Every day at work as a Personal Trainer I come across guys who want to know how to build more muscle but are so confused at the conflicting advice in the fitness industry that they literally don't know which way to turn for results. This affects both gym newcomers and seasoned veterans.
Now we're going to end this nonsense and nail down the basic, proven rules.
Firstly we need to establish your goal. Believe it or not, this is the area where men first lose their way. Whereas women are forthcoming in their desire to lose body fat, men tend to want the best of both worlds. How many times have we heard that somebody wishes to lose fat but also get bigger and stronger? Too many.
Having two very different goals makes your task more difficult in every way. Sure, if you are just starting out in the gym or have had a long lay off you may enjoy both fat loss and hypertrophy within the first few weeks but only up to a point. then you need to decide.
To put it simply, you either want to lose fat or you want to grow. It's one way or the other. To grow you need to consume more calories per day than you currently do, whereas to lose fat you need to consume less than you do now. So it makes sense that you cannot realistically do both at the same time.
Most people try to fit a workout in after a hard day at our jobs or when our family life permits us a break, so we are not able to construct a complex workout routine or the nutritional plan of a top athlete, therefore we need to decide what we want to do and stick with it.
Once you have simply decided what you want to achieve, you can begin dieting for that specific goal and then we're ready to begin looking at your actual workout routine. We'll cover the following aspects here:
* What exercises will allow you to get the quickest results?
* How many days per week should you use the gym?
* Are you doing too many or too few reps?
Put the focus of your workouts on big, compound movements. These multi-joint movements require the most muscle fibres to perform, therefore resulting in greater size and strength gains, too. Bench press, squats and other compound movements are simple yet ideal. Don't spend too long working small muscle groups by themselves, i.e. there is little point in performing five sets of an isolation exercise for your forearms...
Another common mistake is to train too often. When you're trying to build there is a great need for rest. Training no more than four days per week is best, and you should also be splitting each day to hit a different muscle group than the one before. You may wish to train every day once you begin enjoying the buzz from working out, but this leads nowhere. Rest days are in fact growth days.
When it comes to repetitions, this easy-to-follow system will keep you on the right track for building lean mass and keep you progressing at a good, constant pace. Your target zone is 8-12 reps. This is the fundamental training zone for growth. Start with a weight you can push out eight repetitions with and as your strength increases you'll notice you can get more reps out over the coming training sessions. Once you can push out more than twelve, increase the weight and return to eight reps. This progressive stance will keep you from reaching any kind of plateau.
The world of fitness is an often over complicated one. If you ask five trainers for tips on how to build muscle you will probably get five different answers. The tips above will help you to get down the basics!
Now we're going to end this nonsense and nail down the basic, proven rules.
Firstly we need to establish your goal. Believe it or not, this is the area where men first lose their way. Whereas women are forthcoming in their desire to lose body fat, men tend to want the best of both worlds. How many times have we heard that somebody wishes to lose fat but also get bigger and stronger? Too many.
Having two very different goals makes your task more difficult in every way. Sure, if you are just starting out in the gym or have had a long lay off you may enjoy both fat loss and hypertrophy within the first few weeks but only up to a point. then you need to decide.
To put it simply, you either want to lose fat or you want to grow. It's one way or the other. To grow you need to consume more calories per day than you currently do, whereas to lose fat you need to consume less than you do now. So it makes sense that you cannot realistically do both at the same time.
Most people try to fit a workout in after a hard day at our jobs or when our family life permits us a break, so we are not able to construct a complex workout routine or the nutritional plan of a top athlete, therefore we need to decide what we want to do and stick with it.
Once you have simply decided what you want to achieve, you can begin dieting for that specific goal and then we're ready to begin looking at your actual workout routine. We'll cover the following aspects here:
* What exercises will allow you to get the quickest results?
* How many days per week should you use the gym?
* Are you doing too many or too few reps?
Put the focus of your workouts on big, compound movements. These multi-joint movements require the most muscle fibres to perform, therefore resulting in greater size and strength gains, too. Bench press, squats and other compound movements are simple yet ideal. Don't spend too long working small muscle groups by themselves, i.e. there is little point in performing five sets of an isolation exercise for your forearms...
Another common mistake is to train too often. When you're trying to build there is a great need for rest. Training no more than four days per week is best, and you should also be splitting each day to hit a different muscle group than the one before. You may wish to train every day once you begin enjoying the buzz from working out, but this leads nowhere. Rest days are in fact growth days.
When it comes to repetitions, this easy-to-follow system will keep you on the right track for building lean mass and keep you progressing at a good, constant pace. Your target zone is 8-12 reps. This is the fundamental training zone for growth. Start with a weight you can push out eight repetitions with and as your strength increases you'll notice you can get more reps out over the coming training sessions. Once you can push out more than twelve, increase the weight and return to eight reps. This progressive stance will keep you from reaching any kind of plateau.
The world of fitness is an often over complicated one. If you ask five trainers for tips on how to build muscle you will probably get five different answers. The tips above will help you to get down the basics!
About the Author:
About the Writer: Russ Howe PTI is a trusted fitness coach. See how to build muscle with our new video guide giving the 5 principles to a more powerful physique and the best shoulder building exercises.
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