I’ve added another Ripptoe workout voted best program to stack muscle on lean bodies on bodybuilding.com forums!  It works!

Remember: If you’re new to lifting, get some good training advice and learn good technique!  You’ll get more out of your training, and you’ll avoid injuries.

On to the good stuff (btw, it’s also published on the site here:    http://westysworkouts.com/i/ripptoe-2-bulk-building-mass-gaining-muscle-makers )

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Authors Note: This workout was originally posted on the Bodybuilding.com Forums by the following member: MATTA114. It is based on a program from the book Starting Strength by Mark Rippetoe & Lon Kilgore.

Example:

Week 1:

o Monday – Workout A
o Wednesday -Workout B
o Friday – Workout A

Week 2:

o Monday – Workout B
o Wednesday – Workout A
o Friday – Workout B

Etc. For the actual workouts read below:

Workout A:

* 3×5 Squat
* 3×5 Bench Press
* 1×5 Deadlifts
* **2×8 Dips (if you cant do these or no assist machine then do Decline Dumbbell Bench Press with your hands Facing each other)

print Click Here For A Printable Log Of Workout A.

Workout B:

* 3×5 Squat
* 3×5 Standing military press
* 3×5 Bent Rows (or power cleans)
* **2×8 Chin-ups (recommended mainly if doing the cleans)

Note: This doesn’t include warm-up sets (**)Means this is OPTIONAL

print Click Here For A Printable Log Of Workout B.

Assistance Work:

Most people cant get it through there head that compound lifts also work your arms plenty and always insist on direct arm work. As quoted by Madcow2,

“Don’t **** with this. Every bodybuilder seems to have
Attention Deficit Disorder and an overwhelming desire
to customize everything.”

If you are one of these people note that you have the option of doing the dips and chins which give PLENTY of arm work. Abdominal work is fine to do also if needed.

I recommend weighted decline sit-ups and/or Hanging Leg Raises at 2×8-10.

Weight:

As for the weight, make sure that you use the SAME weight throughout the sets. For example if I do the first set if Squats with 200lbs then I do the other 2 sets of squats with 200lbs.

Every week make it a goal to increase each of your lifts by 2.5%. Meaning if I lifted 100lbs for my Bench Week 1 then Week 2 I would try for 102.5lbs. If I did 200lb Squats Week 1 I would try for 205lbs in Week 2. Sometimes you will be able to do more but don’t mess with your form just to lift more.

Warm-up Sets:

Before all your working sets it is best to do a few warm-up sets. Specifically for your first lift. You don’t have to do the whole thing for the other lifts but definitely the first.

What you do is you ramp your weight up to your working sets.

For Example:

o 2×5xbar (sets x reps x weight)
o 1×5x85
o 1×3x125
o 1×2x155

And the working set weight would be 175.

If you are lifting you’re working sets fewer than 150 I would cut out the 3rd warm-up set of 1×5 because it won’t be needed.

The Lifts:

Barbell Squat:

These should be full range Olympic style squats. Use the full range of your body – that means as low as you can go which for almost everyone is past parallel. If the top of your thighs aren’t at least parallel it’s for sh!t. If you think this is bad for your knees going low, you and whoever told you that are relying on an old wives tale.

Anyone who knows the human body will tell you that below parallel is MUCH safer on the knees whereas parallel and above put all the sheer right on them and doesn’t allow proper transfer of the load to the rest of your body (this is how your body was designed).

Rest a barbell on the upper portion of your back, not your neck. Firmly grip the bar with your hands almost twice your shoulder width apart.

Position your feet about shoulder width apart and your toes should be pointing just a little outward with your knees in the same direction. Keep your back as straight as possible and your chin up, bend your knees and slowly lower your hips straight down until your THIGHS ARE AT LEAST PARALLEL TO THE FLOOR. Once you reach the bottom position, press the weight up back to the starting position.

To be honest ATG (@ss to the Grass) squats work the best IMO. What you do is you go ALL the way down until your hamstrings touch your calves and keep the same Olympic squat form.

Barbell Deadlifts:

Each rep is deweighted fully on the floor. No touch and go. This is called the ‘dead’ lift because the weight is ‘dead’ on the ground. You can touch and go warm ups but that’s it.

This is a very complicated exercise so here is Bodybuilding.com’s detailed instructions on this lift.

Flat Barbell Bench Press:

Lie on a flat bench and firmly position your feet flat on the floor a little more than shoulder width apart. Keep your back flat on the bench! Using a grip broader than shoulder width, hold the barbell above your body, then lower slowly to the middle of your chest. Without bouncing the weight off your chest, drive the barbell up over the middle of your chest until your arms are straight and your elbows are locked. Lower the bar down slowly.

Standing Barbell Military Press:

Standing overhead presses. Supporting weight overhead is a fundamental exercise and stimulates the whole body. Raise barbell to your chest with your hands shoulder width apart. Lock your legs and hips. Keep your elbows in, slightly under your bar. Press bar to arm’s length overhead. Lower to your upper chest or chin (depending on what is comfortable).

Bent Barbell Row:

Raise barbell to your chest with your hands shoulder width apart. Lock your legs and hips. Keep your elbows in, slightly under your bar. Press bar to arm’s length overhead. Lower to your upper chest or chin (depending on what is comfortable).

