Bodybuilding is more than a sport, it is also a way of life. It is an entire philosophy of how to live, a value system that gives specific answers to questions that concern so many of us these days—questions of what is worth doing and what value to give to excellence and achievement. It is a way of pursuing self-worth and personal validation, of finding satisfaction in your ability to set goals for yourself and working to reach them.
I trained in the morning and again in the evening because that’s what my daily schedule demanded. Now, this is known as the Weider Double-Split System.
Bodybuilders have learned that you can create greater visual change in the body by a different kind of training. Instead of one maximal lift, a bodybuilder uses less weight and does more repetitions, and does each set to failure—until the muscles are unable to do even one more repetition. Then he rests briefly and continues on to do more sets, perhaps as many as 15 to 20 sets of various exercises for any given body part.
As a general rule, the best way to get maximum development of muscle volume is by lifting about 75 percent of your one-rep capacity—that is, the maximum amount you could lift for one repetition. It should come as no surprise that, for most people, using a weight that is 75 percent of your one-rep maximum allows you to do about 8 to 12 reps for the upper body and 12 to 15 reps for the legs.
There are two fundamentally different kinds of endurance: muscular and cardiovascular.