Today we continue our series on the 29 principles of bodybuilding laid out by the great Joe Weider.

Weider Principle 11: The Holistic Principle:  Different parts of muscle cells house protein and energy systems

Joe Weider did more for body building and body builders than any other man period

which react in different ways to physical stress. Because of this, a holistic workout needs to vary rep ranges and weights in order to best stress all the different parts of the muscle. Because of this, the bodybuilding set approach will have rep ranges such as 15, 12, 10, 8, 6 with the weight increasing as the reps decrease.

Weider Principle 12: The Cycle Principle: Also known as periodization, cycling is the act of training during the year in different ways. One might spend 4 months “bulking” with low rep ranges, heavier weights and then cutting with lighter weights and higher rep ranges. I will mention that, along with many other modern fitness experts, WB Fitness has found that extreme cycling is not the best way to go, but rather always be CLEAN bulking and then a few months of rest. That said, it is still one of the Weider principles and worth knowing.

Weider Principle 13: The Iso-Tension Principle: Iso-Tension is simply controlling ones own muscles. Outside of your workout, showering, walking down the street, sitting in your office, you should randomly contract some muscles and hold the contraction for 6 seconds. This should be done in such a way that each muscle is hit three times a week. This helps establish the mind muscle connection as something constant and not just while in the gym. Flexing….it is not JUST for being a douchebag.

Weider Principle 14: The Cheating Principle: In the cheating principle Weider advises something very strange…do a few lifts in correctly, cheat at them. Now, of course he doesn’t suggest entire sets like this but after your set, when you have brought your muscle to exhaustion and you have hit failure grab a couple of last reps by cheating on the lift.For instance, in the case of a concentration curl. Let’s say you have done your concentration curls to absolute failure. Use your hand that is not being used to take a little weight off the on hand; just enough to enable another 2-3 lifts. The little cheat will allow you to go beyond your fail point further adding to the stress on the muscle.
Weider Principle 15: The Tri-Sets Principle: The Tri-set principle describes a combination of three different exercises, done back to back with no rest, targeting the same body part. This technique increases the pump as the muscle worked are being trained from various angles. This approach is aimed not at growing or strengthening muscle, but at shaping them. One common tri-set is called coconut training for shoulders…the idea being to get the shoulders to look like coconuts. The first move is bent over lat raises, then neck presses and finished with dumbbell lat raises. By doing high volume tri-sets like this you will not just isolate, but totally work the shoulders.

Weider Principle 16: The Giant Set Principle: The giant set is the same as the superset only with 3- exercises rather than only two. The exercises, as in the superset, are performed back to back with no rest between them. An example of this for chest training would be bench press to incline bench press to dips to pull-overs. Go on and hit that Giant Set 5×20 and see what it does to your chest.

Weider Principle 17: The Pre-Exhaustion Principle: The pre-exhaustion principle is another of my personal favorites. One muscle group is put under stress to the point of exhaustion using an isolation exercise in excess of the muscles primary ROM and then immediately after a secondary range of motion is trained with a basic exercise. An example of this on the quadriceps would be to complete a long volume set of leg extensions immediately followed by squats. Because of the pre-exhaustion the muscles that work together, such as extensor muscles of the lower back and the hip flexors, come into play meaning that the upper thigh muscles can be subjected to even more stress.

Weider Principle 18: The Rest-Pause Principle: Here is another one that it is hard to imagine needed to be invented as it seems so naturally intuitive. Rest-Pause is probably the king of building strength and mass. The way rest-pause is achieved is to use enough weight to be able to do two or three reps then rest 30 seconds and do another 2 or 3. Repeat this until you get ten reps out.

Weider Principle 19: The peak contraction principle This principle aims to get the muscles to hold in the position of the strongest contraction. An example can be seen with dumbbell curls. In a dumbbell curl, the resistance eases off towards the end of the positive movement phase. In order to prevent this and to subject the biceps to resistance even at the point of full contraction, the contraction can be held at the highest point of the movement by turning the wrist outward. With the wrist turning outward as you go through the positive movement you keep constant stress on the bicep.

Weider Principle 20: The Continuous Tension Principle: When it comes to bodybuilding, one of the major enemies is momentum. If you do a lift and the weight is carried, even partly, by momentum the muscle is relieved of the stress necessary for it to  grow and strengthen. In order to combat this momentum, Weider suggest training very slowly. By moving the weight slowly you keep continuous tension on the muscle fibers and in doing so maximize the benefits of your workout.