Hello,
I will first give a disclaimer...most Americans (weekend warriors, amateurs, professionals, and trainers included) mistakely confuse bodybuilding with training for athletic performance. There is a general training effect if you do either but having a body like Arnold Schwartznegger does not necessarily mean you are strong. Lou Ferigno (sp? --the Hulk) tried to compete in the "World's Strongest Man" tournaments and failed misearably (at least at first) because he had always trained for size and size does not equal strength. The marketing efforts of the Weider family and Arthur Jones (Nautilus) have been so successful that most people in the gym do bodybuilding exercises/routines, etc., ...mistakenly... when their goals are athletic performance. Charles Poliquin, Paul Chek, and the other "athletic renaissance" trainers are largely analyzing recently available Soviet exercise science to bring non-bodybuilding strength training back to the states. So, make sure your goals are aligned with what you want.
The absolute best book on bodybuilding, IMHO, is "Secrets of Advanced Bodybuilding" from Health for Life. They have a series of publications on bondybuilding and all are great. Make sure you get the supplement (appendix) and update books if you buy the main book.
For bodybuilding, there are some key principals...progressive overload, periodization, and working to failure. These are done in a different way than strength training (although the routines may look similar).
Progressive Overload. The body will respond to loads placed upon it by increasing the size of muscle fibers if those loads are beyond what the body has adjusted for in the past. If the load is not beyond then no muscle gain (no ripped construction workers, are there?). This does not automatically mean "Go Heavy" because you can overload your muscles without throwing around a lot of weight. In fact, you want to start with a short a routine (sets, exercises) as possible so you can progressively overload all the way from the start (rather than start with a 3-4 sets x 8-10 reps routine)...like starting in 3rd gear (or 5th gear if you do those silly routines in Weider magazines).
So first, cut down the sets and reps you do to 2-3 sets of 5-8 reps.
Overloading muscles is a balance between tension (weight applied) and fatigue (previous reps, weights, and exercises applied). So, while sport trainers would say these two routines are equal...
1) 10 sets of 1 rep at 100lbs (4min rest)
2) 1 set of 10 reps at 100lbs (no rest)
...bodybuilder trainers would say that #2 creates better intensity (tension over fatigue) than #1. Bodybuilding trainers would also say that routine #3 creates better intensity than routine #4...
3) 2 sets of 6 reps at 100lbs (30 sec rest)
4) 3 sets of 8 reps at 165lbs (2 min rest)
So, vary your rest between sets from between 25 seconds and 45 seconds.
Cutting the rest down in this manner will ensure that the body does not have enough time to rest the initially recruited muscle fibers (usually fast twitch type 1) from the previous set and will have to recruit different muscle fibers (usually medium/slow twitch type 2A in the same muscle) to complete subsequent reps and sets. Presto, overload. The 2A fibers will become more and more closer to 1 fibers (but never "convert") in speed and recovery (up and down, respectively) but because you are recruiting and exhausting more fibers...more fibers will grow.
(Athletic trainers are only concerned with type 1 muscle fiber because it will be the solely recruited fiber for power movements because they are so short in duration.)
Because you are working along this fatigue/tension threshold, you will need to cut your volume way down at first and build it back up--although you may never get to the exercises-sets-reps volume you achieved before. Start here...
* Workout: 5 days per week
* Total sets per day: 8 (e.g., 2 bench, 2 incline, 2 tricep, 2 delts)
* Total sets per week: 40
* Reps per set 5 to 8
* Rest between sets: 30 seconds
* Rest between exercises: same as btw sets
* Total workout time: less than 25 minutes (! Always less than 40 minutes...preferable less than 25 minutes.)
* Cadence: 2 seconds concentric, 4 seconds eccentric.
* Split:
Week 1: Legs: Mon, Fri; Pull: Tues, Sat; Push: Wed; Rest: Thur, Sun.
Week 2: Push: Mon, Fri; Legs: Tues, Sat; Pull: Wed; Rest: Thur, Sun.
Week 3: Pull: Mon, Fri; Push: Tues, Sat; Legs: Wed; Rest: Thur, Sun.
(Weeks 4-6 are same as 1-3)
(note how this cycles which area is worked on Wednesday and the area worked on Wednesday is only worked once per week. The others are twice per week.)
Legs: Quads, Hams, Glutes, Calves, Lower Back
Pull: Lats, Traps, Biceps, Rear Delt, Neck
Push: Chest, Triceps, Front/Side Delts, Forearms
You should be picking weights that take you to concentric failure by your last set of that exercise (cannot lift the weight one more rep without assistance). Once you are comfortable with that (after 6-9 weeks or 2 6-week periods), try taking the Wednesday routine to eccentric failure (cannot lower the weight in a controlled manner) if you have a spotter (for safety's sake). See how this split automatically spaces out "heavy days" so you only do one per 3-weeks per bodypart?