We thought we were stuck in plateaus many times throughout our natural bodybuilding journey.
Making excuses like,
“I’m at my natural limit,”
or
“genetically I can’t grow my legs like him/her”!
However, everyone has weak points! We’re perfect examples of this!
Do you know how many years we were called, Johnny Bravo, for having a big upper body and small legs!?
This is because we would focus on our strong points like the chest, shoulders, and arms, everyone’s favorite! We would neglect legs, adding a leg day at the end of our workout program or in addition to an upper-body workout. With this said, it is obvious why our legs were our weak point, which many fail to admit.
Therefore, identify these weak points and address them!
Specific Muscle Dominant Training
There are numerous training splits one can follow, so you must manage your workout program accordingly to focus more on your weak body parts!
Recommended Workout Splits:
6 days: Legs, Pull, Push, rest, Legs, Pull, Push.
5 days: Legs, Pull, Push, rest, Lower, Upper, rest.
4 days: Lower, Upper, rest (active recovery), rest, Lower, Upper, rest.
3 days: Full Body, rest, Full Body, rest, Full Body, rest (active recovery), rest.
2 days: Full Body, rest(active recovery), rest, Full Body, rest, rest (active recovery), rest.
1 day: Hope your goal is cardiovascular endurance or weight loss and you’re focused on cardiovascular training.
Now, focus on which muscle group will dominate the weekly training schedule and which muscle region will dominate your workout of the day.
Weekly Training Schedule
If you are like us, we focus on starting our week off with our weak point, legs, and end our week with our strong point, the push day (chest, shoulders, triceps).
If proportionally you need to focus more on your upper body posterior muscles, then start your week off with a pull day! Likewise, if you want to focus on your chest and shoulders to grow, start with a push day!
Regarding having less time thus, incorporating a broader day to your training program, you would ultimately pick in relation to the upper body versus the lower body.
For example, if your strong point is your upper body, then start your week with a lower-body day. For full-body workouts, refer to the specific muscle that will be dominant in your daily workouts.
Daily Training Schedule
You will now need to focus on specific muscle regions
LEGS
On a leg or lower body day, are your hamstrings, glutes, or quadriceps dominant? We used to have no bum, flat, nonexistent, long-distance runner glutes!
Accordingly, we would be glutes/hamstrings dominant on leg days focusing on workouts like deadlifts and glute bridges. If you want to focus on your quadriceps, then your leg days should be quadriceps dominant, focusing on workouts like squats or leg presses.
PUSH
On a push day, are your chest, shoulders (anterior, side), or triceps dominant?
For example, if you want ‘boulder shoulders’, then start your push day with training shoulders. If you want to make your chest more pronounced, then start with the upper chest.
However, if you want bigger triceps, due to being a secondary/tertiary muscle for most push workouts, we would recommend adding more working sets of triceps exercises to the end of a push day. Doing so, decrease the working sets for the chest and shoulders at the beginning of the workout.
PULL
On a pull day, is your upper back, lower back, rear shoulders, or biceps dominant?
If you want bigger lats, start with workouts like a pull-up, lat pulldown, or chin-up.
Similarly, are your rear deltoids the reason why your shoulders aren’t rounded like you want them?
Then start with workouts like rear shoulder raises or a rear delt row.
For the biceps, again, as a result of being a secondary/tertiary muscle for most pull movements, if that is your weak point, add more working sets of biceps to the end of your workout.
UPPER BODY
For an upper-body day, list the upper body muscles in order of weakest to strongest.
For example, we would do pull-ups, shoulder presses, and incline bench presses, then finish with the triceps/biceps as a superset. This is because our back would be considered a weak point whereas our arms were already well developed enough and considered a strong point.
FULL BODY
For a full-body day, are you upper or lower-body dominant?
Once you figure this out, then look at specific muscle regions, and list them from weakest to strongest. Focus on compound exercises as isolating each muscle will result in the execution of way too many sets. As a result, you should know whether to start with a bench press, squat, deadlift, row, or shoulder press.
Why do we start with our weak points?
Notice the difference between your energy level at the beginning versus the end of the week. If you were to skip a workout, the latter workout days will likely be the ones skipped.
Similarly, on a workout day, again, you have more energy at the beginning of the workout versus the end, which is why you should focus on starting your week and daily program with your weak points!
Keep in mind that we are all made different, so do not just follow a program that adheres to another individual. Understand the premise of the program and adjust it based on your body.
Recognize your weak points and address them by using a workout split in accordance with your time, specifying which muscles will be dominant in your weekly and daily program!
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Also, all content contained within this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute the advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified medical professional.
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