest your hands on a stability ball.

2. Elevate your hands above your feet to execute a decline push-up. This brings your posterior deltoid and lower chest into focus. Up the challenge level by putting your feet on a stability ball, rather than a solid surface.

3. Move your hands together, positioning your fingers and thumbs touching, directly beneath your chest. This is the "triangle push-up," which brings even greater focus on the triceps.

Step-ups are performed by placing a step no taller than knee height, directly in front of you. Begin with your feet placed together, hands loosely at your sides, and simply step up on the platform. The motion is completed by bringing your other foot up to rest beside the first, and reversing the order to step back to the floor. Repeat the motion on the other side, starting with your other foot. This works quads, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as bringing agility into the equation.

Although it sounds simple, the difficulty rises dramatically with increasing step height and number of reps.

Because it works agility, strength, and builds cardio simultaneously, this seemingly simple exercise plays a large role in the training regimen for many professional athletes.

Common variations include: Hopping up on the step while keeping both feet together.
Placing multiple steps of the same height together and hopping between steps.
Placing multiple steps of staggered height together and hopping between steps.These exercises, with many other simple variations, can form the foundation in your quest to build muscle and strength. All too often, we make the decision to start getting shape, and think in terms of expensive gym membership and weights. However, particularly when you're just getting started, all of that may not be necessary. The judicious use of a well-chosen bodyweight training routine will often provide huge gains in strength, without the need for that expensive gym membership.

---------------

About the author: Greg Hayes is the author of Live Fit Blog, where he writes about healthy living, fitness, and balancing the demands of life.

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5 Bodyweight Training Exercises You Must Do

When designing a strength workout, you should aim for exercises that cause a great metabolic impact. This is because These exercises cause an increase in testosterone and growth hormone levels, and as a consequence they help you to build muscle and burn fat.

Among most effective exercises for strength and conditioning we can find bodyweight exercises. These are exercises performed exclusively with your own body weight, so they need little or none equipment at all. Bodyweight exercises have been the core training of olympic gymnastic athletes, being the base of their strength and power.

Looking at their physiques, you quickly realise how effective these exercises can be when properly added to a regular training program.

5 Best bodyweight exercises:

Squat: One of the most basic human movements. It strengthens your legs and core muscles. You can performed with both legs using a fast pace for conditioning or just with one leg for strength.

Splits: Probably one of the best exercises for conditioning and to strengthen your quadriceps, splits will help you to develop explosive power, muscle endurance and cardio conditioning, specially when performed like alternating split jumps.

Push Up: great for your core, chest, shoulders and arms, push ups are unrivaled to develop muscle endurance and core strength. If regular push ups are easy to you, you can always perform clapping push ups, handstand push ups, or one arm push ups to make it more difficult.

Dips: the best exercise for your chest and triceps, dips mimic real movement of getting on the top of an object. Perform it with a low pace to develop rock solid muscles.

Pull Up: one of the most, if not the most challenging bodyweight exercises, pull ups alone are almost sufficient to develop your upper body strength. They are great for your back, shoulders and biceps, and you can even involve your abdominal muscles if performed like L pull up.

How to add this exercises to your workout

You can add this exercises to your regular strength training or you can design specific workouts for them. Here it is a simple example on how to do that:

Bodyweight Workout:

3 Rounds of:

50 Squats

20 Push Ups

10 Pull Ups

5 Dips

Perform with little or no rest between sets and fast pace for conditioning, or equivalently with longer rest periods and lower pace for strength. Perform the first round as a warm-up set, and go harder for the rest of the rounds.

David is a fitness and nutrition researcher and passionate martial arts practitioner.

Visit my website about MMA Training. Where you will find the latest tips to burn fat and build muscle based on scientifically proven training methods.

Visit also some MMA workouts to build muscle and burn fat

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Weight Training - Right Exercises, Right Schedule

Weight training, or resistance training, is arguably one of the most effective forms of exercise regardless of your fitness goals. Used in combination with sensible diet and aerobic exercise, proper weight training can help you build lean muscle, lose unwanted fat or both.

Getting Started

If you're not sure where to start, below is a sample beginner's weight training schedule. At this stage in your development, it is only necessary to exercise each muscle group once per week. And to avoid "exercise fatigue", this program only has you lifting weights three days per week. Remember, your muscles don't grow when you're working out, only when they are recovering between workouts.

Identifying Your Correct Exercise Form

Included below are some common, and generally safe, weight training exercises for you to perform for each body part. As a weight training beginner, it might be advisable for you to perform these exercises on a machine rather than attempting to use "free weights" (dumbbells and barbells). This is assuming that you have access to such machines, such as through a gym membership or at your local high school. Arguably, free weights have numerous advantages over machines for the more advanced weight lifter. However, as you are building your strength and learning proper exercise form early in your weight training program, using machines at this stage in your development will make things easier and safer.

