QUESTION: Hey Tom! I love your blogs and newsletters. Please keep writing them. I have a question I was hoping you could answer for me: what kind of weight training program are you using these days? It seems like training science has come a long way in the last ten years or so and I was wondering whether your philosophy of training has changed or if you’re doing anything new. I was also wondering if you’re competing any time soon. thanks! Jason C.

ANSWER: Training science has definitely come a long waysince I first started in this business 20 years ago.Even in the last 5 years, there has been an enormousamount of innovation in training styles and modes.

This has changed the way I and many other trainers prescribeworkouts for other people. You can’t make one blanketrecommendation for everyone – each person has to be taken onan individual basis and the right program chosen based a person’s goals, lifestyle, preferences and physical condition. With so many new training tools, techniques and styles, we have more choices now than ever.

Best advice: keep an open mind and keeping experimenting with new things. I don’t think anyone should restrict themselves to one mode of training.

For me, because I’m a bodybuilder, the choice of my standard or “default” training method is a no-brainer. I use the bodybuilding method, the same method I explain in my ebook, Burn The Fat,Feed The Muscle

The training variables in my workout program change all the time including exercises, sets, rep range, tempo, range of motion, which intensity techniques are used, and so on.

I’ve found that to avoid plateaus, changing workout variables frequently becomes more and more important as your training age increases (training age is how long you’ve been training -I’ve been doing it for 25 years!). So, I’m always changing some variable – even more than I used to.

However, the overall schedule and training frequency I’m using now is the same one I’ve used for years. It’s a 4 day split routine on a 2 days on, 1 day off schedule.

This is the 4 day split:

Day 1: Chest, Biceps abs
Day 2: Quads, Hamstrings, calves (light)
Day 3: Shoulders (incl traps), Triceps, abs
day 4: Back, calves (heavy)

This is done on a 2 days on, 1 day off rotation, which meansI don’t (usually) do weight training more than 2 days in a row.With this schedule, each body part is worked once every 6 days,with the exception of abs and calves, which are worked abouttwice a week.

Occasionally, I’ll hit arms twice a week if I want to specialize.

I’m very aware of the trend away from body part split routinesthat has taken place over the past decade or so, as well asthe recommendations to use full body training or movement-pattern based split routines (vertical pull, horizontal push,rotation, etc, etc,) or “functional training” instead of programs that include”chest and bicep days”

Those recommendations make perfect sense if you are talking about sports training, where body part split training is not appropriate or fitness or fat loss training for the ordinary Joe, where bodybuilding routines may not be necessary or practical.

In fact, I created a time-efficient, full-body, movement-pattern basedtraining program in my newest book, The Body Fat Solution, because that book was not written for bodybuilders or for bodybuilding goals

However, I have to chuckle when I hear training “experts” say that bodybuilding split routines are altogether ineffective or somehow bad for you.

Granted, there is a lot of nonsense still being published in the muscle mags (like 20 set bicep routines, and so on), but the 4 day split, 2 on 1 off, is the training program I have used for almost every bodybuilding competition I have ever entered (28 and counting).

If you win a competition or if you achieve your physique goal, then how does somebody figure that the training method you used was ineffective? Beats me. Another one of those mysteries of the universe. I could have shelves full of trophies and some critic will still come along and say, “You’re doing it all wrong! You have to do full body workouts and hit each muscle at least 2X a week!” come to think of it, I DO have shelves full of trophies… and criticsDO say that, LOL!

One thing I have done for years and still do, is to use some sort of abbreviated “back to basics” type of routine once a year or so, which might be a full body program like Randall Strossen’s Super Squats program or it might be a split routine with low volume,using some type of variation on the classic Mentzer-esque “high intensity Training” (H.I.T) methods.

I’ve found that those briefer routines with less volume improvemy strength significantly. However, I’ve also noticed that they don’t give me the muscle size and appearance that the split routines do and I don’t find them as enjoyable, so that’s why they’re not my default method.

Clearly, each person is different and if you’re willing to try some new stuff and experiment and then pay attention to the results, you will eventually learn from direct experience what works best for you and what type of training is most satisfying to you.

But, make no mistake: Contrary to the rumours, body part split routines are far fromdead and they are highly effective for bodybuilding, and I’d like to present myself as proof of that.

Is there a “best” training program out there today? Yes, I believe there is. I believe that the best training program is the one that safely gets YOU the results YOU want and the one YOU are passionate about!

After 25 years of training and 20 years of competing, my training passion is the same as it’s always been – bodybuilding – and I look forward to continuing with competition.

Train Hard and Expect Success!

Tom Venuto
www.BurnTheFat.com