Total Body Workout

If you’ve been searching for a workout that includes all the muscle groups, this is the place to be. Whether you’ve hit a plateau, have questions about different things to do at the gym, or just need some tips on what to you can do at home, the following exercises are recommended for you.
Beginning with the basics, we’ll start you off with exercises for the lower, upper, and midsection of your body. Pick two exercises per body part, and do about 15 reps for about 5 sets of each, along with a 5-10 minute cardio session to warm up and a 5-10 minute stretching session to cool down.
Keep in mind that the following exercises incorporate Compound Movements and Isolation Movements. Compound movements stimulate the large muscle groups in your body, and the isolation movements target smaller muscle groups and areas needing individual attention.
Compound Movements
Lower Body Exercises

• Squats
• Leg Press
• Lunges (forward or backward)

Upper Body Exercises

• Push ups
• Bench Press
• Bent/T-Bar Rows
• Pull Ups

Isolation Exercises
Midsection Exercises

• Crunches
• Reverse Crunches
• Leg Raises

Lower Body Exercises

• Seated Leg Curls
• Dead lifts
• Calf Raises

Upper Body Exercises

• Shoulder Press
• Lateral Raises
• Front Raises
• Bicep Curls

The Importance Of Muscle Fiber Types

Having a firm grasp on your muscle fiber type is highly important to your training. Without the proper knowledge of how your muscles work, you could be putting in a lot of effort for little or no result. Here is some helpful information about how to turn that around:
All the muscles in your body are made of small, fibrous bundles. Contained in these bundles are two types of fiber: fast twitch muscle fiber, and slow twitch muscle fiber. Understanding the amount of each type of fiber you have, will help you decide how to train each muscle group in your body.
Fast twitch muscle fibers, a.k.a. white muscle fibers, sustain high intensity, short duration activity. These fibers enable explosive movement, such as doing squats or bench press, or any other weight training activities.
Slow twitch muscle fibers, a.k.a. red muscle fibers, maintain low intensity, long duration activity, or in laments terms, walking or any other aerobic activity.
Taking elite athletes into consideration, endurance athletes, such as a cross country runner, have a high majority of slow twitch muscle fibers. And at the other end, a sprinter would have a high majority of fast twitch muscle fibers.
To find the muscle fiber predominant in your body, test your muscle’s repetition limit versus maximum strength. Begin by figuring out your one rep max for any isolation exercise, such as a tricep extension. Remember to find the highest weight you can do only one rep with.
After you know your limit, multiply that number by 0.8, and do as many reps as possible with that amount of weight. If you can do between 5-8 reps with that weight, the majority of your muscle fibers are fast twitch.
The reasoning behind the science is that although fast twitch muscle fibers are strong, they lack endurance, meaning you can lift a lot of weight, but only for a certain amount of time.
In opposition, slow twitch muscle fibers are weaker, but have very high levels of endurance, meaning you can lift a smaller amount of weight for quite a few reps.
Do this test for each muscle group you wish to train, and then gear your training for that muscle group based on which type of fiber it has. This will ensure you see quality well-earned results.

Tips For Fast Lean Muscle Gain

Training at the gym for hours on end and not seeing results? Sometimes our bodies get used to the same routines, and even with eating right and training often, you may not be seeing the muscle gains you want.
Here are 5 easy ways to enhance your gains three times faster than what you may be doing now.
#1) Hydrate – Our bodies are comprised of about 75% water, making it an essential nutrient for muscle growth and function. A level of just 10% dehydration can decrease your strength by 50% during training. To boost your performance and gains, hydrate your muscles, giving them the chance to work to 100% of their potential.
#2) Eat Carbs – The low-carb diets raging through the market don’t work for building muscle. Carbs are the energy your body needs to train and they are essential for both strength gains and bulk gains. Heavy training depletes your sugar storage, which creates a need for carbs to replenish and provide energy.
#3) Set a Limitation – When it comes to weight training and building muscle, less is more. Heavy lifting tears apart your muscle tissue, creating a need for rest and time for them to repair and rebuild. Otherwise, they don’t have any opportunity to grow.
#4) Compound Exercise – This type of exercise employs multi-joint movement, allowing all your muscles and joints of a particular area to function correctly. Compound exercise works all the muscles in a particular group at the same time, which in the long run, helps you lift more and achieve greater gains.
#5) Lift Big – As your training progresses, to continue building muscle, it is essential for you to increase the demand on your muscles. When forced to do more, your muscles will instinctively grow larger.

