(1)  genetics  (2) discipline 
(2)  diet and  (4) consistency,

in that order. How fast you get there is of no importance at all! We don't mean basic movements either. Of course the bench press, squat, and rows are great exercises and are the basis of all the others, but if you want to get huge you have to have a little variety. 

The basic muscle groups are: 
· Back- You need a thick wide back. Muscles include the latissimus dorsi (lats), spinal erectors. 
· Shoulders- Size.. everyone wants big shoulders. There are three heads on the deltoid muscle the front, the rear, and the side. Shoulders includes the Trapezius (traps). 
· Chest- This includes the upper and lower pects. This a favorite area of training for most people. 
· Biceps- You will need long full bicep muscles. 
· Triceps- You will need to developed this one very well! It has three heads hence the "tri". These are the most important for big arms. 
· Forearms- Flexors and extensors. 
· Quadriceps and glutes- A must for hardcore bodybuilders. Without big legs and a rear end,, you will look terrible. 
· Hamstrings- Very important for big legs. 
· Abdominals- This includes all of the abs and obliques. They need to be seen. 
· Calves- They need to be shaped well. Muscles included: gastrocnemius, soleus, and tibials. 

Learn specific exercises for each muscle group in topic "Exercises".

A good way to begin is to jump right in to a 6 day per week program. The truly dedicated get up and workout even when their job takes its toll on them. This may mean getting up at 5am or working out at 8pm. Whatever works for you. I personally like the mornings much better because I am much more rested, besides, you should never be able to sleep right after your workout. Your workout should be about 1 hour and 30 minutes long.
 

Monday	Tuesday	Wed	Thursday	Friday	Saturday	Sunday
Chest, Tri's and Shoulders	Back and Bi's	Legs	Chest, Tri's and Shoulders	Back and Bi's	Legs	Rest

Do abs everyday.

When you are first starting to build your foundation, it can take a long time. You must be patient and expect the muscle to come. Always use good form even though it may seem harder, your gains will be much better. Even if you are in the gym 6 days a week and working hard, it still could still take 3-6-9 months before you see any real weight and strength gains. But believe me, there is no better motivation than seeing yourself change. During this period, you will need to maintain a  diet and get plenty of R&R (rest and recuperation). It is important to take some time (maybe a week) off after about 6 months of working out consistently. This break is great because it gives your muscles time to heal and grow. My best days ever lifting are after a week break. 

You may experience a "plateau" after doing the same routine and workouts for a long time. A plateau is when you are kind of stuck at a certain weight and can't seem to get over it. This is a great time to either take your week break (if you haven't already) or to change your routine a bit. A good example of changing your routine is instead of doing flat bench, incline bench, and dumbbell flys for your chest workout, do seated press, incline flys, and pullovers. I know this isn't a drastic change but it should "shock" your muscles enough to start growing again. Shocking your muscles this way is the first step in becoming an advanced bodybuilder. I like to change my routine every 4-6 weeks anyway. 

When you have put on some 15-20 lbs of good quality muscle and you have a great foundation of muscle built up, you are ready to move on to advanced training area.
 

Once you have a solid foundation you can begin using some advanced training principles. The main ingredient for becoming an advanced hardcore bodybuilder is intensity. This is when bodybuilding gets really fun! 
First learn someAdvances Techniques. Then you will need to learn a few concepts and pick the right program for you. 

· Advanced Training Concepts
· Advanced Training Program

Advanced Training Concepts 
High-set training is a relatively new concept. Back in the day, guys would do only a few sets per body part on a specific day. Nowadays this is more of a powerlifter type workout. High-set training is when you do about 15-20 sets per body part. This could mean 75 sets per workout! 

Doing a Double-split workout is a great way to make your workouts less demanding. This type of workout takes a ton of dedication and will power, but if you want a championship body you need to sacrifice. A Double-split is when you split your workout up into two separate times in the day. This is the way most every "contender" trains. A good Double-split workout is shown in the first advanced workout program. 

