Obey the principles without being bound by them."
– Bruce Lee
The goal of the following principles isn't to give you a set of training rules that you must follow, but to provide you with guidelines that I've found to produce consistent and predictable results.
It's important that these principles be used as one cohesive unit, so don't implement some while ignoring others – they go together.
However, you may decide that you need to adjust some (or all) of them to suit you, your situation, and your preferred training style. And that's okay – they're all malleable, and all can be tweaked somewhat.
Speaking of training style, note that these are my principles for bodybuilding training – not athletic training, not fitness training, not functional training – bodybuilding training.
So those who could expect to benefit most are those looking to compete in a physique competition (bodybuilding, figure, etc.), as well as those who want to look like they could compete.
However, any trainee can benefit from understanding the logic behind these principles. So even if you're not a physique competitor, I encourage you to read on and then adjust accordingly.
Without further ado, here are the first 5 Bodybuilding Training Principles that I've found to be of tremendous benefit to me, and I hope they are to you as well. (The next 6 principles will follow in part 2.)
1. Train Each Body Part Once per Week
Trial and Error
Exceptions
2. Do 3-4 Exercises per Body Part
3. Do 3 Work Sets per Exercise
4. Do a Power and/or Strength Move for Each Body Part
5. Do a Strength/Hypertrophy Exercise for Each Body Part
In closing for now