The interesting thing is, that I also started with the physical training very early at the age of 12/13 years and also dealed with the subject "bodybuilding" very intensively. Afterwards, I would not recommend anyone to start so early, especially the type of training that I have undergone. It was not just about muscle building, it was also about power build-up. Especially if you train with free weights and the joints (bone) are in the growth phase, one can get injured. I have instinctively and intuitively behaved correctly, so I have been spared from many injuries.
Parallel to the strength and muscle building I also played football at the TSV Erlenbach-Binswangen, I think from the D/C-to B-Youth, as well as karate up to the fourth Dan, but the only sport I still practise is the physical training.
In hindsight, or at the present time, I understand why I have done so many things parallelly, and have discontinued sports e. g. football or karate or other things. My conscious motivation to that time was also, that I was very interested in all kind of knowledges and activities, but the day has only 24h. But every decision I made consciously or unconsciously made me to that what I am today or have always been.
The first book I worked through at the beginning of the 90s was the book of "Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bill Dobbins - The New Encyclopaedia of modern Bodybuilding" which I borrowed from the library at that time and copied some parts out of it. Some exercises in this book I won’t longer recommend it, because in the wrong way of practise one can injure oneself. There are better alternative exercises that are better and gentler.
From today's point of view I can recommend the following books:
- Strength Training Anatomy Workout II, The Paperback – March 27, 2012 (available e. g. by Amazon) [I hope only, that this is the right English title of that book which I have in German translation]
- Muskel-Trainingsbuch: Gezieltes Krafttraining - aber richtig! Taschenbuch – März 2004 (ISBN: 3-405-16655-1, by Amazon)
[I think, this book is only in German language available]- New Edition: here e.g. by Amazon
The Book "Strength Training Anatomy Workout II" is very good, because with the anatomical drawing for each exercise, one can visualize it in one’s mind.
Before the start of the training, it is absolutely necessary to warm up, so that the body can switch to physical exertion. The blood circulation is primarily focused on the muscles. The psyche also plays a very important role. When doing an exercise, it is important to concentrate 100% on the exercise and not to let the mind wander. It will (almost) bring nothing if you perform a heavy exercise and e.g. thinking of shopping list.
It is important to know that one is not a professional body builder, unless one aims it. A thirty-minute training is perfectly adequate, even for those who want to build mass and / or define the muscles. The most important thing at all is to train consistently and continuously. This is a compact training method, unnecessary pauses, as well as other distractions are not allowed. If you want to train the musculature specifically for endurance, the 30 minutes are also sufficient, but the training method and the training plan are individual for different body types, age, gender, goal (mass build-up, muscle definition, athletic physique, endurance etc.). What also very important is, is the breathing technique. It is just as important as warm-ups. An exercise always consists of two phases, one for the focused muscle strenuous and relieving movement or phase. Breathing out is performed during exertion and inhalation during the relieving phase. In a normal case, if artificial impulses do not prevent one from doing so, one will instinctively do it correctly.
If you do everything right, you can see the success (e.g. for a mass build-up, every second day 30min training) already in a few weeks (two to three weeks).
In the normal case, certain goals can be achieved with an expander, its own body weight and a few training appliances.
If one is sick, such as a cold or muscle soreness, then one should definitely not train. Symptoms such as pain are warning signs of the body, which signals one to stay away from doing so.
The thirty minutes are very tight, so there is hardly time left for breaks, but one should always take time for stretching exercises. This is also essential.
The trick with the thirty minutes is that when one set up the training plan, one should ensure that one do not train the counter muscles on the same day, such as biceps and triceps. This should be clear to most, but the real trick is that one can cascade the exercises (and the training set). One only starts with the cascading of the training sets when one is at the physical limit or one has selected the endurance workout.
Example for two types of muscles
- Biceps → 5 x sets of 12 to 20 repetitions
- Calf muscles → 5 x sets of 25 to 50 repetitions
In this combination, we assume that the person who do the exercises has reached his or her limit at the end of the third set during the biceps training and thus a short break is necessary. Here one begins to cascade, this means one begins with the first set for the calf muscles, and after completing the first set for the calf muscles one return to the fourth set for the biceps, and so forth.
Now there are different ways of classifying the weights and the repetitions for each training set, such as the pyramid or the inverted pyramid, and this division depends on whether it is intended for an endurance training, strength training, or mass building. For the exact training plan, one also need characteristics like the body type, gender, etc. Only through these factors, a proper training plan can be drawn up.