There is no perfect workout. What exercises you choose to do and how often you do them depends on your fitness goal. If you’re a powerlifter, then you want to lift heavy for low reps, if you’re an athlete, then you want muscle endurance and usually do lower weight and more reps, and if you’re a bodybuilder, you go with moderate weight for 8-12 reps. But what if you want a little bit of all? If you do, then you’re probably interested in doing a 4×4 system workout.
The 4×4 workout, in essence, is doing 4 exercises for all of your muscle groups, starting with heavier weights while aiming to get at least 4-6 reps, and then lowering the weight but increasing the reps. By doing so you focus on building strength with the first reps, while the other reps are going to boost muscle growth and endurance. The most important aspect is choosing the right weight, as you want to reach muscle failure all the time, so by the 4th series you should look to push around 16 reps.
For instance, an ideal 4×4 workout back workout would consist of barbell deadlifts, weighted pull-ups, t-bar rows and straight-arm pull-downs. While a chest 4×4 workout would consist of a medium grip barbell incline bench press, dumbbell bench press, cable cross-over and smith machine decline press.
Besides sticking to the 4×4 workout, it’s important to stick to the right food regimen as well, and in order to do so, you’ll have to look for a few bodybuilding products online, such as protein, BCAAs and creatine. Buying bodybuilding products online gives you the benefit of comparing different products and prices, as well as reading reviews from people that literally live for the gym.
Protein is the most widely used and accepted bodybuilding supplement as it promotes muscle growth hormones (anabolic hormones), it contains amino acids and has many overall health benefits like lowering blood sugar and blood pressure, and it also reduces symptoms of depression and stress.
BCAAs are the 2nd most widely used supplement. They maximise fat loss more effectively than any other supplement and increase muscle retention. Simply put, they help you lose weight without losing muscle, allowing you to get lean muscle mass.
And lastly – creatine. Creatine provides an improved athletic performance, a surge of energy, if you will, which will allow you to endure intense workout sessions for longer time periods. It also increases protein synthesis, which results in better muscle growth.
