So You Want to be a Natural Bodybuilder

[edurne]

Here I want to post an interesting article written by Frankie NY (The complete article can be found under: www . 5x5workout.de.vu/2_rules):


About two or three times a month someone comes in my office at the gym and tells me that he wants to become a bodybuilder and asks me what to do. So many people have come in with this question over the years that I have a poster behind me on the wall with this advice.

These guidelines and all my advice applies only to NATURAL bodybuilders, not steroid users.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A NATURAL BODYBUILDER

1. You have to want to be bodybuilder for yourself. If you want to do it to impress others, you'll never make it. You'll lose motivation because what impresses people changes everyday.

2. You need to train like a powerlifter for atleast four years and pack on about 40 pounds of muscle before you can even think of bodybuilding exercises and techniques. Don't ask me about them until you've done this!
For those of you that question the need for heavy lifting early in your career:
Look, bodybuilding is just like building a house. You must start with a solid foundation. The heavy weight training at the beginning of your career is needed to build the core strength of your muscles, tendons and ligaments. I call it "powerlifting" but it's not that you're necessarily going to be doing singles and triples or entering powerliftin meets, but you are going to be doing lower reps because that's how you get strong and pack on the meat.
Guys that don't do the heavy lifting early in their careers are more prone to injury, especially the lower back. Most importantly, when you look at a stage full of bodybuilders, you can tell who never trained heavy and just did high-rep, isolation movements with steroids. They have no lower back development. The muscles tissue that runs along the spine from the lower back to the neck is less developed. Their legs aren't as big. Their shoulders aren't as big because they only way you get cannonballs is from doing heavy overhead presses for years and years. And in general they just aren't as thick.
The main reason that guys don't want to lift the heavy weights is because it's ****ing hard work.
3. Build your routine around the major movements like squats, bench press, deadlifts, military press, cleans, snatches, barbell rows, chins, dips, and barbell curls.

4. The most common injury in bodybuilding is the lower back. You MUST strengthen your lower back through deadlifts, squats, and good mornings. You don't get back injuries from training it, you get them from not training it. Don't make this mistake. It could end your bodybuilding career.

5. Train no more than 4 days a week. If you train at maximum intensity, you won't be able to train more than 3 days a week. And intensity is what builds muscle.
For the NATURAL (not steroid user) beginner, intermediate, and advanced bodybuilder who is bulking (looking to add mass) I recommend training only 3 days per week. I've seen how much volume and frequency generates the most mass across hundreds of guys, and 3 days is the optimum, except in extremely rare cases. In a cutting cycle, I recommend that the NATURAL bodybuilder increase his training to 4 days a week.
6. Keep the weightlifting portion of your workouts to 60 minutes or less. Warm-up and stretching are not included in this time.

7. Do no more than 2 exercises per bodypart, 3 to 5 sets per exercise, and keep your reps between 4 and 6.

8. See me for specific programs. Stay on the program I give you for 12 weeks. Don't change it in any way. After the 12-week program, take a week off from the gym completely and then see me for a new program.

9. Rest and sleep as much as possible when you're out of the gym.

10. Don't read any bodybuilding magazines or buy bodybuilding books. Almost all of them are complete garbage and will give you very bad advice. Don't show me articles or routines from these magazines unless you really want to piss me off.

11. Eat a balanced diet and use a whey protein supplement and multivitamin. You don't need creatine, andro, DHEA or any of that other stuff. The only thing that makes you grow is training hard.
I have my doubts as to creatine's effectiveness, despite what all the "studies" say. Creatine is harmless if you want to take it, but I can think of better ways to spend your money - top sirloin steak, flank steak, fish, etc.
12. Don't use drugs. You'll never learn how to properly train.

[accuchek]

Good advice there needs to be more deadlifting and less curling in the gyms today.

[SuffolkPunch]

Pretty good advice.

By the way, creatine monohydrate is as cheap as hell and is one of the few things clinically proven to make a difference....

[chrisboudreaux]

Pretty good advice.

By the way, creatine monohydrate is as cheap as hell and is one of the few things clinically proven to make a difference....

agreed

[Jhemre]

Nice read, repped...

