A Heavy Duty routine calls for as little as 1 or 2 sets per exercise and only a few exercises per muscle. Every set must be done to failure and possibly even beyond it with forced rep and other high intensity techniques. With the set count so low, only major compound exercises should be done.

  To do a Heavy Duty weight training routine effectively you really need to know your body and have the ability to get a lot out of each and every set you do. It’s not a good idea for a beginner to try Heavy Duty since they are still trying to learn proper exercise form and how their body reacts to weight training. A good time to try Heavy Duty would be when you feel you’ve been overtraining for a while. If your body feels beat up and you weight train almost every day for hours at a time you could give Heavy Duty a try to get more recovery and allow your body to “catch up” and build more muscle and strength.

  The best weight training exercise to strengthen the lower back muscles is the deadlift. You should always start a lower back workout with them. Good mornings are a rarely used exercise for the lower back but is a good one to do after deadlifting. Hyperextensions should be done for high reps with no or little weight and are a great finisher to a lower back workout.

  Try a workout like this to build muscle and strength in your lower back:

Deadlifts (1 or 2 sets of 12-15 reps on light day, 2 or 3 sets of 8-12 reps on medium day, 3 or 4 sets of 3-8 reps on heavy day)

Good mornings (1 or 2 sets of 15-20 reps on light day, 2 sets of 10-15 reps on medium day, 2 or 3 sets of 5-10 reps on heavy day)

Hyperextensions (1 or 2 sets of 20-30 reps during each lower back workout to finish off with).

  This workout should allow you to strengthen your lower back without overtraining as long as you get enough rest between workouts. You may want to try your deadlift one rep max every now and then on your heavy day to test your strength.

  The calves are a very fast recovering muscle group (you use them constantly while walking or running) so you can train them more often than other muscles. This means that while you may do your calf training routine on your leg day, you may also want to train them during another workout as well. Depending how your weight training routine is split up you can do some calf exercises every other day or once every 3 days.

  Another key to building bigger calf muscles is to do high reps on your calf exercises while using as much weight as possible. Since you are always using your calves you need to train them with as much intensity as possible to get an effect. When you start a calf exercise do 15-20 reps with good, full reps where you stretch them at the bottom of a rep and get as high on your toes as possible to finish a rep. Once you get to a point where you can no longer do any more full reps do as many “bouncing” reps as you can stand before finishing your set.

  To gain calf muscle size you need to do both standing and seated calf raises. The standing calf raises will build the gastrocnemius muscle, while seated calf raises will build the soleus muscle. If you want you can throw in some sets of calf raises on the leg press machine. If you focus on training both of major muscles of the lower legs during your calf workouts you’ll get more of muscle size you’ll be on your way to building bigger calves.

  The 10 sets of 10 workout sounds simple enough - you do 10 sets of 10 reps. Waht makes it interesting is that you take a major compound exercise for the muscle group you’re training that day and do 10 sets of 10 reps with one minute of rest between sets using a weight that you can normally do for 20 reps to failure. For example, if you’re doing a chest workout and can usually do 175 lbs. for 20 reps on the bench press you take that 175 lbs. and do 10 sets of it for 10 repititions each set with one minute of rest between sets. It’s much harder to do than you would think. While the first 3 or 4 sets should be relatively easy and shouldn’t bring you very close to failure, you’ll be struggling by the middle sets and may not even be able to get the 10 reps by the last couple of sets if you’ve never tried this before. No matter what, the 7th through 10th sets will be very intense.

  If you’re going to try the 10 sets of 10 reps workout you should use a major exercise for whatever muscle you’re working. This means bench presses for chest, deadlifts for lower back, rows or pulldowns/pull-ups for the upper back, military or dumbbell presses for the shoulders, squats or leg presses for the quadriceps, leg curls for the hamstrings, curls for the biceps, or tricep extensions for the triceps. If you decide to try this workout you will only need to do one exercise for the muscle you’re training - you won’t need to do any more exercises or sets. Because of this you shouldn’t be trying the 10 sets of 10 workout with isolation exercises.

  Even though you’re only using one exercise per muscle when you try the 10 X 10 workout you will feel it the next day, and probably for a couple of days after that. The intensity of the 10 X 10 workout is no joke. This workout is something you should only do for 2 or 3 weeks at a time to kick your weight training workouts back into gear before going back to your normal routine.

  The best way to break through a weight training plateau is to make a change in your routine. One of the easiest ways to do this is to use a different rep range on your sets of weight training exercises regularly. If your body gets used to doing the same amount of reps for every set you’ll certainly hit a plateau. Doing a different amount of reps per set way be just what you need to get past it.

  One great way to keep your muscle size and strength gains coming is to try a weight training routine where you do a light day, medium day, and heavy day for each muscle group. On the light day do sets with higher reps (15-20), on the medium day do sets of 10-15 reps, and on the heavy day do sets of 5-10 reps. If you do this you’ll hit both your fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle fibers and give yourself a better chance of continual gains.

  To build a stronger core you need to perform abdominal and lower back workouts regularly. For your ab workouts do exercises such as crunches and leg raises, along with some ab training on a core ball. The abdominals recover quicker than most muscle groups so you can train them as much as every other day. For the obliques you should do some ab exercises where you twist on the way up, whether it’s on an upper ab or lower ab exercise. You can also do some side bends with a dumbbell in one hand or on a cable machine, or on an ab machine that allows you to do some more direct oblique training. Deadlifts and hyperextensions are great for building strength in the lower back. Some exercises for other muscles like dumbbell bench presses for the chest can be done on a core ball to build more core strength. Training the abdominals and lower back will also help you get a ripped midsection if you don’t have too much body fat covering them up.

