Muscle Building Workouts Guide -
How To Train For Muscle Gain
One of main things you need to learn in order to build muscle effectively is how to perform muscle building workouts the right way to stimulate the most growth in muscle size and strength. If you're serious about achieving significant gains and creating a much more muscular body then it's a great idea to follow what has worked successfully for others before you. Some people even train in such a way that they actually lose muscle! The most common mistakes that beginner lifters seem to make are: - Choosing the wrong exercises
- Training on too many days
- Working each muscle group too frequently
- Training for too long in a single session
- Performing too many sets or reps
- Training with incorrect or poor form
- Not focusing on improving week by week
So avoid mistakes like these and learn the proven, effective ways of structuring muscle building workouts for the fastest results with our following training tips. Let's be honest, you're making the effort of actually showing up at the gym and paying your membership, so you may as well be doing the right things in the gym to promote gains in muscle size and strength.
Use Heavy Weights And Low Reps
If you want to build as much muscle as you can, you absolutely MUST use heavy weights. By heavy, I mean weights that are challenging for you. Everyone is different, and a weight that is challenging for you might be a walk in the park for the guy next to you. But don't let that discourage you at all.Now, most guys in the gym you see will perform over 10 to 15 reps on an exercise. For building muscle mass, this is not what you want to be doing. You need to lift a weight that is heavy enough so that you can only perform a low amount of reps (for example, 4-8 reps). Using heavy weights with lower repetitions causes much more stress on your muscles and that's how they grow the fastest. You simply won't get the same muscle building results by lifting lighter weights for more reps, that's a fact. To learn more about why lower reps are most effective, check out our article How Many Reps to Build Muscle.
Focus on Compound Lifts
To build muscle effectively, you need to focus on the compound lifts. Compound lifts are the exercises that require a lot of different individual muscles to complete the lift. These exercises are the foundation of good muscle building workouts. Here are the basic compound exercises:- Squats (legs, lower back)
- Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)
- Bench Press (chest, shoulders, triceps)
- Overhead Presses (shoulders, triceps)
- Chin Ups/Rows (back, biceps)
- Dips (shoulders, chest, triceps)
Some of these compound lifts are difficult to perform and you might get discouraged by this. But whatever you do, don't wimp out and ignore them! They are by far the best exercises for packing on significant muscle mass, and you should take the time and effort to learn how to perform them correctly and safely.
Choose Free Weights Over Machines
Your muscle building workouts should concentrate on free weights and not machines. Using free weights will work your muscles more because you have to guide and balance the weight yourself, and this means you will build more muscle than you could with machines.Machine exercises are handy for targeting specific muscle groups, but only AFTER you have performed the main compound exercise work. They should not form any basis for your workouts.
Train With High Intensity - Go Hard!
You should treat going to the gym like going to war. It's an intense battle against your muscles. The more muscle tissue you break down during your workout, the more muscle your body will develop. Whether or not you choose to train to muscular failure, you should perform every set you do with 100% intensity. For those who don't know, training to muscular failure means that you keep doing reps until it's physically impossible for your muscles to move the weight any further. This type of training is preached by some, yet others believe its unnecessary. But one way or the other, the truth is most people don't train hard enough, and are missing out on a lot of extra muscle they could gain if they put in that little more each session.
Train With The Right Frequency
When trying to build muscle a lot of misinformed people believe that the more they train, the better. This is certainly not true! Overtraining is a very common problem that sabotages a lot of people from building muscle.A proven way of structuring muscle building workouts is to work each muscle group only once per week, that is all. If you train with full intensity on every set, once a week for each muscle group is all you will need to trigger maximum muscle growth. How many times a week should you workout? A lot of the top experts in the field of building muscle say that 3 times a week is a perfect balance. This has been proven to work very effectively. You should also aim to group muscles that normally work together into the same workout session. For example, when you train your chest with the bench press it involves your shoulders and triceps as well, so it would be wise to group those three muscle groups into the same workout session. So a typical training schedule could look like this: Session 1: Legs, Abs
Session 2: Chest, Shoulders, Triceps
Session 3: Back, Biceps
Learn More About Effective Training For Size And Strength
We have covered the basics to structuring great muscle building workouts. Following these guidelines for your own workouts will maximize your muscle size and strength. The following training articles reveal the true secrets of building muscle and go into more detail about performing effective workouts.
How To Overcome An Exercise Plateau
When you reach a plateau in your weight training it can be very frustrating because your muscle gains come to a halt. Learn how to overcome a plateau easily with my tips in this article.
The Most Useful Tool to Building Muscle Fast
Explains the importance of progression in your weight lifting workouts, and why a pen a paper is a very powerful tool to building a great physique.
Build More Muscle Mass by Resting Properly Between Sets
Resting between sets is something that most people don't go about the right way. Learn the best method of resting to build the most muscle that you possibly can!
How Many Reps to Build Muscle
Explains why using lower reps in your workouts is much more effective than using higher reps for muscle growth, and why a rep range of 5-7 is ideal.
Weightlifting Warm Up The Right Way
Learn the importance of a proper warm up before your heavy weight training sets and details on how to perform an effective warm up routine.
Training Too Much Can Prevent You Building Muscle Mass
If you're looking to gain lean muscle mass then you should realize that spending more time in the gym isn't necessarily better. Over-training is a very common problem that beginner weight lifters make.
The Muscle Pump Misconception
A lot of weight lifters think that the "muscle pumps" they get in the gym has something to do with how much muscle they will build. This is a common bodybuilding myth and we give you the truth here.
Weight Lifting At Home
Building a strong, muscular body doesn't have to be done in a normal gym. This article takes a look at the advantages of a home gym and what equipment you will need for your muscle building workouts.
A Critical Muscle Building Tip
A very interesting tip on how to achieve the very best muscle gains you are capable of and why only a fraction of time you spend in the gym will lead to actual muscle growth.
Weight Lifting Basics: Choosing A Gym
Takes a look at the factors you should consider when choosing a gym to sign up with.
Best Time For Weight Lifting Workouts
When is the best time to train for muscle gain? Is it early in the morning when you first get up? Or late at night before bed? Read all about timing your workouts here.
Gain 10 Pounds Of Muscle In 3 Days
If you believe the ads that make outrageous claims such as this, then you have a lot to learn my friend. This article exposes the truth on these miracle "B.S" programs or supplements that pollute bodybuilding magazines and websites.
How Do Muscles Grow
Learn the basic science of bodybuilding with our article on how muscles actually grow. If you want to see great results with your muscle building workouts then you will want to understand how this works.
Muscle Fiber Types Explained
Learn about the three main types of muscle fibers here. Most importantly, find out which fibers contribute to muscle building and how you can focus on stimulating these particular fibers.
Fast Muscle Gain
Learn this one secret that will improve your odds of achieving fast muscle gain tenfold! Gaining a lot of muscle mass in a short amount of time is what most bodybuilders strive for.
The Best Weight Lifting Exercises
Find out which are the best exercises for you to include in your muscle workouts. For muscle gain you must focus on compound exercises like I mentioned just before.
8 Mental Tricks To Build Mass Muscle
Here you will learn some special tricks to help you push through pain barriers at the gym. Cranking out just one additional rep can make all the difference.
Should You Train To Muscle Failure
What is training to muscular failure and should you train this way to gain muscle? Find out the truth here about training to failure.
Faster Recovery After Workouts For Building Muscle
Learn how to recover faster after your intense weight training workouts with these handy tips.
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