Tips To Build Toned Attractive Muscle

Regardless of the popular belief that lifting lighter weights is the key to toning, to have muscle tone, you need to have muscles first. Meaning the first step to a toned body is lifting big, and growing your muscles.
Once you’ve done that, then you can need to get rid of fat, which will enhance your muscles and give them tone. Here are some things to keep in mind when building muscle tone:
Make Use of Free Weights – Using free weights, such as barbells and dumbbells, build stabilizing muscles that aid in balance and control. Meaning you will work more muscles, even those unintended. This will give you striations and definition versus one huge bulge on the intended muscle groups.
Train Well, Without Over Doing It – It is essential to train intensively to see results, which means adding reps and weight each session. By training hard, however, you must ensure you give your muscles adequate time to recover.Your muscles grow the most while you’re asleep, so make sure to get rest as much as possible in the evening.
Another key point to consider is that you to make sure you don’t train everyday or work the same muscles more than once a week; also, keep the days you do cardio separate than lifting days.
Workout that Lower Body – The lower part of your body makes up about 70% of all the muscles in your body. Leaving them out of your training routine gives your body an unattractive spider-like look and the rest of the muscles in your body will lack the ability to grow larger.
The majority of people skip out on a legs day, simply because doing squats or leg press are rigorous on your body. Instead, people should be excited for these reasons: the more intensely you work out, the more growth hormones you produce, and thus, stimulating more overall muscular development.
Form and Technique – This is a key fundamental of bodybuilding, often neglected. Using the wrong form not only compromises growth, but it will also make you vulnerable to injury.