  Even you’re more concerned with lifting as much weight as possible than getting ripped you’ll still need to strengthen your core so you can handle those weights. You’ll be glad you did.

  The first step to increasing bench press strength is to make sure you’re using proper lifting form when you perform it. If you do sloppy bench reps you won’t be building as much strength in your chest as you wouild if you used good lifting form. It’s okay to have your back arched, but you need to keep your behind on the bench when you beench press. You should also contract your upper back muscles and pull your shoulder blades inward to pop your pecs out. Always lower the weight under control, do not drop it on your chest. When the weight touches your chest try to explode it upward.

  One great technique to increase your bench press strength is to identify where you are at your weakest during a rep and doing some sets that focus only on that part of the movement. Do this by setting up a squat rack so you are forced to only do the part of the bench press rep that you are weak on.

  You also need to make sure you don’t get overzealous and end up overtraining your chest from too many bench sets. If you’re still sore from your last bench press workout ou need to take another day or 2 off before you do them again.

  Many weight trainers start their shoulder workouts off with military presses to the front. This is a great exercise for building the shoulders, but if you’ve been lifting weights for a while and have built some muscle size you may overdevelop your front deltoids as compared to the side and rear delts. Many chest exercises like the bench and incline press involve the front deltoids so you may not need to do as much work on them when you do your actual shoulder workout. Because of this you may want to start your deltoid workout with dumbbell presses. Dumbbell presses will allow you put more of the resistence on the side delts.

  Because of the work your front deltoids get from chest exercises and your rear deltoids get from back exercises you should do more exercises for the side delts when you train your shoulders. Building the side head of the shoulder muscles will help add width to them. Besides dumbbell presses, you can do many variations of side laterals to build wider shoulders. You can do side lateral raises with dumbbells, cables, or machines.

  You should also do a few sets of rear lateral raises for the rear deltoids since they only get some secondary work from back exercises. You want to develop each head of the deltoids as evenly as possible so you may want to avoid doing too much direct work on the front delts if they are overdeveloped during your shoulder workouts. Front lateral raises may not be necessary because of this.

  You can train your trapezius muscles with the shoulders if you want. The best trapezius exercise is the shrug. You can do shrugs with a barbell or dumbbells. To get the most out of heavy shrugs you should use chalk or wrist straps to assist your grip.

  Here’s a sample shoulder workout with most of the focus on the side deltoid heads.

Dumbbell presses: 3-4 sets

Dumbbell side laterals: 2-3 sets

Cable side laterals: 2-3 sets

Rear laterals: 2-3 sets

Shrugs: 3-4 sets

Drop set of your choice to finish with.

  Because the shoulders (besides the side head) are involved in so many upper body exercises it’s easy to overtrain them. A shoulder routine like this should help you avoid overdoing it and decrease the likelihood of injury.

  While you should use proper form on all of your weight training exercises to prevent injuries and build real strength, you may want to start your biceps routine with heavy cheat curls. Cheat curls will get the blood flowing in the biceps quickly and allow you to get started with a good pump. Take a weight you can do 5 or 6 curls with good form and do 10 to 12 reps. To do the secong half of the set use some body english to get the weight up, hold it at the top for a second, and slowly lower it under control. After a couple of cheat curl sets do the rest of your biceps exercises with better form, maybe cheating a bit to get an extra rep or 2.

  When you do dumbbell curls for the biceps you should start the exercise with your palms facing you and rotate your hands as you curl so your hands are in the same position at the top of the movement as they would be for barbell curls. This will work the biceps better than just keeping the hands in the same position throughout the exercise.

  To hit the brachialis muscle between the biceps and triceps more directly you can do a few sets of hammer curls or reverse grip barbell curls. Hammer curls are a lot like dumbbell curls except that you don’t rotate your hands. You basically raise and lower your hands like if you were using a hammer. Reverse grip barbell curls will work the forearms as well as the brachialis.

  Towards the end of your biceps workout you can do a few sets of precher curls, cable curls, or dumbbell curls while seated on an incline bench. to finish your biceps routine you should do a couple of drop sets to end your workout with a nice pump in the arms.

  Since weight training is an anaerobic way of exercising, your metabolic rate may not get a huge boost while you are doing it. But, when you gain muscle mass that extra muscle will give you a higher resting metabolism. Muscle needs energy to sustain itself, so with more muscle size your body actually will burn more calories even when you aren’t exercising.

  Doing some weight training every other day is a great way to start gaining some muscle size. You don’t have to train for 3 hours a day to see results. In fact, if you weight train too much you may end up overtraining, which may actually cause you to lose muscle if you keep doing it. Losing muscle will have the opposite effect on your metabolism than gaining it - your resting metabolic rate will slow down, making it harder to lose body fat. Keep your weight training workouts at about an hour per session and split up your routine (training certain muscle groups at one workout and other muscle at the next workout). splitting your weight training routine will allow you to train each muscle with a lot of intensity and get plenty of recovery between workouts. Eventually, you may want to weight train 4 or 5 days per week and split your routine 3 ways.

  To further enhance your chances of losing body fat you can do your cardio training after your weight training workouts. Weight training depletes your muscles of glycogen, or stored carbohydrates. If your do cardiovascular exercise after you weight train you’ll be burning more fat than carbs from the beginning of your cardio workout.

  Whether you’re a man or a woman weight training will enhance the shape of your body so you’ll look better as you get rid of body fat. If you’ve been dieting and doing cardio to lose body fat and have hit a plateau you should try weight training. You’ll be glad you did.