Introduction to Basic Training Principles

The first task facing the beginning bodybuilder is to build up a solid foundation of muscle mass-genuine muscular weight, not bulky fat. Later, you will try to shape this muscle into a balanced, quality physique.
You do this by basic, hard training using heavy weights-grinding it out week after week until your bodybegins to respond. And what I mean by basic training is not just a few exercises like Bench Presses, Bent-Over
Rows, and Squats, but 30 or 40 exercises all designed to stimulate and develop the major muscle groups of the body.

At the end of this period what you want is size, the raw material of a great physique. In my Arnold's  case, or in the case of other bodybuilders like Dave Draper or Lee Haney, he had pretty much achieved this in our early twenties. He was huge, 240 pounds, but unfinished-like an enormous, gangling puppy who has not yet grown up to match the size of his feet. Although he had won major championships, he was like an uncut diamond. But he had plenty of mass and at that point he set out to create the kind of finished, polished look he needed to become the best he could be. This initial period may last two, three, or even as long as five years.
The length of the process depends on a number of factors such as genetics, body type, and how much energy and motivation you are able to put into your training. Whether a bodybuilder develops faster or slower is no
particular guarantee of ultimate quality. What counts is how far you are able to go, not how fast. Dorian Yates, for example, who is incredibly massive, didn't even begin serious bodybuilding until his late teens and early twenties. So no matter when you start, how old you are, or what kind of body type you have, the process is the same-heavy, consistent, dedicated training over an extended period of time.