Massive Shoulder Blitz Routine

3 Massive Shoulder Blitz Routines – Workouts and Exercises
Shoulders are a key area that help finish off achieving a muscular look. They make your waist look slimmer, your arms bigger and give you that tapered V-shaped, athletic look.
Below we’ve mapped out the most important shoulder moves, as well as 3 different types of workouts, each a little different, for you to try out. Each has their own advantages, so it’d be a good idea to switch it up occasionally.
Routine #1 – Chest/Shoulder Blast:
On chest day, your shoulders help out by stabilizing in most moves, resulting in indirect shoulder work. We’re going to use this to our advantage, by also training your shoulders on chest day. It’s been proven to keep your muscles under tension longer, a strategy shown to increase size.
Make sure to get adequate rest before hitting your shoulder again, to avoid over training them.
How this Routine Works:
Start off with two sets of 10 reps of the dumbbell shoulder press and dumbbell front raise. Then, hop over and do two sets of eight reps of the accelerated side raise. Finish off with two sets of eight reps of the cable reverse fly and dumbbell Cuban press.
Keep your rest times between sets short, around 30-45 seconds. Perform this routine once a week, right after your chest workout.
Routine #2 – Plateau Breakout
Use this routine to break of out a plateau to ignite new shoulder gains. This workout will help boost commonly weak areas, so you’ll also develop your shoulders overall, as well as add more mass.
How this Routine Works:
Two times a week, perform the dumbbell shoulder press, dumbbell front raise, cable reverse fly and dumbbell Cuban press. Do two sets of 10 – 12 reps of each move, resting 60-90 seconds between sets.
Routine #3 – Full Body Circuit:
This fast moving shoulder routine helps condition your cardiovascular system, as well as build new, bigger muscle, so it’s perfect for anyone who has limited time, or would like to lose some additional fat. It works well when you’re in a hurry, too.
How this Routine Works:
As a part of your full-body routine, perform 1 set of the push press, dumbbell shoulder press, or barbell high-incline bench press. Without resting, hop over and do a set of squats. After that, perform the accelerated side raise, cable single-arm side raise, or cable reverse fly, with lunges afterward.
That’s one circuit. Do a total of 3 circuits, with a minute of rest between each. Complete 8 – 10 reps of each exercise and choose different moves each time you train.
The Exercises:
Push Press
1.) Stand holding a barbell with an overhand grip, and rest it on the front of your shoulders.
2.) Keep your elbows tucked in.
3.) Dip down about 6 inches, and then drive yourself up with your legs as you push the weight overhead.
4.) Return to the starting position.
Dumbbell Shoulder Press
1.) Stand holding a dumbbell in each hand just above your shoulders with a neutral grip (palms facing each other).
2.) Press the weights straight up until your arms are fully extended.
3.) Slowly lower the weights back down to the starting position.
Barbell High-Incline Bench Press
1.) Lie face up on a bench set at an incline of 65 – 80 degrees.
2.) Hold a barbell over your chest with straight arms, your hands a little farther than shoulder-width apart.
3.) Gradually lower the bar to your chest.
4.) Press the weight back up, and to the starting position.
Accelerated Side Raise
1.) Stand holding a pair of light dumbbells at your sides.
2.) Raise the dumbbells out to your sides.
3.) When the weights are about a foot away from your body, increase your lifting speed.
4.) Pause when the weights reach ear level, then return to the starting position.
Cable Single-Arm Side Raise
1.) Attach a handle to the low-pulley cable and stand with your left side to the weight stack.
2.) Reach across your body with your right hand to grab the handle.
3.) Raise your arm up and across your body until it’s parallel to the floor, then return to the start.
Cable Reverse Fly
1.) Stand between the weight stacks with your arms crossed in front of you, and grab a handle from each low pulley.
2.) Bend forward at the waist until your torso is almost parallel to the floor, arms beneath your shoulders.
3.) Pull your shoulder blades back, and then raise your arms out to your sides. Lower and repeat.
Dumbbell Front Raise
1.) Stand holding a pair of light dumbbells at arm’s length with a neutral grip.
2.) Keeping your arms straight, slowly raise the weights in front of you until your arms are parallel to the floor.
3.) Pause, then slowly lower the weights back to the starting position.
Dumbbell Cuban Press
1.) Stand holding a pair of light dumbbells in front of your thighs with an overhand grip.
2.) Draw the weights up in front of your body, keeping the weights close to your torso and bending your elbows, until your upper arms are parallel to the floor.
3.) Without moving your upper arms or elbows, rotate your forearms until they point up, and then press the weight overhead.
4.) Slowly reverse the path to the starting position.

Why Yoga Helps You Gain Muscle

Yoga provides many benefits to the body, but did you know that it can actually help you gain more muscle? If you’ve never given yoga a chance before, it’s probably a good idea to get into a class and see how much it can help you first-hand. Read on to find out the top 6 reasons to do yoga, and how it helps you gain muscle.
1.) When done right, yoga involves the proper use of anatomy and physiology – stretching and relaxing agonist and antagonist muscles, which can ease muscle soreness, as well as built up stiffness.
2.) Gravity tends to create wear and tear on the structure of your body over time. Yoga helps bring you back into alignment. Each pose is designed to realign joints and strengthen the correct muscle groups around the joints. This also benefits the health of your internal organs as well.
3.) Yoga is not only about stretching, but breathing is also a large portion of the exercise. The breathing techniques used while in each pose help dynamically stretch your muscle tissues, resulting in less stiffness and more flexibility.
3.) Have any nagging injuries that flare up more often then not? Yoga is great for treating sports and weightlifting injuries. Many of the positions can be directed at strengthening an injured body part.
Yoga can also help prevent injuries by keeping tendons and ligaments flexible and more adaptable. This helps a body handle the pressure placed on your joints while lifting weights.
4.) A good time to throw in Yoga is directly before your lift. It allows time to unwind, decrease stress levels and bring your mind back into your body, which will help cut down on injuries. It will also help you control your breathing and boost your circulation.
5.) Yoga is also a great way to end a lift, too. It brings blood into body parts you’ve just hit hard, which aids in post workout recovery. Not-to-mention, it also helps you wind down from your lift, which is especially helpful if you lift at night, and need to get to sleep soon.

