The Top Ten Muscle Building Tips
1. Lift weights for no more than three
to four days per week. Doing so is not only unnecessary but
can quickly lead to over-training, especially if you are doing
other physical activities such as cardio or playing
recreational sports on a regular basis.
2. Limit your workouts to 30-45 minutes
and 15-20 total sets. If you can't build muscle and gain
strength in that time frame then I’d say you are half assing
it. You have to remember that results are greatest when energy
levels and mental focus are at their highest. That is during
the first 30-45 minutes of your workout. Going beyond that
point causes both of these to plummet.
3. Use big, compound exercises and lift heavy.
Deadlifts, military presses, squats, bench presses, rows and
chin ups should always be the main focus of your muscle
building workout programs. These have been the best muscle
building exercises since the beginning of time and that will
never change.
4. Continually try to get stronger and always track your
progress with a training journal. Progressive overload is
the most basic but often forgotten principle in weight
training. It states that to make progress you need to
constantly increase the amount of weight you lift. Follow this
rule and you will get bigger and stronger. Ignore it and you
will get nowhere. If you are benching 225 right now, you better
be benching 315 by this time next year if you want to build
muscle.
5. Train with a multitude of rep ranges. Doing this
allows you to target both slow twitch and fast twitch muscle
fibers and maximizes your muscle building capabilities. Reps
from 1-20 should be used to target both fast twitch and slow
twitch fibers.
6. Always change your weight training program every 3-4
weeks. After 3-4 weeks on the same program you will start
to burn out and your results will slow down. To keep your body
in a muscle building state, be sure to change your workouts
frequently. If you have been lifting for several years, this
may need to be done every two weeks because you will adapt more
rapidly to the same stimulus.
7. Make a serious commitment to eating. Proper nutrition
plays a huge role in your muscle building efforts. Without
adequate calories you will never grow optimally. Force feed
yourself if you have to and be sure to time your carbs
correctly, meaning around training and at breakfast, while
cutting them out at night if you want to stay lean while
building muscle.
8. Be sure to get at least 8-10 hours of sleep per day and
take naps whenever possible. When you are sleeping is when
you are building muscle. Sleep is the time when you recover and
grow. Without adequate sleep you will never reach your true
potential and your muscle building efforts in the gym may be
wasted. Do not overlook this important factor.
9. Utilize recovery methods. Training and eating
properly are not enough to ensure the fastest muscle building
results. You also have to be sure to use whatever recovery
methods you can to accelerate your progress. Some of these
include taking contrast showers or baths after training,
stretching after training and on off days, icing, using foam
rollers and whatever else you can think of to help you recover
faster.
10. Find a good training partner. While I left this for
last on the list it may, in fact, be the most important factor
of them all. Without a good training partner your results will
always be less than what they could be. It is imperative that
you try to find someone to push you and to compete against if
you really want to take your muscle building efforts to the
next level.
Jason Ferruggia
is a world famous fitness expert who is renowned for his
ability to help people build muscle as fast as humanly
possible. He is the head training adviser for Men’s Fitness
Magazine where he also has his own monthly column dedicated to
muscle building. For more great muscle building information,
please visit Muscle Gaining
Secrets.
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