Training program for gaining muscle mass: basic elements

What exercises are considered basic in the gym? Why are universal training programs not suitable for everyone? The fitness methodologist answers.

We are used to seeing men on banquettes doing chest presses, or girls doing squats in front of a mirror. These exercises seem to be inseparably linked with the concept of a beautiful figure, but sometimes they bring results completely opposite to what we want.

Sergey Yugay

fitness methodologist, head of the “Sports Russia” project

It's not enough to just lift weights, it's not enough to just take the basic stereotypes. There is no program that is universal for everyone.

Basic exercises[edit | edit code]

Basic exercises

Basic exercises

- this is a type of exercise that involves several muscles or muscle groups; several joints can be involved at once. Typically, these are heavy exercises that are performed with free weights.

Classic basic exercises

• Bench press
• Deadlift
• Squats

Examples of exercises that are also basic:

• Pull-ups
• Bent-over barbell row
• Army press
• Dips
• Lunges

In fitness, the following exercises are considered basic:

• for the deltoid muscles - standing barbell press from the chest, push press, standing barbell or dumbbell row to the chin;
• for biceps and triceps - strength training on the horizontal bar or rings;
• for the back - barbell rows with slightly bent legs (Romanian deadlifts), barbell rows tilted to the waist, lifting a projectile from the floor to the chest, pull-ups on the horizontal bar;
• for legs and buttocks - platform press, hack squat, all variations of “lunges”, deadlifts, “glute bridge”;
• for the abs - full twisting with the body raised, toes raised to the bar while hanging and the “dragon flag”;
• for the chest and triceps - in addition to the bench press in all variants of push-ups from gymnastic loops or rings, push-ups with weights and in “depth” (on supports)

Basic exercises are considered the most effective for muscle growth and increasing strength. Beginners are recommended to build their training program exclusively from basic exercises. Experienced athletes are also not recommended to include more than 20-30% isolation exercises in their program.

In each workout, basic movements must be adequately combined. The principles of creating an optimal program are described in detail in the article Muscle balance and the basics of training

Starting your workout

If you want to learn in more detail how to warm up for the back, and also consider practical tips, you can read an article about this on our portal.

To avoid serious injuries, all exercises for the spine and back are recommended to be performed under the supervision of a specialist. As a last resort, such control is needed only for the first time, and then gymnastics can be done at home. As a rule, therapeutic exercises activate only the rhomboids and latissimus dorsi muscles, but this is enough, because only these two muscles are responsible for supporting the body in an upright position.

Warm-up

All exercises, regardless of the area being trained or level of preparation, should begin with a warm-up. Only if the muscles are well warmed up can injuries be avoided. To do this, it is enough to allocate 5-10 minutes of time. Starting position for warming up: stand straight, place your feet shoulder-width apart.

A set of stretching exercises

Each warm-up element must be performed at least 5 times:

• standing straight, alternately bend forward, backward, right and left. All movements must be smooth;
• rotate your shoulders first forward, and then change direction;
• Raise your shoulders up as much as possible and, fixing them at the top point for 1-2 seconds, slowly lower them;
• straighten your right arm in front of you, and your left arm behind you. Swing your arms back and forth;
• place your hands on your waist and rotate your hips, first clockwise and then counterclockwise;
• keeping your legs straight, lean forward and try to touch the surface of the floor with your fingers;

  
  If bending forward with your legs straight leads to pain under one of your sit bones, you may have injured the tendon.

• Raise your hands and take a deep breath. Then slowly lower your arms while exhaling.

It is advisable to repeat the entire warm-up complex again in order to properly warm up the muscles. Many experts recommend performing the “running in place” exercise during warm-up. Only after this can you begin the main training.

Running in place

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Set of exercises

For therapeutic exercises, you will need a foam mattress used during yoga classes or a soft carpet. As with the warm-up, it is recommended to perform these exercises at least 5 times. Training duration is 20-30 minutes. This is enough to fully work out all the muscle groups of the back. Below are step-by-step instructions, following which you can strengthen your back muscles and spine.

Table. Therapeutic exercises for the back at home.

The effect of basic exercises on testosterone levels[edit | edit code]

Source

: Strength training and testosterone

The above article discusses the effect of physical exercise in various variations on increasing hormone levels, including testosterone. It contains a very large number of references to research, which allows you to verify the reliability of the information.