The Science Behind Muscle

Muscle is quite an amazing aspect of our bodies. Without it, it would be impossible to make any type of action, walk, talk, run or even make a simple gesture. Since muscle are so crucial, they are quite complex. They’re self-healing, long-lasting, and are able to be improved by hitting up the gym and lifting weights.
Skeletal muscle, or striated muscle, is the type of muscle fiber you work out when you lift weights. Like the name suggestions, skeletal muscle actually attaches to the skeleton. The basic movement of any muscle is contraction.
For example, when you’re hitting bicep curls, you’re using your brain sends a signal down a nerve cell to tell your bicep muscles to contract, and pull up the weight.
Muscles are made up of a bundle of fibers, and compared to other cells in your body, muscles are fairly large. Each muscle fiber contains many cylinders of muscle proteins, or myofibrils.
These proteins allow the cell of a muscle to contract. Myofbrils contain two types of filaments that run along the long axis of the fiber.
Our muscles are made up of two different, but basic types of fibers, fast twitch and slow twitch. Fast-twitch muscles are able to develope greater forces, contracting quicker, and have much more anaerobic capacity. This is why it’s a good idea to use both fast and slow tempos when you contract your muscles.
Bodybuilding increases muscle mass, by changing the size and number of fibers, rather than the types of fibers in the muscle.