Weight training exercises are typically expressed in "sets" and "reps" (or repetitions). Reps refer to how many times you lift (or push or pull) the weight. A set refers to a group of repetitions. So, when you are to perform three (3) sets of 15 reps, you should raise and lower the weight 15 times and then rest for a few moments. Then repeat this cycle two more times.

Following a Sample Beginner's Weight Lifting Schedule

MONDAY - Chest and Triceps (back of upper arm)

Machine Bench Press: 3 sets of 8-10 repsMachine Triceps Pushdown: 3 sets of 10-12 reps

TUESDAY - Rest

WEDNESDAY - Back and Biceps (front of upper arm)

Machine Lat Pulldown: 3 sets of 10-12 repsMachine Curl (or Barbell Curl): 3 sets of 10-12 reps

THURSDAY- Rest<

FRIDAY - Thighs and Calves

Machine Leg Press: 3 sets of 8-10 repsMachine Calf Raise: 3 sets of 12-15 reps

SATURDAY / SUNDAY - Rest

Most advanced weight lifting programs recommend taking a set to failure, which means performing as many reps as possible in any given set. At this stage in your weight training development, it is not advised to go to this extreme. If the program above recommends 8-10 reps for an exercise, the muscle being worked should feel very tired by the 10th rep, but not completely exhausted.

Use this guideline to select the correct weight for each exercise. If at the end of the last recommended rep you feel as though you could still do several more reps, add a few pounds. Conversely, if your muscles become too fatigued to finish the last recommended rep, remove a few pounds.

In all, stick with the above beginner's weight training program for two weeks. If done faithfully, along with proper diet, you will notice significant improvements in your strength and possibly your weight.

Until the next article...."Be Your Best"

Want to get fit quick? Head on over to Men-N-Fitness and get a free 7 day training guide.

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Weight Training and Self Esteem

Weight training can build a persons self esteem dramatically. Once you start seeing the results you will start to feel better about yourself. You will find yourself not just looking in the mirror but admiring what you see there. The more you see improvement, the better that you will feel about yourself. And that's not all just because of the muscle that you are seeing.

A big thing with weight training is that you have set goals for yourself, that you know you have to work for. There is nothing easy about exercise, diet, or weight training. You have to work for what you want, but trust me, it's well worth it. At one point in time, my goal was to be able to bench press 300 pounds. You can only imagine the feeling I had inside once I reached that goal. Now I'm shooting for more. Each time I reach a goal, my confidence grows. Everyday, I know that I am improving myself, and everyday, I feel better about myself.

Another way that weight training and fitness improves your self esteem is the attention. Once you start improving your physique, you will notice that you will be getting more attention. People who normally wouldn't have talked to you in the past will come start the conversation with you. The more you improve, the more attention you will get. You will start getting alot of compliments and that alone will start to build your self esteem. The added attention and compliments help to build your confidence and make you feel better about the way that you look.

Now this is a process and doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and effort. You have to want it, and want it bad. It's not going to be given to you. If you want to feel better about yourself, then exercise, fitness and weight training can help you do that. There are some free advice sites out there that will help you get the body that you have always wanted. But again I say "help" you get there. It will not be given to you, it will take a lot of work, but, it is well worth it. The choice is yours, and only yours, to make. Are you tired of looking down on yourself because of the way that you look? Well, do something about it. It's your decision, you have to take the first step. So let's get started.

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Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains

Home  »  Weight Training Programs  »  Bodyweight Training For Huge Strength Gains By Greg Hayes   |  Comments

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Bodyweight training offers many advantages over a "traditional" gym workout. While many of the classic weight training exercises are isolation motions (take the curl, for instance), bodyweight exercises are compound movements, thereby working many muscle groups simultaneously. Since balance is involved in these exercises, they also build fine muscle control, which makes for practical strength. The result is a stronger, more stable core, with greater overall body control. This reduces your risk of injury during daily activities. Additionally, bodyweight training can be done almost anywhere, which makes it friendly for frequent travelers and those on a tight budget.

And it's hard. The fact is, bodyweight training can build the foundation for huge strength gains. Lets go over 3 of the best body weight exercises you can start using right now to improve your strength.

The ability to lift one's bodyweight in the form of a classic pull-up is one of the most fundamental exercises for measuring and building strength. It's incorporation as one of the three exercises in the U.S. Marine Corp. fitness test is a testament to its value. Put it in your arsenal for big strength gains.

