Ok, so you think you know all there is to know about building muscle. I have six muscle building strategies that will help you get immediate results. In this article I will go over the first three of them. These three muscle building strategies will accelerate your gains and keep you heads and tails ahead of the other guys in the gym who are strength training.
1. Change it up Every 3 Weeks
This one tip alone will help you never hit a plateau again in your life. Seriously think about that, you will never again hit a plateau in your strength training. This tip can be as simple as just changing the order you work your muscle groups in. Your body is an amazing thing, and it is constantly adapting to meet its ongoing stresses. In many cases just changing the order of your days is enough.
For Example, if your muscle building strategies consisted of working your chest and triceps and shoulders on Mondays, followed by your other muscle groups later in the week. Now for the next three weeks you will muscle build in the opposite direction. Now on Friday you will train your triceps, shoulders and then chest.
Its that simple, this is an extremely powerful tip for building muscle mass. If you want to kick it up another notch, you can even change the body parts that you work together. For example, if you generally work Back and Biceps together, change it and work your back with triceps and shoulders, and your chest with your biceps. Another way to keep your body guessing and never lose those gains.
2. The Grocery Store Is Important
If you are serious about becoming muscular, you will need to understand that the grocery store is a critical part of your success. If your meal plan consists of pasta from a can, and frozen turkey dinners you are going to have to make a few changes. Now I know that you are saying, but I burn more calories now, so I can eat what ever I want!
Well unfortunately that is not the case, you do burn a ton more calories now, but you cant just eat crap. You gotta chuck out the stuff in your fridge and cupboards now and replace it with some good quality food.
The second part to this, is you have to ensure you are eating a ton of good food. You need your cupboards stocked and constantly full of good food, that will keep you in a muscle building zone. This is the point that I think really separates the strong guys and gals from the average.
3. Body Weight Training
While this was once a really popular training method, now it is almost unheard of. I mean Arnold used to do chinups until he couldn’t do any more and then start his real workouts. Now I don’t recommend training like Arnold, he had insane genes that helped his muscle building strategies work! But I do recommend body weight training. If you cant lift your bodyweight then you shouldn’t even be doing things like bench press and squats.
I find it a little humorous when I see people loading the barbell up with a ton of weight and doing these half rep bench presses. You know the ones that you simply move the weight a couple inches each way. Most of these guys cant even do a set of pushups. Range of motion is important for these exercises.
Now I have high standards, but below is what I recommend people aim for with their body weight exercises;
Guys aim for 1 set of 70-80 push ups, 1 set of 15-20 chin ups, 1 set of 20 1-leged squats, 1 set of 35-40 dips and 1 set of 15-20 pull ups.
Gals aim for 1 set of 20-30 push ups, 1 set of 5-8 chin ups, 1 set of 10 1-leged squats, 1 set of 10-15 dips and 1 set of 3-5 pull ups.
Quite simply by implementing the strategies above you will be building muscle at a much higher pace than you are today. These are some of the best ways to build muscle, they are timeless.
4. 2 Days On 1 Day Off
Your body needs the proper amount of rest in between your sessions. I know what you are saying. But I am on a 6 day per week training session.
6 or 5 day a week training sessions are for some of the advanced bodybuilders, who are supplementing their bodies with a number of different things that you probably aren’t. If you are doing these workouts you are plain and simply putting your body through to much stress and it will not gain strength or build muscle.
Your body needs its recovery time. This time is as valuable as the time you put in at the gym ripping the muscle up. There is no point in returning to the gym and training your chest or back for a second time if it is not fully recovered from the first time. It just is not the right way to train.
5. If You Are Not Stronger Than Last Workout? If your body has not recovered from your last workout then don’t work that body part again. A good way to tell is if you are not stronger than your last workout your body had not fully compensated from the previous workout and required a longer recovery period.
Now just like the last point this is important, don’t say your tough and just burn through it.
Remember a crappy workout is usually not the answer. It can be the answer in a few situations, where you just really need to get a workout in, but most times if you are not really pushing yourself the right way you are not going to get the muscle building results. It is often a better result just to go home and do the workout tomorrow.
6. Find a Coach or Mentor
A fitness mentor or coach just like in the business world can be a strong tool. Someone who has been there and done that, perhaps a training partner or someone you can at least bounce ideas off of.
Some one you want to talk to about what kind of whey powder to take, or if doing incline decline and flat bench are good in the same day! (By the way they are not.)
Any question that you have, likely someone else has had them. Just like in real life if you want to find success at the gym you have to surround yourself with successful people.
And remember pay it forward, once you get muscular help the next guy out with his muscle building quest. In this world there is no reason everyone cant be fit.
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