[ThickAsABrick]

2. You need to train like a powerlifter for atleast four years and pack on about 40 pounds of muscle before you can even think of bodybuilding exercises and techniques.

lol

[ThickAsABrick]

5. Train no more than 4 days a week. If you train at maximum intensity, you won't be able to train more than 3 days a week.

lol

[ThickAsABrick]

7. Do no more than 2 exercises per bodypart, 3 to 5 sets per exercise, and keep your reps between 4 and 6.

lol

[NZninja101]

Interesting read, but I think it might be going a bit far to say that somebody should pack on 40 pounds of muscle by training like a powerlifter before considering bodybuilding techniques and exercises, (I'm guessing you mean stuff like super sets, drop sets, pre-exhausting techniques, cable and machine exercises etc), considering that 40 pounds is probably almost if not all of the mass that a natural trainer is capable of packing on naturally.


http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/mus...potential.html

[NZninja101]

Also, everything that TAAB just said.

[geoffstgermaine]

What are the author's credentials? As best I could tell the site this came from has this pulled from some other source anyway, some Frankie NY. Has this guy trained natural bodybuilding competitors?

Anyway, a lot of the stuff in the post is ridiculous, as highlighted by TAAB. Some of the advice is good, but when you mix it in with bad stuff the total content becomes almost worthless.

[edurne]

Franky NY has trained Bodybuilders and Football Players.

[geoffstgermaine]

That's quite the resumé.

[edurne]

Yes I found the article quite interesting and a good guide as to what is important.

[SuffolkPunch]

I like this method and would probably do something similar if training a newbie. Although it's important to remember this is not the ONLY way to train, especially if your goal is aesthetics.

Concentrating on strength is a good way to bypass the problems lots of beginners have with high volume bodybuilding splits - where they basically use too little weight in order to get through all the volume required and make very little progress.

http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=139911893

[ThomasJackson70]

Good article, thanks.

[davidWolf70]

I also agree, good advice

[ThickAsABrick]

lulz at the obvious trolling.

at least change your age so all your accounts don't say you're 41.

thanks for confirming what was obvious from the start for many of us - you've got an agenda. the anti-bodybuilding types usually do.

[ironwill2008]

Here I want to post an interesting article written by Frankie NY (The complete article can be found under: www . 5x5workout.de.vu/2_rules):


About two or three times a month someone comes in my office at the gym and tells me that he wants to become a bodybuilder and asks me what to do. So many people have come in with this question over the years that I have a poster behind me on the wall with this advice.

These guidelines and all my advice applies only to NATURAL bodybuilders, not steroid users.

SO YOU WANT TO BE A NATURAL BODYBUILDER

1. You have to want to be bodybuilder for yourself. If you want to do it to impress others, you'll never make it. You'll lose motivation because what impresses people changes everyday.

2. You need to train like a powerlifter for atleast four years and pack on about 40 pounds of muscle before you can even think of bodybuilding exercises and techniques. Don't ask me about them until you've done this!
For those of you that question the need for heavy lifting early in your career:
Look, bodybuilding is just like building a house. You must start with a solid foundation. The heavy weight training at the beginning of your career is needed to build the core strength of your muscles, tendons and ligaments. I call it "powerlifting" but it's not that you're necessarily going to be doing singles and triples or entering powerliftin meets, but you are going to be doing lower reps because that's how you get strong and pack on the meat.
Guys that don't do the heavy lifting early in their careers are more prone to injury, especially the lower back. Most importantly, when you look at a stage full of bodybuilders, you can tell who never trained heavy and just did high-rep, isolation movements with steroids. They have no lower back development. The muscles tissue that runs along the spine from the lower back to the neck is less developed. Their legs aren't as big. Their shoulders aren't as big because they only way you get cannonballs is from doing heavy overhead presses for years and years. And in general they just aren't as thick.
The main reason that guys don't want to lift the heavy weights is because it's ****ing hard work.
3. Build your routine around the major movements like squats, bench press, deadlifts, military press, cleans, snatches, barbell rows, chins, dips, and barbell curls.

4. The most common injury in bodybuilding is the lower back. You MUST strengthen your lower back through deadlifts, squats, and good mornings. You don't get back injuries from training it, you get them from not training it. Don't make this mistake. It could end your bodybuilding career.

