Let's talk - Natural Mr Olympia gives advice

[Natural_O]

This week on my Bodybuilding Legends Podcast, I welcome 1982 Mr. Olympia Chris Dickerson as my guest. Chris talks about competing in the NABBA Mr. Universe contest in London. Chris won the 1973 NABBA Mr. Universe overall and the Professional division at the 1974 NABBA Mr. Universe. Chris also talks about competing against Franco Columbu, Frank Zane and Tom Platz, working with his coach Bill Pearl to prepare for the Mr. Olympia and the importance of developing a great posing routine for competition. Subscribe to the Bodybuilding Legends Podcast on iTunes or listen to the episode here - http://bodybuildinglegendsshow.com/t...ris-dickerson/

[ManefZ]

Hi John,

I would like to know your opinion on the novice routines that are in the stickies of bb.com such as ICF 5X5,Starting strentgh etc. When I say your opinion it's criticism about volume, progression, exercise selection, etc.

Also, what do you think is ideal weekly volume for each body part.

Thanks!

[Natural_O]

Hi John,

I would like to know your opinion on the novice routines that are in the stickies of bb.com such as ICF 5X5,Starting strentgh etc. When I say your opinion it's criticism about volume, progression, exercise selection, etc.

Also, what do you think is ideal weekly volume for each body part.

Thanks!

I think the more intensity you are using, the less volume you need overall. Novice trainers are still building up their strength and size so they can usually train more often. A beginner who is only doing one exercise per bodypart can train those muscle groups 3x a week. When you start adding more exercises and doing more sets per bodypart, you need more recuperation. When I was 20-21 years old, I was training each muscle group twice a week using a four day split (Chest, Delts, Triceps and Calves on Mon and Thurs and Abs, Legs, Back and Biceps on Tuesday and Sat). For advanced bodybuilders, I would recommend about 10-12 total sets for the bigger muscle groups like chest, back, legs and even delts and only 6-8 total sets for smaller muscle groups like biceps, triceps, calves and abs. For example, a typical chest routine would be 3-4 sets (after warm-ups) of bench press, 3 sets of incline dumbbell press and 3 sets of dumbbell flyes. That would be a total of 10 sets. For back, I might do 3 sets of wide-grip chins, 4 sets of barbell rows, 3 sets of seated cable rows and 3 sets of deadlifts which would be a total of 13 sets. If you are training heavy (6-8 reps per set) and training hard (training to failure each work set), you won't need more sets than that.

[abhijeetchandak]

I know when I was a kid and I started lifting at 13-14 years old, it took quite a few years before I started getting bigger. I was much bigger at 20-21 years old than I was when I was a teen. Most of us have very fast metabolisms when we are younger which makes it harder to gain muscle mass

[yu7250]

I used to gym a lot (just for fun), and now trying to get back at it. Nothing to crazy to start, but do you guys have the best routine / workout splits on how to get things rolling? Haven't been back at the gym for 6 months, used to bench press 300lb / 1rep around 1 year ago. Any advice is appreciated!

[SammyWills]

Interesting