Top 10 Worst Muscle Building Workout Mistakes

Gaining muscle can be tough. Even for lifters that gain muscle fairly easily, everyone has plateaus, time-frames where you simply can’t seem to move the scale and add on more muscle.
We all fall in and out of habits occasionally, so if you can’t seem to move the scale and gain some muscle, there’s a chance you haven’t fine-tuned your routine, or have slipped out of the usual one.
These simple changes can ruin entire workouts, halting progress and draining your motivation. To get that motivation back, scan the list below of the worst muscle building mistakes, to see if you can make an improvement in your routine.
1.) You Don’t Eat Enough – Yes, extra calories can mean extra belly fat, but if you’re lifting consistently and cor­rectly, most of what you’re taking in should be converted to muscle. The truth is your muscles will never grow without a surplus of calories. For a lean guy looking to put on muscle mass, 2,000 calories a day won’t cut it.
In fact, this kind of restricted diet is ac­tually the ideal recipe for losing muscle tis­sue and sparing fat, as it causes the body to shift into starvation mode and shed calo­rie-consuming muscle. It also makes you store fat for emergency energy. And the less protein you eat, the less of a chance you give your muscles to recover after a workout.
2.) You Amp Up your Cardio – There are three ways that cardio typically cancels out muscle gains: doing it too often, doing it for too long, or doing it on an empty stomach. In gen­eral, daily cardio sessions simply burn too many cumulative calories to allow you the surplus you need for muscle mass, and the same can be said for ses­sions that last 45 minutes or more. Work out in the morning before breakfast and you only compound the problem.
When you wake up, your body is already in a catabolic (muscle-burning) state, since a night’s sleep—time spent without eat­ing—empties your tank. Working out immediately just reinforces this condi­tion and costs you intensity—whether on the treadmill or with the weights. The end result: You burn muscle as fuel in place of calories you should have consumed at breakfast.
3.) You Overtrain your Muscles – If the biggest muscle-head in the gym has taught us anything, it’s that doing lots and lots of sets and reps to the point of total collapse is the best way to build muscle. Never mind that he’s a genetic freak and/or proba­bly on steroids. More than 20 total sets per muscle group, or more than 15 reps per set, may leave your muscles swollen (hence the ego-enhancing “pump”), but it will be from inflammation, not actual muscle growth. Any weight that allows that much work is too light to cause sub­stantial growth, and you’ll reap no lasting gains.
4.) You Favor Body-part Workouts – Breaking your training down into chest days, back days, and arm days over­works some muscles and neglects others. It’s an old-school way to train—and it’s incredibly outdated. Most guys still do it, and many make gains for a while, but their progress eventually screeches to a halt, usu­ally due to injuries. Body-part routines also prevent your biggest muscles from ever learning to work together in the kinds of coordinated effort you need to lift really heavy weights—another major avenue for fast growth.
5.) You Skip out on Stretching – Boring? Definitely, but stretching has been shown to speed up re­covery and increase a muscle’s range of motion, making more room for muscle fibers to grow. Simply lifting weights without making time for flexibility work will increase your risk for injury and se­verely limit your ability to move athleti­cally. So no matter how big you get, you’ll probably be picked last for teams.
6.) You Only Eat Sporadically – It’s true: Eating infrequently is nearly as bad as not eating at all. When you go more than three hours with­out food, your metabolism drops significantly. When that happens, every time you do get a meal, there’s a good chance that a large percentage of it will be stored as fat. Why? Blame your body. Without food, it slips back into starvation mode and starts to think it needs to hold on to every calorie it can get in order to survive.
7.) You Never Switch up your Workout – Doing the exact same workout week after week will, at best, prevent new gains, and, at worst, lead to burnout. Fail­ing to impose any new challenges on your muscles—such as by increasing the weight you use or the number of reps you per­form—simply helps keep them the same size, whereas pushing yourself harder than you’re accustomed to will actually spur new muscle and strength.
8.) You Only Train what you can See – Focusing your workouts on tro­phy muscles such as the pecs and biceps may be more fun, but it won’t do much for your overall development. Since 70% of your body’s total musculature is lo­cated in your legs and back, your main potential for muscle gains will remain untapped. Furthermore, this kind of train­ing will leave you with muscle imbal­ances that lead to injury—and that can keep you out of the gym permanently.
9.) You Don’t Drink Shakes – Chugging a protein-and-carb mixture after your workout starts the recovery process immediately, replenishing lost glycogen (your mus­cles’ energy stores) and providing the nutrients your body requires to repair muscle and grow more of it. Skipping the shake and casu­ally waiting an hour or more for your next meal is like ig­noring a cry for help.
10.) You Don’t Get Enough Rest – Sleep is when muscle repair happens, so getting six or fewer hours of shut-eye a night limits your body’s natural production of crucial muscle-building chem­icals, such as growth hormone. Too much activity outside of your workouts, such as playing sports, all-night parties, and extra stress—all of which are permissible now and then, but dangerous in excess—also cut into muscle gains.
And if you’ve been working out seven days a week, we’ve got another pleasant surprise for you: You’ll actually lose muscle. Such a high frequency won’t allow for regeneration, and your efforts will be wasted. And no, it doesn’t matter if you’re training different muscle groups each day—you still have the same central nervous system, and it still gets tired of having to deal with major physical exertion every day.