General conclusions from the above article regarding the differences between exercises in increasing testosterone levels:

1. Data on the effect of physical exercise on testosterone secretion are very contradictory.
2. Most of the percentage increase in testosterone levels is due to changes in blood plasma volume (hemoconcentration).
3. The increase in testosterone levels has little to do with the type of exercise and depends mainly on the intensity and volume of the workout.
4. Training volume has a greater impact on testosterone levels, even when intensity is reduced.
5. As such, the increase in testosterone levels resulting from exercise is small and short-lived.
6. Long-term changes in testosterone occur the morning after exercise and therefore depend on the outcome of the entire workout, not individual exercises.

In addition to the above, it should be noted that abandoning a complex exercise, such as a deadlift, or replacing it with a simpler one, allows you to achieve greater intensity and volume in the remaining exercises, thus, the resulting increase in testosterone levels will not change.

All these facts allow us to conclude that the importance of exercises such as squats and deadlifts is greatly overestimated. Choosing exercises based on their effect on testosterone levels does not make sense.

You should also reconsider the conclusions of the following text from the journal Iron World 2013 No. 12.

Squats

Girls come to the gym for a beautiful butt and slender legs. Squats for girls are a very powerful stereotype. Actually, this exercise is designed to train the hips and quadriceps.

Photo: istockphoto.com

The buttocks are activated only at the lowest point of the amplitude. As a result, you get powerful legs, but your butt never grows. And if you are also genetically inclined to have your legs greatly increase in volume, squats should be completely excluded from the training plan.

Replacement:

exercises aimed strictly at working the buttocks, such as leg swings or glute bridges.

Training should be based primarily on your body, its strengths and weaknesses, on sensations, and not on stereotypes and generally accepted trends. Then the result will not take long to arrive.

Base or insulation[edit | edit code]

BASIC exercises: how to do it CORRECTLY?

Source

: Iron World 2013 No. 12

Even the most notorious neophyte knows that basic exercises are the basis for building a bodybuilder’s training program. When asked why basic exercises are better than isolating exercises, you can usually hear the answer that several muscle groups are involved in the basic exercise, due to which you can lift more weight than in an isolating exercise, which means that the trained muscle receives more training stress; In addition, major changes occur in metabolism. More advanced people answer that when performing basic exercises, a greater release of anabolic hormones occurs. Both opinions equally accurately reflect the essence of the processes occurring in the body under the influence of complex multi-joint exercises.

Base and endogenous hormones[edit | edit code]

Read the main article:

Strength training and testosterone

It has been known for a long time that physical activity causes a hormonal response. Studies have found that one of the main factors contributing to this is the intensity and duration of exercise. That is, not every load causes a hormonal response. In addition, the influence of these factors is modulated by emotional stress. It is assumed that the connection between physical exercise and the activity of the endocrine system is due to the spread of nervous excitation from the motor centers of the brain to the motor neurons of the spinal cord - the so-called. central motor command.

A “stronger” central motor command is associated with greater changes in catecholamines, growth hormone, testosterone and adrenocorticotropic hormone during exercise. The more weight we use in an exercise, the more intense the load and the stronger the central motor command that initiates the hormonal response. However, in parallel with the intensity, the second factor must be observed - the duration of the load. Thus, when using two different exercise programs with a load of 10 and 5 repetitions to failure, changes in testosterone levels in the blood were more significant after performing exercises with a load of 10 repetitions compared to a similar exercise with a load of 5 repetitions [1][2]. These results confirm the thesis that has emerged practically in bodybuilding that progress in working weights is important for muscle growth, and not in maximum ones. Powerlifting is not the best sport for gaining muscle mass. It is quite natural that when performing squats with a barbell, the nervous excitation going from the brain to the spinal cord is stronger than when performing, for example, extensions or flexions of the lower leg, since when squatting it is necessary to activate several large muscle groups at once and move a much larger weight. Therefore, the hormonal response is stronger. By the way, it’s not for nothing that squats are called the most testosterone-rich exercise, since it has also been confirmed that the hormonal response to weight training also depends on the volume of muscles involved in the work. Training a small muscle like the biceps does not cause any hormonal changes. In this matter, the advantage of basic exercises is obvious.

