Most people that lift are looking to add as much size as possible, while staying as lean as possible. With the following tips and suggestions, both should be accomplished faster then ever before. Make sure to take everything and give it a chance. There are many different strategies when it comes to building mass, but the following are some of the best.
#1: Ab Training: Focus on quality, not quantity
You often hear about fit guys performing 1,000 crunches in a session, but you don’t hear professional bodybuilders say that. Why? One thousand crunches is a cardio workout. It’ll burn a lot of calories (fairly inefficiently), but it won’t leave behind a ripped sixer.
A well-delineated six-pack comes from the intensity of individual ab movements. If you can perform more than 20 reps in any set, you aren’t even close to working hard enough. It’s time to add some resistance.
#2: Press for Size
For maximum hypertrophy, use the seated barbell shoulder press or Smith machine version. Keep reps in the 6-8 range and do your heavy pressing movements first in your delt workout when you’re freshest and strongest to gain the most mass.
#3: Work with a Training Partner
A reliable gym partner provides the necessary motivation to train hard and diet enough to make bigger progress. A knowledgeable, sensitive partner can help make your workouts more effective and rewarding while accelerating your progress faster then you could on your own.
The relationship should be symbiotic, with each of you highlighting the other’s strengths and working on one another’s weaknesses.
#4: Power lift for size
Make squats, deadlifts and bench presses the core of your mass-building program. Add other compound movements such as shoulder presses, incline presses, barbell curls and lying triceps extensions and you have a potent routine.
#5: Change your program often
Nothing continues to work forever. If you stick with the same routine month after month, your body will adapt to and anticipate that workout, no matter how intense it may be. The end result: Your body will stop growing. Avoid this by modifying your training program every 4-8 weeks.
This will help throw off the way your muscles have adapted, to add more mass as they continue to adapt.
#6: Vary Your Exercise Order
Many bodybuilders start every workout for a particular body-part with the same exercise. This, however, teaches your muscles to adapt instead of grow. Change your exercise order every second or third session, adding and substituting exercises liberally so your muscles don’t know what to expect. That’s what makes them grow.
#7: Warm up appropriately
Start each workout with five minutes of stationary biking or similar cardio option. For each body part, perform two light sets of 10-zo reps of an appropriate exercise before starting your working sets.
#8: Keep forearm, ab and calf work at the end
Always do your forearm, ab and calf routines at the end of your workouts. Because you rely on these muscles for most exercises — forearms for grip, abs for core strength and calves for a solid stance — they’ll compromise your strength if they’re fatigued. Always train them after major body parts.
#9: Train complementary bodyparts together
To aid recovery, pair complementary body parts such as back and biceps — both pulling muscles. With this plan your bi’s have longer to recover than if you trained your back and biceps on different days.
Another complementary pairing is chest and triceps — both pushing muscles.
#10: Use training cycles to add muscle mass
Maximum strength gains are made possible by dividing your workout year into distinct training cycles. Commonly referred to as periodization, this system is based on the fact that continual heavy-duty training doesn’t lead to optimal progress.
The body instead responds to gradual increases and decreases in intensity, so switch between light weights/high reps and heavy weights/low reps.
#1: Ab Training: Focus on quality, not quantity
You often hear about fit guys performing 1,000 crunches in a session, but you don’t hear professional bodybuilders say that. Why? One thousand crunches is a cardio workout. It’ll burn a lot of calories (fairly inefficiently), but it won’t leave behind a ripped sixer.
A well-delineated six-pack comes from the intensity of individual ab movements. If you can perform more than 20 reps in any set, you aren’t even close to working hard enough. It’s time to add some resistance.
#2: Press for Size
For maximum hypertrophy, use the seated barbell shoulder press or Smith machine version. Keep reps in the 6-8 range and do your heavy pressing movements first in your delt workout when you’re freshest and strongest to gain the most mass.
#3: Work with a Training Partner
A reliable gym partner provides the necessary motivation to train hard and diet enough to make bigger progress. A knowledgeable, sensitive partner can help make your workouts more effective and rewarding while accelerating your progress faster then you could on your own.
The relationship should be symbiotic, with each of you highlighting the other’s strengths and working on one another’s weaknesses.
#4: Power lift for size
Make squats, deadlifts and bench presses the core of your mass-building program. Add other compound movements such as shoulder presses, incline presses, barbell curls and lying triceps extensions and you have a potent routine.
#5: Change your program often
Nothing continues to work forever. If you stick with the same routine month after month, your body will adapt to and anticipate that workout, no matter how intense it may be. The end result: Your body will stop growing. Avoid this by modifying your training program every 4-8 weeks.
This will help throw off the way your muscles have adapted, to add more mass as they continue to adapt.
#6: Vary Your Exercise Order
Many bodybuilders start every workout for a particular body-part with the same exercise. This, however, teaches your muscles to adapt instead of grow. Change your exercise order every second or third session, adding and substituting exercises liberally so your muscles don’t know what to expect. That’s what makes them grow.
#7: Warm up appropriately
Start each workout with five minutes of stationary biking or similar cardio option. For each body part, perform two light sets of 10-zo reps of an appropriate exercise before starting your working sets.
#8: Keep forearm, ab and calf work at the end
Always do your forearm, ab and calf routines at the end of your workouts. Because you rely on these muscles for most exercises — forearms for grip, abs for core strength and calves for a solid stance — they’ll compromise your strength if they’re fatigued. Always train them after major body parts.
#9: Train complementary bodyparts together
To aid recovery, pair complementary body parts such as back and biceps — both pulling muscles. With this plan your bi’s have longer to recover than if you trained your back and biceps on different days.
Another complementary pairing is chest and triceps — both pushing muscles.
#10: Use training cycles to add muscle mass
Maximum strength gains are made possible by dividing your workout year into distinct training cycles. Commonly referred to as periodization, this system is based on the fact that continual heavy-duty training doesn’t lead to optimal progress.
The body instead responds to gradual increases and decreases in intensity, so switch between light weights/high reps and heavy weights/low reps.