Overhand Or Underhand Tricep Pushdowns

Have you ever wondered which is more beneficial? Is there a difference between doing overhand tricep pushdowns and underhand, or reverse-grip, tricep pushdowns? We’ll explain how to execute both below, as well as why they both have different advantages.
Run-down of both variations:
Overhand Pushdowns: Attach an angled, short or straight bar onto the high-cable pulley you’re working at, and stand facing it. Keep a slight bend in your knees, do your best not to lock out. Grab the bar, with an overhand grip, and hold it right below your chest level, with your elbows close to your sides.
Push the bar straight down, straightening your arms until they are fully extended. Pause for a brief moment fully extended to make sure you feel your triceps flex, and then slowly return back to your starting position.
Underhand Pushdowns: Attach a straight, or EZ-curl bar onto the high-cable pulley you’re working at, and stand facing it. Keep a slight bend in your knees, and grab the bar with an underhand grip (palms facing up).
Hold the bar right below your chest level, with your elbows pulled in close to your sides. Pull the bar down by straightening your arms until they are close to fully extended. Pause for a second to feel the flex in your triceps, and gradually return the bar to your starting position.
So, which is better for your workouts?
First off, underhand pushdowns force you to use a lighter weight than with an overhand grip. When you use the overhand grip, your delts help to assist your triceps move the weight.
In the underhand version, you’re not pushing down, but actually pulling down, so the movement targets your triceps more, rather then your shoulders.
With this in mind, the underhand version is a better way to fully isolate your triceps, great for use at the end of your workout. Further more, the overhand pushdown tends to focus more on the triceps lateral head (the portion on the outer arms), and the underhand pushdowns hit more of the medial head (the portion on the inner arms).
Which move is best to use? Underhand or Overhand?
When it comes to fully working out a muscle, there are a lot of techniques. From changing up the volume of your workout, to the weight, it’s all about putting together different moves to mix it up, and build new muscle. This is where both underhand and overhand triceps pushdowns come in handy.
It’s best to utilize both versions, to balance out develop of each head of the triceps. The overhand version lets you to hit more weight, allowing you to build greater overall triceps mass, while the underhand variation will isolate the actual triceps muscle and lead to better medial head development.
What’s the best way to include both in my workout?
One technique to use would be to use a different variation for each triceps workout you do, rotating between the two every time. A more preferable method is to do two or three overhand sets, while you have the most energy, and follow it up with two or three underhand sets to isolate the triceps muscle even more and completely burn them out.

Blast Through A Chest Plateau

When most people think of building up their upper chest muscles, they think of doing bench press exercises. Furthermore, those same people usually think of the flat bench exercises.
The flat bench press is one of the best ways to build up chest muscle, and probably a guaranteed way to gain body mass and strength. The drawback to it is that once you get to a certain point, you will begin to plateau.
This will happen to any exercise that you do unless you change what you are doing. You can do this by alternating styles of presses. Incline, flat, and decline bench press are recommended when you are trying to pass the plateau point, and doing so can build size and strength faster.
Incline Bench Press
By adding this exercise into your workout routine in conjunction to the flat bench press, you will begin to target the upper pectoral muscles. Inclines are a great compound exercise that helps to build your upper body strength and size. The shoulders, triceps, biceps, chest, posterior deltoids, anterior deltoids, and stabilizer muscles are all worked in this exercise.
Performing The Incline Bench Press Correctly
When beginning this exercise, make sure that your back is up against the bench and is not arched. Make sure that your grip on the bar is just a little more apart than shoulder-width and slowly begin to lower the weight, deliberately thinking about your form and which muscles are being used.
As the weight bar touches your chest, push the weight back up, again deliberately. Use limited body movements when doing any of these exercises, making sure that you are not wiggling your arms or raising your chest during the repetition’s duration.
Be sure not to arch your back, because when you do, you are using muscles that are not supposed to be used, which is cheating the ones that are supposed to be used. Doing these exercises wrong increasing your chance of getting injured.
Decline Bench Press
If you want to develop your lower chest muscle mass, this is the exercise for you. Decline bench press targets the lower chest muscles and can be done using dumbbells or an Olympic barbell. Using a barbell for this exercise is recommended if you are just starting out.
Performing Decline Bench Press
First, lie down flat on your back on the bench. Position your hands slightly wider than the width of your shoulders and lower the bar slowly at a controlled speed. When you lower the bar, you want to aim the bar two or three inches below your chest line.
Once the bar touches your chest, push the weight back to the starting position and repeat for six to eight repetitions. Decline bench press is a very dangerous exercise because there is a whole lot of shoulder joint movement. You should make sure you do this exercise with good form due to the chance of injury.
Getting injured just because of your ego is not worth the time it will take you to heal back up