5. Train no more than 4 days a week. If you train at maximum intensity, you won't be able to train more than 3 days a week. And intensity is what builds muscle.
For the NATURAL (not steroid user) beginner, intermediate, and advanced bodybuilder who is bulking (looking to add mass) I recommend training only 3 days per week. I've seen how much volume and frequency generates the most mass across hundreds of guys, and 3 days is the optimum, except in extremely rare cases. In a cutting cycle, I recommend that the NATURAL bodybuilder increase his training to 4 days a week.
6. Keep the weightlifting portion of your workouts to 60 minutes or less. Warm-up and stretching are not included in this time.

7. Do no more than 2 exercises per bodypart, 3 to 5 sets per exercise, and keep your reps between 4 and 6.

8. See me for specific programs. Stay on the program I give you for 12 weeks. Don't change it in any way. After the 12-week program, take a week off from the gym completely and then see me for a new program.

9. Rest and sleep as much as possible when you're out of the gym.

10. Don't read any bodybuilding magazines or buy bodybuilding books. Almost all of them are complete garbage and will give you very bad advice. Don't show me articles or routines from these magazines unless you really want to piss me off.

11. Eat a balanced diet and use a whey protein supplement and multivitamin. You don't need creatine, andro, DHEA or any of that other stuff. The only thing that makes you grow is training hard.
I have my doubts as to creatine's effectiveness, despite what all the "studies" say. Creatine is harmless if you want to take it, but I can think of better ways to spend your money - top sirloin steak, flank steak, fish, etc.
12. Don't use drugs. You'll never learn how to properly train.

Lots of Bullsh*t in this "article."

[Orlando1234977]

About two or three times a month someone comes in my office at the gym and tells me that he wants to become a bodybuilder and asks me what to do. So many people have come in with this question over the years that I have a poster behind me on the wall with this advice.

Frankie should put this giant poster on the door. Then people would have the answers without even having to ask and have Frankie turn around and point people to it.

Also, I'm glad the trolls were pointed out before this became a WP sticky masterpiece.

[ironwill2008]

I think Frankie is the one with the necktie

[SumDumGoi]

Frankie should put this giant poster on the door. Then people would have the answers without even having to ask and have Frankie turn around and point people to it.

Also, I'm glad the trolls were pointed out before this became a WP sticky masterpiece.

I was about to say something similar. Does anybody ever leave this guys office if that is posted behind his desk?

[edurne]

I have nothing to do with those people. In my opinion the post is good advice.

[Bummbullian]

Lots of Bullsh*t in this "article."

Just wondering, what are the bullsht in this article? I'm new, just want to gain more knowledge. Thanks

[bmontgomery87]

Good advice there needs to be more deadlifting and less curling in the gyms today.

agreed

[ironwill2008]

Just wondering, what are the bullsht in this article? I'm new, just want to gain more knowledge. Thanks

It's already been covered. Re-read posts 6,7,8, and of course, 18.

[edurne]

ThickAsaBrick thinks this is bull****:

2. You need to train like a powerlifter for atleast four years and pack on about 40 pounds of muscle before you can even think of bodybuilding exercises and techniques.
5. Train no more than 4 days a week. If you train at maximum intensity, you won't be able to train more than 3 days a week.
7. Do no more than 2 exercises per bodypart, 3 to 5 sets per exercise, and keep your reps between 4 and 6.

But in my view those are good advice and no bull****. To become more muscle you make good in getting strong in exercises like Deadlifts, Rows, Chins, Bench Press, Shoulder Presses, Dips and Squats, ...
If you get strong in those execrcises, you will set a good foundation in become muscles.

How many days a week? Here I again must agree with Frankie: I've seen the best results with natural bodybuilders in a bulking phase on 3 days a week, training each exercise once a week. I know almost every program in the magazines you guys read will say 4 days a week, training each muscle twice a week, but my experience with hundreds of guys is that guys that train 4 days a week never make the same gains as the ones that train 3 days a week. If you train a muscle hard enough, you just can't recover in less than 6-7 days. Just because the soreness is gone doesn't mean that the muscle is recovered. 4 and 5 day splits are fine for cutting phases but not for bulking.