Ask Lou About:
The "Best" Workout Program

I've collected heaps and heaps of magazines, articles and books on working out, and I'm never sure what routine to follow. At the end of the day, are your routines going to build muscle faster than what bodybuilders are recommending?

I usually define the “best” workout as the one you haven’t tried yet.

Most guys who try the programs in my books have already done the beginner programs at their gyms -- machine circuits, or basic bodybuilding routines with as many sets for their biceps as for vertical and horizontal pulls combined.

So when they do an Ian King routine (as in Book of Muscle), they’re doing balanced workouts for the first time. That is, they’re putting equal emphasis on pushing and pulling, and squatting and deadlifting. I know it was a revelation for me when I first started doing Ian’s routines, and most guys I’ve talked to who’ve tried them feel the same way.

The workouts the trainers I work with put together all have that secret sauce -- balance, an emphasis on multijoint movements, a de-emphasis of “body parts” and other bodybuilding culture.

I like to think I’m advocating a “back to the future” approach. Back in the old days, before they had machines (or even benches and squat racks), lifters had to start most of their exercises by picking the weight up off the floor. If you look at pictures of those guys, you see they had thick, nicely proportioned physiques -- they looked like athletes -- and when you read about them, you realize they were incredibly strong, too.

Advanced bodybuilders tend to like the programs less than advanced beginners and intermediates. They’re already doing a lot of the basic, multijoint movements, along with all the other isolation movements. Those guys, I think, are advanced bodybuilders because they like that super-high volume of exercise.

To answer your question more directly, I think the programs in my books are the “best” for guys who ...

1. Haven’t tried them before
2. Are willing to follow a program designed by someone who knows what he’s doing
3. Want to get as much work accomplished as possible in a finite time frame
4. Care about their muscles’ performance as well as their appearance
5. Aren’t taking steroids