I get a lot of mail from fans asking what exercises I do, and when. My workouts are designed to fit my needs, lifting heavy and sticking to the basics.

I plan my workouts around a few important sets. I warm up before I hit the heavies, and I give my heaviest set the most energy. I group two muscles together for a workout and this gives me my best results. This way I am able to give enough attention to a couple of selected body parts while the other muscles are recuperating. I lift three or four times a week.

From everything I've read, your muscles need 72 hours to recoup after being blasted, but I've found waiting closer to a week before hitting a particular muscle again can be best, especially if you are trying to build mass. You'll hit the same muscles indirectly while working other muscles, too. For example, I love to do dips. Love 'em! Since I can't do them without hitting both chest and triceps, I plan my workouts accordingly. If I am doing chest and triceps on the same day, great! If not, I may do chest on Monday with back (tonight's workout, as a matter of fact) and later in the week, like Wednesday or Thursday, do triceps/biceps. You see, I can't bench without doing triceps and will be hitting triceps indirectly on chest day and then blasting them a few days later, get it?

Also, my biceps almost always get pumped during a back workout. This is just because of the movements the body makes during the exercises. I may as well go ahead and finish biceps after back, or if I have another routine in mind, I will let bi's rest a couple days and blast them directly later.

I change my workout every time I hit the gym. I change the combo of muscles worked, or exercises, or number of reps. Most exercises are compound, which means they work more than one muscle. I also change the weight every set and, increasingly, do less reps as I add weight. I find six sets for each muscle is plenty, depending on your goals, divided over two to three exercises. This is usually a basic heavy lift followed by a couple lighter lifts. I do the heavy first (after warming up) because that's when my strength is greatest. My whole workout takes about an hour.

Now we're ready for some examples. After stretching, pick 2-3 different exercises for each body part. The following are some of my favorites to choose from:

CHEST- bench press, incline press, dumbell press, dumbell flyes, pec deck, cable crossovers

SHOULDERS- Behind neck press, military press, dumbell lateral raises, upright rows, shrugs

TRICEPS- dips, nose busters, reverse grip bench press, over head dumbell tricep extension, cable tricep machine, dumbell kick backs

BICEPS- standing alternate dumbell curl, barbell curl, concentration curl, one arm curl with cable

BACK- deadlift, pull up, t-bar row, lat pull down, bent over rows seated pully row

LEGS- squats, leg press, hack squat, leg extension, leg curl, stiff legged dead lift, calf machine

Before I hit the weights, I do some cardio to warm up (after stretching). Usually this will be six minutes on the stair master or running on the treadmill. A little more time is good, too, but this will get my blood flowing. Then I warm up the muscle I will be working. Here's an example of what I do in a week:

On this routine, my triceps get pumped on chest day and again when I hit them directly. It also takes triceps to press weight over head for shoulders. If I were to do triceps, and on the same day or even the day after try to hit the bench, I would be so, so much weaker. I can't do that to my bench. I love the bench press. On chest day, no matter what else I'm doing, it's "bench day". I bench every chest day but I alternate flat bench with incline on different days to get the most out of both.

Changing the routine keeps it interesting. Here's another option:

Day 1 - Chest, Triceps
Day 2 - Back, Biceps
Day 3 - Legs
Day 4 - Off
Day 5 - Chest, Shoulders

I do this one a lot. When I do legs, I squat. Always. I change the rest of the mass workout, from heavy/low reps to lighter/higher reps on the squats. This works out well because some days you just feel like going heavier than others.

Besides sticking to the basics, I pick two or sometimes up to four different exercises for each part from a list of many. For chest, I like to do bench, dumbell press, dumbell flys, cable crossovers, hammer strength, single dumbell pullovers and any variations on a decline, incline... whatever! Get the picture? You have to try everything for awhile to decide what you like and don't. And it'll be based mostly on how it feels to you (which is a good thing).