The counterpart to a good diet is a good workout routine. I have been lifting weights for 20 years now and have tried a little bit of everything. Light weight for repetition versus heavy weight with fewer repetitions. Longer breaks between sets versus shorter breaks. Drop sets/supersets/21's…you name it, I have tried it. I can't say one way is really any better than the next. There are a lot of factors that go into deciding what best works for you - genetics, age, healthy joints, weight gain vs. weight loss, etc. You really have to experiment for yourself to see what works for you. Below, I will explain what seems to work best for me.

Change It Up

For me the real secret is to keep the workout continually changing. This keeps me from becoming stagnant on any particular exercise and adds some different levels of intensity for my muscle groups. By continually changing my routine, my muscles will be hit at different angles for more complete coverage.

Natural

Being an all natural bodybuilder requires fewer mistakes and closely watching myself so that I do not overtrain my muscles. Here are some mistakes that a natural bodybuilder must not make:

• Overtraining
• Inadequate sleep
• Low intensity
• Insufficient nutrition

Overtraining

Overtraining can be a severe setback for any natural athlete. It comes down to an easy formula: more exertion placed on a muscle requires greater time for recovery.

In my teenage years of weight training I definitely overtrained. I used to work out each muscle group every other day. Keep in mind, the younger you are the quicker you recover. So for the short term this workout produced good results. However, I quickly hit a plateau and could not figure out what to do to get over it. Increasing time in the gym and intensity only caused me to lose rather than gain muscle! A competitive bodybuilder noticed my unrewarded efforts in the gym and took sympathy on me. He sat me down and explained that my muscles needed ample time to recuperate from my training efforts. How much time, I asked? At least a week for each muscle group was his response. What?!?! Not possible. Well, I gave it a try and my muscles responded in a big way. I cruised through all my plateaus and went from 180 to 200 pounds in body weight in a matter of 3 months!

It all boils down to frequency and duration. I only work a muscle once a week, and I keep my workout duration to less than an hour. I make sure that I keep a log of what exercises I am doing and how I feel after every exercise. That way I can make adjustments and try new things to maximize my gains.

Get enough SLEEP!

Not getting enough sleep can negate all of the effort you put in the gym. When you sleep, your body produces the most growth hormone. Working out breaks down your muscles and they need to be repaired and possibly made bigger to withstand the daily load you are giving them. Let your growth hormone do its job and get enough sleep. Try and get at least 7-8 hours of restful sleep a night.

High Intensity

If my workouts are lasting well over 60 minutes, then I am not training with enough intensity. When I get close the 60 minute mark, I am literally exhausted. I feel sick to my stomach and my muscles ache to the bone. How do you increase your intensity, you wonder? First off, throw reps out the door!

I have been training many years, always ticking off my repetitions in my head until I reach 10 reps or whatever goal I had set for the exercise. This counting of reps is pretty standard stuff; you see it in all the muscle and workout magazines. Well, that might be great advice for beginners but if you have reached a plateau on muscle gain or want to increase the intensity of your workouts, then stop counting! It will definitely take some time to recondition yourself to stop counting reps. Now, you may ask, why should I stop counting reps? Because you have to stop playing the mind games. Your mind and body are one with the weights, and when you hit your goal, you will likely stop the set. It is only natural to stop an activity if it is causing you pain. Pain does not have to be all bad.

The key is to push your muscles to true failure, and the only way to accomplish this is to lift until the muscle stops responding. Make sure not to sacrifice good form, and this will help to avoid injury and to prevent your muscles from being imbalanced. I hope you know the difference between good pain and bad pain, so stick with the good pain and plenty of it. High intensity and the good pain go hand in hand, so get used to it.

Key points to increase your workout intensity:

• 45 - 60 second rests between sets
• Stop counting reps and just go to failure
• Super-setting
• Drop-sets
• Exercise variation

My Workout Routine

My workout consists of 5 days of weight training, 6 days of cardio (bike), and 6 days of sit-ups (I can't do sit-ups or cardio after leg day. If you can, then you didn't work your legs properly!!!!). I will change the actual exercises every week. This will help to keep the intensity high and to prevent the muscles from hitting a plateau.

I take one whole week off of weight training on every 7th week. This allows my sore joints to heal and gives me a mental break from training. I still do cardio, since I do most of my work sitting on my butt all day staring at a computer screen. I find it hard to justify a week off of cardio, but my body does thank me for a week of rest from weights.

Here is a sample of my workout:

Notes:

• Calves: I do 10 sets x 10 reps with 15 second break between sets.
• Exercises: I do as many reps as I can until failure, usually 10-15 reps per set.
• I also throw in super-setting and drop sets to increase the intensity of the workout. Usually I will start with a pre-exhaustion of the target muscle before moving to a drop set or super-setting. For example: If I am doing shoulders I will do "shoulder raises" 4 sets for 15 reps with a 60 second break. This pre-exhaustion will help warm my joints up and set the stage for a very intense drop set or superset. Then I will follow the "shoulder raises" with a drop set of dumbbell presses or front shoulder presses. I try to do the drop sets with the more basic power movement exercises.

Time

I try to keep my workouts to under an hour and then 30 minutes cardio, which puts me at 90 minutes a day. It is a lot of time to use in a day considering I have a full time job, wife, and kids. It isn't exactly easy to give up 90 minutes a day, but the benefits are better health, looking and feeling more attractive, and feeling better about myself.

The Next Step - Nutrition

Weight lifting has been an integral part of my life since I was 13 years old. Although working out has never been a struggle for me, the real challenge has been my nutrition. I really had to make major adjustments to my nutrition to achieve the body that I wanted. I like to think of nutrition like this...if you owned a Porsche, what kind of gas would you put into it? Would you use regular or premium gas? Isn't your body and health more valuable than a car? I personally feel that nutrition is 80% of how your body looks and how well you feel.

When I was a personal trainer and helping people with their workouts, I can say that most people believe that there is a magic workout that will give them the body they want, when in reality it comes to the fuel they are feeding their bodies. I know what you're thinking, "Oh crap, I have to go on a diet!!!" The answer to this is yes and no. A willingness to add some modifications to your food choices and an upbeat attitude about making a lifestyle change is just the ticket! Check out my section on nutrition for some tips and tricks that I use to trim up.

Tips to remember:

• Change your workout routine frequently
• Take one week off after 6 weeks
• Do cardio every day (even your week off) except on leg day
• Take good notes
• Read a lot of workout magazines to give you new ideas on different exercises
• Always workout with as much intensity as you can muster