The classic pull-up is done by grasping a suspended bar with an overhand grip, hands shoulder width apart. Starting from a hanging position, you attempt to lift yourself, such that your chin rises above the bar. At no time should you rest your chin on the bar. The move is completed by lowering your body back to a hanging position, with the arms fully extended. This completes one rep. In this exercise, the focal point is the latissimus dorsi, with biceps, shoulders, and secondary back muscles also coming into play.

You can bring other muscle groups to bear through a nearly infinite number of variations on the classic pull-up.

A few classic examples include: Widen your grip to bring greater focus to the lats.
Reverse your grip to a classic chin-up to provide an outstanding bicep workout.
Grasp a bar with palms facing together for a neutral grip pull-up, which will bring greater focus on the forearms.

The classic push-up is again, one of the most overlooked exercises in strength training. Yet, properly performed push-ups provide a chest workout to rival a bench workout for most guys. The classic push-up, when properly performed, brings most of the major muscles in the chest, shoulders, and triceps into play. Then there's the added challenge to the stabilizing core muscle groups, including the obliques and abs that are required to hold your body steady to properly execute a push-up.

Much like the pull-up, any number of variations on the classic push-up can be done to bring other related muscle groups into play. Here are a few examples:

1. Elevate your feet for an incline push-up. This works the anterior deltoids, chest, and triceps. For an added challenge to core stability, rest your hands on a stability ball.

2. Elevate your hands above your feet to execute a decline push-up. This brings your posterior deltoid and lower chest into focus. Up the challenge level by putting your feet on a stability ball, rather than a solid surface.

3. Move your hands together, positioning your fingers and thumbs touching, directly beneath your chest. This is the "triangle push-up," which brings even greater focus on the triceps.

Step-ups are performed by placing a step no taller than knee height, directly in front of you. Begin with your feet placed together, hands loosely at your sides, and simply step up on the platform. The motion is completed by bringing your other foot up to rest beside the first, and reversing the order to step back to the floor. Repeat the motion on the other side, starting with your other foot. This works quads, hamstrings, and glutes, as well as bringing agility into the equation.

Although it sounds simple, the difficulty rises dramatically with increasing step height and number of reps.

Because it works agility, strength, and builds cardio simultaneously, this seemingly simple exercise plays a large role in the training regimen for many professional athletes.

Common variations include: Hopping up on the step while keeping both feet together.
Placing multiple steps of the same height together and hopping between steps.
Placing multiple steps of staggered height together and hopping between steps.These exercises, with many other simple variations, can form the foundation in your quest to build muscle and strength. All too often, we make the decision to start getting shape, and think in terms of expensive gym membership and weights. However, particularly when you're just getting started, all of that may not be necessary. The judicious use of a well-chosen bodyweight training routine will often provide huge gains in strength, without the need for that expensive gym membership.

---------------

About the author: Greg Hayes is the author of Live Fit Blog, where he writes about healthy living, fitness, and balancing the demands of life.

Related Articles:

View the original article here

Weight Training Programs For Building Muscle

 Well thought-out weight training programs are extremely important to anyone wanting to gain weight and build lean muscle mass. You can't just go into the gym and start tossing around weights with no real plan and expect to see results. Yet this is what 85% of people do when they walk into a gym. No plan = No results.
Right now, I'm going to show you the fundamentals of putting together a solid weight lifting program that forces your body to increase your muscle size and strength. No more wasting hours in the gym with little to no results to show for it. So lets get down to business...
I want to start off by reminding you that although weight training programs are important to your success, it's only one piece of the puzzle. There are other factors that are equally important to gaining weight and muscle mass. Following a proper weight gain diet, and getting enough rest are the other 2 key components that will bring you results.
Most beginners make the mistake of putting all their time and focus into their weight training, but then they completely blow their diet and they don't rest properly. This simply leads to overtraining, and a lack of nutrients for your muscles to grow. It's a complete waste, so don't be "that guy."
Here's what we'll cover in this section:
In order to fully understand what you're doing in the gym it's important to understand WHY your muscles grow.

When you lift heavy weights and train to failure (to the point where you can no longer complete another rep) you are actually creating micro-tears in your muscle fibers. In other words you are breaking down your muscle fibers and inflicting damage to them. This is the first step to bigger, larger muscles.


