Intro

I've been athletic all of my life and am currently a D1 Rower. Nothing else besides straight up pumping iron or power-lifting will build you the big dude muscular physique. I mostly do cardio these days but was a competitive power lifer from age 18-23. Below ill outline some of the training in which I found to be most effective and some of the principles regarding lifting that I believe to be true.

Principles

  1. Form over fashion always. Technique flaws will create many halts in your progress.
  2. Lifting in an upper lower split 4 days a week is extremely effective for drug free lifters.
  3. Easy hour long steady state cardio sessions (heart rate between 150-160) three days a week will drastically improve your ability to recover by keeping that blood flowing and moving that lactic acid out of your muscles.
  4. You may have to eat an uncomfortable amount of food in order to gain strength. If your lifts are stalling and it isn't a blatant technique flaw its likely that your just not eating enough.
  5. Always have "staple" exercises. These are the exercises that you always want to be improving. Everything else is effectively called an "accessory" movement. My staple exercises are the Squat, Deadlift, Bench Press, Weighted Pull-up and Overhead Press.
  6. Don't major in the minors IE don't focus too much on your accessory exercises. The purpose of your accessory exercises are to improve the weak points of your "staple" exercises and thus should change accordingly. Weak glutes? More glute extensions. Weak chest? More pause presses.
  7. Pre workout? I get tired in the afternoons too despite proper dieting. I use 50-100mg of caffeine before my strength workouts. I take 100mg at 430 and its out by 8pm.
  8. Regarding Crossfit. I know I'll get tons of flak for this, if you want to do crossfit so be it. I personally believe that crossfit offers nothing other than a (sometimes) excellent community of people to lift with. However if I had the choice of lifting at a crossfit gym or a real deal bodybuilding/power lifting gym I would much rather lift there.

The Routine

I have three favorite routines that I typically run long term (unless I was doing a peaking cycle or something for a contest).

  1. Johnny Candito's Linear Program- Awesome linear progression program for beginners or those getting back into weightlifting again after an absence. Guaranteed fast gains.
  2. Johnny Candito's 6 Week Program- Periodization program spread over 6 weeks that has a built in mini peaking session in order for you to test a new 1 Rep max, adjust weights accordingly and then run the program again.
  3. GZCL Jacked and Tan 2.0- Awesome Power building program. If I was stuck in a rut this was my go to program. It's so much fucking volume that its impossible for your body not to adapt. You will gain some excellent strength and size through this program. It also has built in peaking for you to test your 1RM. I have a blast running this program because I know it's time to get my pump on and eat a shit ton of food. This program also has an excellent app (available for $1 on android only) that you can use to craft and track your workouts accordingly. The app is called Zero to Hero.

The Most Important Aspect of Training

Unlike just about everything else in this world your gains can never be taken away by anyone. You could loose all of your money, your wife could divorce you or could fuck up at work but none of that will take away your gains. Their yours to keep and to always remind you of your hard work and dedication.

You would be surprised what kind of shit weightlifting can get you through.