Mass Building...Muscle Growth...Build Muscle
Weight Lifting Routines...Muscle Building Workouts
Bigger is Better!
Your Subtitle text
Your vehicle is weight lifting and nutrition. What you need is directions to your destination. A map of sorts.
Here are the principles of weight training and muscle building that we believe leads to the largest gains in the fastest time frame.
1. You must lift big for you, to be bigger than you are!
There are many philosophies regarding muscle building. High Intensity Training and Periodization are two "in vogue" currently. HIT involves 2-3 full body workouts a week at "high intensity" and periodization is geared towards a more specialized workout centering on a "lifting cycle". Clearly I am over simplifying both but it doesn't really matter. Do they work? Sure, for some. Can you build muscle with either? Sure, in time. The problem I have with both is that they over complicate the process.
If you accept the fact that larger people, people with more muscle can lift more weight, more times than smaller people, and you wish to look like the bigger people, it seems obvious to me that you have to be able to lift what they do to look like them! In other words if you never TRY TO LIFT THINGS YOU CAN"T how will your muscles ever learn to grow to handle this weight, so that you can grow to look like them?
Of course you can not lift what you can not lift, but you can train at as close to this as you can. Because when you can handle more reps at the close to your max weight, your ONE REP max weight will go up. Speaking of reps.....
2. Sets and Reps: Less is More!
At least for reps. The age old formula for training has always centered on the 8, 12 or 16 rep quantity. Why? There are three reasons that seem to explain most of it. First there is experience and tradition. If a guy training has found that a certain number of reps has worked for him, he passes it along and so on. Second, as silly as this sounds, music, something people have always used as a motivator, is played on a 4 count. To make group training sessions work to the beat, 8 and 16 fit. Lastly, there is scientific evidence to suggest that experience has been a pretty good indicator of what does work. Most (not all) studies have shown that:
1 - 6 reps is best for strength increases
7 - 12 reps is best for muscle growth
13 plus reps is best for fitness and endurance training
Using this as a guide you can see that 13 plus reps can be ruled out immediately for building muscle mass. You can also logically conclude that the farther AWAY from 13 reps you get the better for mass gains. To get the best of BOTH worlds, strength gain and muscle mass building strive for 6 reps for everything, and if you can do more than 6, stop at 8, congratulations, and add more weight next time! Add more weight to what?.......
3. Weight lifting exercises that induce the most muscle growth
Don't forget that word in our name, FAST. If you lift enough weight, enough times, you will add some muscle mass.The point is, with the limited time you have for training a week, how do you get the most from the least? The answer is compound exercises. Compound exercises involves the movement of more than one joint and works a major muscle group. There are many of these moves, here are the ones to focus on:
Bench Press
Military Press
Seated Row
Chin Ups
Deadlift
Squats
Each of the listed exercise works more than one muscle and hits a major muscle group.
Of course there is a place for isolation moves in mass building. Bicep curls, laterals and quad extensions are valuable exercises at the right time and place in your routine. We simply feel that the most bang for your effort comes from compound moves. The first exercises in your basic muscle building routine should be compound moves and the most energy should be spent on them. A rule of thumb that I use for people is 75% of your workout time should be spent on the six compound moves listed UNTIL you can bench AND squat 100 pounds more than your body weight. Then, and only then does it make sense do divert weight lifting time and energy away from the most efficient muscle building moves.
So low rep, compound moves with heavy weight. How heavy?.....
4. Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is a simple concept (we LOVE that). It means that for each successive workout you add more weight or the same weight with more reps. We prefer the "adding more weight " part. You cannot gain weight fast by asking your muscles to grow. They won't respond to verbal commands. Muscles will grow only when they are forced to grow and your body will naturally resist building muscles. Extra muscle requires extra energy and your body is concerned about energy supplies. The amount of muscle you have now is the amount your body has determined you need. It makes this determination based on genetics, diet and the demands placed on it by your life.
You can't change your genetics but you can increase your diet (supply the body with what it needs to put on and sustain new muscle) and through weight lifting you can change the demands placed on your muscles. You have to literally make your body believe that it needs more muscle and that it needs to get to work on building muscles. You make the body believe this through your training of "lifting bigger to be bigger". Then, through your diet, you must prove to it that you can consistently provide the materials it needs to build and sustain this muscle.
The body is not easily convinced of anything so you must be consistent. It is when you put together a program that accounts for all of the above that big muscle gains start occurring.
Copyright . Steve R Robbins. All rights reserved.
