Paul Wright discusses his training strategy for mass building. He's using a five day per week training rotation, and varies his training to maximize gains while avoiding over training.
Gold's Gym, Ann Arbor | Motor City 2007 | Paul Wright | Training
In this podcast (Quicktime ipod compatible, 38MB; Google streaming flash video), Paul Wright and I (Bud) discuss how Paul intends to focus on mass building for the Motor City Bodybuilding competition on August 4, 2007.
To prepare for the competition, Paul has already started to alter his training regimen. He used to train with Troy Garver as his workout partner. Now, Paul is partnering with another trainer, Rob, who will also compete in the Motor City show. Troy is serving as both of their coaches. We expect to have a follow up interview with Troy who has appeared on the site before.
Paul expects that he will be in a mass building mode for the next four months, and he is currently training five days per week with the following rotation:
- Monday: Back, triceps
- Tuesday: Quads, calves
- Wednesday: Off
- Thursday: Chest, biceps
- Friday: Hamstrings, calves
- Saturday: Traps, shoulders
- Sunday: Off
The rotation has a few interesting features. First, large muscle groups are paired with smaller, for instance back with triceps or quadriceps with calves. Second, Paul never weight trains more than three days in a row. Third, he only weight trains 5 days per week, about the maximum recommended for advanced or professional bodybuilders. Finally, with the exception of calves, he only works each body part once per week. All of these factors combine to reduce the likelihood of over training.
During his workouts, Paul works 8 to 15 reps. He starts at 12 reps per set for 3 sets and continues with that rep range until he ceases being able to increase weight from week to week. He then alters the number of reps after consulting with Troy. They may go up or they may go down depending on what Troy convinces Paul he needs. Varying the training stimulus in this way is one of he key features of the periodization program Nancy Arnold and I have been following. It maximizes adaptation.
Occasionally, Paul does high rep ranges like Nancy and I have been doing in our muscle definition phase to break things up.
Paul concludes this part of the conversation by alluding to the importance of diet in mass building. We'll pick up on that theme when we publish the next part of the conversation.
Additional Links
- Paul will compete in the Motor City NPC Bodybuilding, Figure, and Fitness competition. A high placement there qualifies competitors toward competing nationally.