Advanced Training Program
Other advanced training programs can be made from this one. Once you are an advanced bodybuilder you can make your own personal program to suite your needs.  * Double-split  *

Morning

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Chest and Back	Shoulders, upper arms, forearms, and calves	Chest and Back	Shoulders, upper arms, forearms, and calves	Chest and Back	Shoulders, upper arms, forearms, and calves

(Abs every morning)

Evening

Mon	Tue	Wed	Thu	Fri	Sat
Legs and calves		Legs and calves		Legs and calves

--Try to challenge yourself by putting in more exercises into your routine without using more time. Or you can try to get the same routine done in less time. This means less time between sets and it requires a fast recovery rate. 

-- Heavy and light days. Probably my favorite way to shock my muscles is to use heavy and light training days. On heavy days, I use as much weight as I can for 3-4 reps and on light days I put on as much weight as I can for 12-15 reps. This is good for me because I train 6 days a week doing each body part twice per week. 

-- Forced reps are pretty popular. I don't like them too much but people do get pretty good results from them. A forced rep is when you are trying to lift more weight than you can lift by yourself and you need your partner to help you get it up. The only time I like these is when you are at your failure point and you just need a little help to get the last one up. 

-- Partial reps are a great way to get your muscles to burn. When doing partial bench press reps, you should only lift the weight about 4 inches off of your chest. This goes for any other exercise as well. Only do the first half of the rep. (don't do these for squats- they are a waste of time). 

-- Isolate your muscles to get the most out of a particular workout. Doing leg extensions are a great isolation workout for your thighs. for biceps I recommend doing dumbbell curls. isolation 

-- Isotension is imperative if you want to be a competitive bodybuilder. This is when you continuously flex and relax your muscles before, between, and after your workout and even between reps. Practicing your posing routine is a form of isotension as well. 

-- Negative reps are when you are lowering the weight. My favorite exercise to do negatives on is with straight bar curls. To do this, you curl the bar up as normal then lower it very slowly. Concentrate on holding the weight as hard as you can. If you can hold it easily, then its not enough weight. 

-- Cheating is when you lose your form just for a second to help get you through a tough spot in your workout. For instance, if you are doing standing military press and you can't seem to push out the last rep and you begin to use your legs to give you momentum to lift it, this is cheating. Keeping good form in general is one of the most important criteria to becoming strong and staying healthy so this type of practice should be avoided as much as possible. 

-- Heavy Duty training is when you go to your usual workout weight right after warming up. Usually, I do a few (3-4) sets to pyramid up to my workout weight and get the blood pumping. With the heavy duty method of training, you skip the pyramid and go straight to the top. 

-- Staggered sets are usually used to help develop an underdeveloped area. For instance if your calves were a little smaller than you like, you might incorporate an extra day of calf exercises on a day that they aren't scheduled for. So when chest day comes around you would do a set of calf raises between each exercise you do that day. By the end of the day you may have done 20-30 sets! 

-- Prioritize your workout so that you are putting a specific emphasis on your "weak" areas. Personally, My back could use a little more work. On back day I could use one or more of the techniques above to help make my workout more enjoyable and effective. I could also schedule my back day on Monday so I am more fresh... get the point? 

-- Supersets are one of my personal favorites! This can be done two ways actually. 1) You can superset the same muscle group. ie: doing pushups between sets of bench press, and 2) You can superset opposing muscle groups. ie: doing pull-ups between sets of bench press. I like doing them both ways. 

-- Stripping weight as you go is a very effective way to build muscle. This allows you to work through your fatigue. Basically, you do as many reps as you can until you are completely fatigued, then you "strip" some weight off of the bar and immediately go again until you are fatigued at that weight. This is a good way to make you feel weak, but you really get a pump! 

-- I Go/You Go: This is a pretty fun exercise especially when you and your partner are about the same strength and size. Basically, if you are doing curls, once you are done with your set you hand the weight off to your partner then he goes. You can go back and forth until one of you gives up. Or you can do one, then your partner does one, then you do two, then he does two, then three and go up to 15 or so then back down.