Chin-Up:

Hold the chin-up bar with a supinated grip (palms facing you) with your hands about 6 to 8 inches apart. Pull yourself up and try to touch either your chin or upper chest to the bar. Return slowly to the starting position. Do NOT swing back and forth! Using this grip works more of your biceps than your back or lats.

Dip:

Using the parallel bars, grip the handles and push yourself up to your starting position. With elbows close to body and hips straight, lower body until shoulders are slightly stretched. Push body up in same posture and repeat. You can bend and cross your legs or keep them straight.

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That’s it for today, if you’re looking for more info on these exercises, google is your friend

Train hard, eat big… and keep moving forward!

Westy

Building Muscle Tips #4

How To Strip That Fat and Reveal Your Lean, Toned Muscles

What good is a muscular body if you can’t see it under layers of fat?

Take a look around next time you go to the mall or out to work. Look at the physiques of the people you work with, the people next to you at the supermarket, the people at the newsagent and the local take away. What is the standard these days? Do people look fit and strong? Well, unless you live in a community where hard physical exercise is the standard then you’ll see fat people.

I’m not talking overweight whales, or massive obese people, I’m just saying people, in general are not as “skinny” as they used to be. It’s got a lot to do with their diets, and the lack of exercise NEEDED to get along in daily life now days. Not a bad thing! I, for one, wouldn’t like to have to be hunting my food and chopping wood for a fire to cook it on. Way too much effort!

So how does one overcome the tendency our body’s have to put on a few extra pounds? Now that we’ve got it so good, we’ve got to come up with a way to stay healthy and lean without popping pills and getting liposuction!

Building Muscle Tips #4
How To Strip That Fat and Reveal Your Lean Toned Muscles

So You’re ready to strip that fat? OK, here’s how it’s done:

Step 1. You need to be following some kind of weight training program. Don’t worry, you’re not going to become the next Arnold Schwarzenegger by lifting weights. But muscles do consume twice as much energy as fat so they’re an advantage. Get started lifting weights 2-3 times a week and you’ll start noticing that you’re not only getting stronger, but your metabolism is speeding up too. You’ll start to get hungry. This is good, because you need to feed your muscles so they become fat burning assets.

Step 2. Don’t do aerobic exercise. Yep, you heard me DON’T do it. You’ve got to be mad right? Everyone says do aerobic exercise so you’ll burn fat, so it must be true. Nope. Well, it is, sort of. But it’s not the most effective way so lets get to it.

What do you do instead? Well, you know how muscle burns more energy than fat right? Well, you can also put your body into a fat burning mode by doing Short and intense cardio exercises. This is similar to say going for a jog, or riding a bike for an hour, except you take all that effort, and put it into 15 minutes! This is commonly called interval training or High Intensity Training.

Here’s how it works:

HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training), or Interval Training is a training session divided into 2 parts. One intense, and the other less intense.

Here’s an example of a HIIT training session:

Stretches

5 min warmup

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

1 min walk/jog

20 second sprint

5 min cooldown

Stretches

The beautiful thing about this kind of training is that you’ll speed up your metabolism so much that you’ll be burning calories for days! And it only takes 15 minutes!

It’s seriously the BEST way to strip that fat from your body with the least amount of work.

If you’re already training 3 days a week, do this cardio training on your OFF days only. The reason why is because your body simply does not know how to burn fat and build muscle at the same time. Alternate between the 2 so you can get the best of both worlds. And remember, take a day off. Nothing worse than burn out when you’re doing so well.

Is that it? Nope… one last thing:

Step 3. Eat Fresh High Water Content Food.

I’m not going to get into the whole calorie argument and talk about how confusing it is to have to read all the food labels. Let’s just be serious for a second. If you want to get the fat from your body it’s not going to happen eating burgers and fries. You know it. So what do you eat? Well, your best option is to eat food that’s got plenty of nutritional value and helps keep your body and metabolism moving. What’s the best food to do that? Fruit and vegetables.

Yeah, I know, what a drag. Your mama always told you to eat your vegies. Turns out she was right eh. Well, I won’t tell her if you don’t!

But seriously, eat your vegies, and eat them often. Keep your protein levels high by snacking on RAW nuts (not the salty kind, they deep fry them!) and protein shakes / snacks. And supplement your carb intake with mostly fruits and vegetables. You’ll find that you need to work a little harder to eat them. But if you can, eat them raw to provide your body with the best chance to get nutrients out of them.

And eat as much as you like. Yep, I said eat as many fruits and vegetables as you like. At first you’ll probably feel a little bit bloated, but keep at it, and your body will adjust to the higher water content of the food and you’ll balance out. This is what you want. While your metabolism is working quickly, consume good vitamin rich foods and clean out all the crap. (literally!)

If you’re feeling a little uncomfortable and you’re not in a major hurry, then adjust to adding more fruits and vegetables to your diet while cutting out the heavy carbohydrates like fries and burgers and that morning muffin with your coffee etc.

As you start to see results you’ll become more motivated to change your diet. But trust me, if you

1. Work out with weights
2. Do Intense Cardio
3. Replace Junk Food With Fruit and Vegetables

You’ll be stripping the fat faster than ever.

Take some advice from someone who’s done it all before: Sean Nalewanyj.
He’s the former skinny guy and successful author of The Truth About Building Muscle. He’s not only one of the best muscle building experts around today, but he’s got fat burning down to a fine art. Learn from a pro and do something today to be proud of your body.