Upper Body Training

Most bodybuilders want to be told what to do, to perform this or that exercise, eat this or that food. They think this will bring success. Unfortunately, what is good for one is not necessarily good for another, in bodybuilding as in many things in life.

The plain fact is that the do this or that school of thought is hopelessly short-sighted and has no hope of ever reaching the heights of bodybuilding. In order to develop your own physique to the utmost you must develop your own knowledge of bodybuilding. Come to know the principles of training and diet. Only by understanding these principles and being able to apply them to yourself and your own training can you hope for success.

As this has been true for nutrition and the general principles of training, it is also true with your various exercises – any number of them can work equally well for you. There are no “secret” exercises used only by the champs, no one best exercise for any body part, no exercise that will develop a sensational physique all by itself.

It is again up to you to take the various exercises for a body part and try them out, find the one that is most comfortable to do, most result producing and the one you like best. As long as you perform the movement through the full range of motion of the body part you’re working, that’s all that is required. After that it is up to your individual preferences.

And, there are as many exercises as there are champions. Take biceps, for instance; Eric Pedersen developed his with mainly the concentration curl. Steve Reeves his with the Incline Curl; Larry Scott with the use of the curling Bench. Bill Pearl changes his exercises every three months and doesn’t even have a favorite at all. Yet, all those mentioned have developed sensational arms.

As I pointed out in my “Principles of Successful Bodybuilding: All of us have slightly different body structures and metabolisms, therefore cannot hope to copy the routines of various champs. The champs themselves do not use even remotely the same exercises; their secret is being able to pick the best exercise for their individual needs. How? By understanding the principles of training and applying them to their individual needs.

It’s a matter of trying out exercises, working them into the framework of your overall training scheme, and finding those movements which help you the most. When you can understand this, the importance of training principles and the unimportance of any single exercise per se, then you are on the way to success.