The benefits of isolation exercises[edit | edit code]

What else do basic exercises provide when the goal is hypertrophy of muscle mass? What is the difference between the load on the pectoral muscles when performing bench presses and dumbbell flyes? It's not particularly different. In the bench press, we can use much more weight than in flyes, but not because the pectoral muscles work more efficiently, but because in addition to them, the triceps and anterior deltoids also work intensively. Try doing an isolating triceps exercise before the bench press, 20 repetitions until failure, so that the acidification with lactic acid is stronger, and then immediately do the bench press. See how much weight you use drops noticeably (the main thing is that the bar does not fall on your chest). During the bench press, the pectoral muscles receive exactly as much as is left for them after subtracting the load on the triceps and shoulders, and this figure will be much less than the weight of the barbell. If you look at the factors that arise under the influence of training load, affecting accelerated protein synthesis in muscles, increased concentrations of free creatine and hydrogen ions in muscle fibers, as well as increased concentrations of anabolic hormones in the blood and muscle), it becomes clear that all of them can occur mainly when performing basic exercises (in the correct mode). Isolation exercises are performed using one muscle or muscle group, and therefore the weight used is small, which means that the central motor command that initiates the hormonal response is also small, if not zero. But the increased concentration of free creatine and hydrogen ions in working muscle fibers occurs equally intensely in both isolating and basic exercises. Moreover, in isolation exercises you can achieve even greater concentrations of these substances. When performing, for example, chest curls on a machine, we work only with the pectoral muscles, and when failure occurs, we can rest assured that it is caused by the depletion of creatine phosphate and the accumulation of hydrogen ions in these muscles. When bench pressing a barbell, refusal to perform the exercise can occur due to exhaustion and acidification of the triceps, and at this moment in the pectoral muscles, which we are actually trying to pump up with the bench press, the concentration of free creatine and hydrogen ions has not yet reached the optimally high level. This means that the stimulation of protein synthesis in these muscles will be weak, which can often be found in practice, especially among ordinary amateurs who bench press enormous weights and have underdeveloped chests.

I myself was one of those, squeezing 170 kg for 8 repetitions without difficulty. My pectoral muscles were flat, but my triceps were voluminous, and this was without special exercises for them.

Now imagine that we eliminate the main disadvantage of isolation exercises - weak stimulation of the production of anabolic hormones - by consuming the latter. In this case, with the correct exercise regimen and proper nutrition, we will ensure the occurrence of all the above factors that stimulate protein synthesis.

Then it will be possible to hypertrophy any muscle or muscle group with isolation exercises alone. A very indicative example is the promising St. Petersburg junior Alexei Malysh, who did not train his legs for almost two years due to an injury, and in preparation for the St. Petersburg Championship this fall began to intensively do flexion and extension of the lower leg (he could not fully do basic exercises). At the same time, despite the diet-induced weight loss of 8 kg, the volume of his hips increased by 3 cm in a month. What would happen if he ate the same way as on the “mass”? And remember how many basic, that is, multi-joint, exercises you know for the lower leg muscles? All types of lifts occur in one ankle joint, and other muscles do not work, but this does not prevent you from pumping up muscles of amazing size.

Conclusions[edit | edit code]

What follows from all of the above? In general, what you already know. Basic exercises were, are and will be the main tool for building the body. However, if for a “naturalist” this is the only tool, then for a “chemist” it is “one of.” An artificially created high level of anabolic hormones will allow you to benefit from isolation exercises with equal success, and sometimes even with advantage. Of course, we are unlikely to build a training program only on them. After all, we are athletes and we get a thrill from working with heavy weights in basic exercises. However, if temporary circumstances arise when it is impossible, for example, due to an injury or lack of equipment at a place of rest (business trip), to do a base, then we can replace it with isolating exercises, without fear of losing the acquired form and even progressing further. Unfortunately, “straight” people are in a less advantageous position in this case. Does it make sense for them to do isolation exercises at all, because although they do not stimulate the production of hormones, they also have certain benefits, which were mentioned above? Eat! But only after several basic working approaches have been completed. Then the level of anabolic hormones, which increases after this, will rush through the bloodstream into those muscles that we are working with emphasis.