Olybuilding: Gain up to 20 pounds with this weightlifting routine

Olympic weightlifting is one of the great bodybuilding methods of all time. The old schoolers utilized this - contrary to some beliefs, it isn't just for olympic weightlifters or football players. You can use this too, if you just want to get mass on you.

I already gave my first sample routine in "How I gained 20 pounds". So now, I have another one.

First of all, warm up before each set, using lightweight versions of whatever lift - for example, if you're doing power cleans, do light power cleans to warm up and get the blood flowing.

Day 1:

Power Cleans: 5x5

Split Jerk: 5x6

Curls (biceps): 1 set to failure (10-20 reps)

Back Squat (heavy): 5x5

Day 2:

Power Snatch: 5x5

Chest: 1 set to failure (8-16 reps)

Triceps: 1 set to failure (10-20 reps)

Shoulders: 1 set to failure (8-16 reps)

Upper back: 1 set to failure (8-16 reps)

Back Squat: 1x20

Here's how you set up the routine. Ideally, it should look like this:

Monday: Day 1

Wednesday: Day 2

Friday: Day 1

WEEK 2

Monday: Day 2

Wednesday: Day 1

Friday: Day 2.

If your recovery time isn't so good, do day 1 on Monday and day 2 on Thursday.

THE IMPORTANT THING IS, you have to be increasing your weight and reps. Where I listed a body part (I.E. chest, shoulders), substitute ONE exercise for the listed body part (I.E. for chest, add bench press. For triceps, add dips or pushdowns. For upper back, add pullups, chin-ups or pulldowns. For biceps, add just ONE form of curls.)

To be able to do more weight for more reps on the single body part workouts, do it rest-pause style - after failure, take 15 breaths and go to failure again, then 15 breaths and go to failure again. The listed reps are suggestions - don't overanalyze, just lift. If I listed 16 reps as the max reps and you got to 22 reps before failure, big deal, just increase the weight on your next workout.

Done right, with proper recovery time and eating, you could gain 10-20 pounds of muscle in 6 weeks. How much fat that's mixed in with depends on how clean your bulk is. But you can do that minus steroids.

Why the squat variations? Because heavy squats cause major weight gain, and 20-rep squats cause legendary weight gain. Squats are the magic pill for weight gain, of COURSE I'm going to add them in.

Why shouldn't you go to failure on olympic lifts? Duh - if you can't stop yourself once your form fails, and have to try to go to actual rep failure, you are just asking for a DISASTER.

What about lower back stuff, back shoulders, traps, etc? Relax - the olympic lifts will take care of ALL of those.

Remember: KEEP YOUR FORM RIGHT, first of all. Second of all, KEEP INCREASING WEIGHT AND REPS.

And, after 6 weeks of this routine, take a week off. Then, you can either start it again and change around the single-bodypart lifts, or do a different routine to keep variety going. You can use the same lifts again, but you're more likely to plateau this way.

Lift hard, lift heavy and enjoy it.