When you leave the gym and feed your body the nutrients it needs (through the correct weight gain diet) your body will begin to repair the damaged muscle fibers and build them back up bigger and stronger than before to protect itself against future damage. This is called muscle hypertrophy. A fancy way to say muscle growth.
There are 2 main types of weight training exercises you can do in the gym: Compound Exercises: These are exercises that use multi-joint movements. These movements are responsible for the majority of muscle and strength increases. Examples include squats, deadlifts, bench press, etc.
Isolation Exercises: These are exercises that use single-joint movements. Examples include leg extensions, bicep curls, and dumbbell lateral raises.If you want to build the most muscle possible you need to stimulate as much muscle fiber as you possibly can. Therefore you need to focus on compound exercises.
For example, when you're doing a bench press, you're not only working your pecs (chest muscles) you're also working your deltoids, triceps, forearms, and lats. That's the power of using compound exercises.
The core mass-building exercises you'll want to focus on that will stimulate the most muscle growth all over your body are:
Notice that none of the exercises involve any fancy machines or involve any complicated movements. You don't need to be a professional bodybuilder to figure these out. (Although these are the main exercises professional bodybuilders use anyway to pack on so much muscle weight.)
Everything you do in the gym should revolve around this law of intensity and progression. First let me define these 2 phrases for you: Intensity: The amount of effort your muscles exert on each set of any given exercise
Progression: Consistently increasing the amount of weight lifted or the number of reps performed on each exerciseYour primary goal when you walk into the gym is to go above and beyond your last workout. Simply put, you need to lift more weight or perform more reps than you did the week before. Otherwise you will not grow.
Is that straightforward enough? This is why it's important that you carry a workout log into the gym with you. You need to know how much weight you lifted the week before, and how many reps you did, so you know what your goal is this week. You'll know how many reps you need to do and how much weight you need to lift in order to grow.
I can always spot the novice in the gym. He's the one walking around from exercise to exercise throwing weights around and not writing anything down. Guess what he'll be doing next week? The exact same thing. Guess how much he'll weigh? The exact same. And he'll wonder why. It's because he's not progressively overloading his muscles from week to week. Every time he goes into the gym his muscles are laughing at him saying, "Haha, we just did this same thing last week. Looks like we don't need to grow."
Get my point?
There is a lot of debate over how many sets and reps will stimulate the maximum muscle growth. But I'll present you with the most widely accepted guidelines, and the number of sets and reps I personally use that have gotten me great results.
Below are the guidelines to keep in mind:

As you can see, the most efficient range of reps to perform for muscle size is 7–12 reps. But that doesn't mean you should train solely in this rep range and ignore the others. The only rep range I completely ignore is the Endurance rep range of 13 plus. I could care less about endurance. What I care about is muscle size and strength.
As you already know, in order to build muscle you must consistently lift more weight or perform more reps than your last workout. We already discussed this when we talked about intensity and progression. The only way to do this is if you get stronger from week to week. Therefore, I personally train within the rep range of 2 – 10 in order to promote both strength and size gains.
This brings us to the next question...
"How many sets should I do to build muscle?"
It will differ for each exercise depending on what muscle groups you are training. Your larger muscles may respond better to 4 sets while some of your smaller muscle groups like your biceps may only require 2 sets.
An example weight gain workout for bench press might look something like this:
Now we come to the easiest, yet the most overlooked and underestimated part of weight and muscle gain. Getting plenty of rest.
Remember, all you are doing when you're in the gym is breaking your muscles down. You're muscles grow when you are out of the gym eating and resting.
So it's important that you get at least 8 hours of quality sleep each night in order to allow your muscles time to repair and grow larger. If you find yourself getting 5 – 6 hours of sleep a night like most people, you need to kick that habit.
I was one of those people. Personally, I'm a "night person" and I find that's when I have the most energy for some reason. So I find it helpful if I get into bed and start reading something for a half hour before I need to get to sleep. I'm usually passed out within 15 minutes.
Sleep deprivation has a negative effect on 4 of the most powerful hormones which play a key role in building muscle. Testosterone, cortisol, growth hormone, and insulin.
We don't have room to go into detail about all these hormones here, but just know that you're really setting yourself back if you're not getting enough rest.
When it comes to your weight training program, less is more. Each muscle group should be trained only once per week. This is to allow for the important recovery and growth period we just talked about.
Training 6 days per week may sound like a good idea because you're really "blasting your muscles" right? WRONG. You're breaking them down and not allowing them to recover. This is called overtraining.
In my opinion, (and many other experts) the optimal weight training frequency is 3 times per week. A 3-day training split will allow you to train certain muscle groups on the same day then give them a full week to recover.
Here is a good 3 day training split that I use to make sure I'm only hitting each muscle group once per week: Day 1: Back, biceps
Day 2: Chest, shoulders, triceps
Day 3: LegsKeep all these principals in mind when you're putting together your own weight training program. Know what your goal is when you get into the gym. To break down your muscles. Get in and out as quick as you can so you can get home to eat and rest. Follow these guidelines and you'll walk back into the gym next week bigger and stronger than ever before.

If you're serious about gaining weight and building muscle mass you should take a look at the weight training program I used to pack on 38 pounds of muscle in just 19 weeks: Weight Training Program For Skinny Guys.
All Weight Training Program Articles:

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