Top 5 Post Workout Tips

This is, by far, the most important time of the day for anyone who is trying to build a better body. What you do during the two to four hours following a workout can determine what kind of gains you make in your physique and if you will become stronger or not.
1.) Some experts recommend consuming 50 percent of your total daily calories within two to four hours after a hard workout. It may sound odd, but the greatest nutrient uptake occurs after a hard weight-training workout. It makes sense—you’ve depleted nutrients and now the body is ready to take them back.
2.) Insulin sensitivity is greatest after a workout. Insulin helps transport nutrients like glucose, amino acids and even creatine into muscle cells. Taking insulin-maximizing compounds, like alpha lipoic acid and chromium, can really help.
3.) New research shows that combining protein with carbohydrates right after a workout can further enhance glycogen synthesis even more than with just carbohydrates alone. In fact, consuming a whey protein and carbohydrate rich drink within 30 minutes per workout can maximize insulin levels for several hours following weight training.
Then, you should eat a protein and carbohydrate rich meal within an hour or hour and a half of the post-workout protein shake to enhance the recovery and growth phase.
The key post-workout goal is to increase muscle anabolism (increasing protein synthesis, while decreasing or minimizing muscle breakdown). Lowering Cortisol, replenishing glycogen stores, providing the optimum 3:1 carbohydrates-to-protein ratio for maximum glycogen replenishment and increasing cell volume to create a greater anabolic environment in the cell are all very important after a workout.
4.) Staying properly hydrated with water at this time is important to help enhance cell volume and transport nutrients in the body.
5.) Taking a post-workout recovery drink is extremely essential to proper workout recovery and muscle building.
On a side note, keep in mind:
Never take a supplement in place of food. Food contains far more nutrients than any supplement ever could. As the name suggests, supplements should “supplement” food, not replace it.
For example, if you find you are not getting adequate amounts of protein through your diet, then a protein supplement makes sense. Don’t, however, give a chicken breast a pass for a protein supplement.

10 Tips On Gaining Mass

Ever think how nice it would be if you could burn calories just by sitting on the couch? Well, by adding some lean muscle to your body, you will be doing just that. Granted, there is some work that goes along with it but as long as you take an educated attempt, you’ll already be ahead.
Here are ten easy tips that will help you gain muscle, build lean muscle mass and help you get ripped as fast as possible.
1. Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is a routine that says that you must raise the number of repetitions that you do or the amount of weight that you lift each time that you workout, or close to it, for you to boost your muscle growth.
Since the body adapts to the strain of weightlifting so quickly and then has a tendency to plateau as far as muscle mass growth is concerned, you have to use this ability to your advantage. The key to doing this is to place a steadily increasing demand on your body, forcing it to adapt constantly.
Weight training can be the best way to do this. By knowing exactly how much weight your body can lift, you can make small incremental changes over time to gain muscle growth.
Just think about it, if you use the same amount of weights and do the same number of repetitions each time that you workout, you will begin to slow your progress and it will eventually stop all together.
For example, if your goal is to have bigger biceps, then you have to increase the amount of weight that you are lifting or the number of repetitions that you are doing consistently with every workout session. Progressive Overload equals muscle growth.
2. Start off with eight to twelve repetitions
Eight to twelve repetitions of any given exercise will begin to stimulate muscle growth. Lifting for smaller repetition amounts of three to six will work on strength building but will not necessarily build muscle mass. Lifting for more repetitions, such as fifteen to twenty, will stimulate muscle mass growth, but not to your bodies full potential. The amount of weight that you should be lifting should be heavy enough to restrict you to only doing a max of twelve repetitions but light enough that it will allow you to finish at least 8 repetitions.
3. Only do between six to nine sets.
That’s all you need to be doing per muscle group/body part to stimulate lean muscle mass growth. This will allow you to keep your workout time around forty-five minutes. Therefore, only perform a maximum of nine sets on any particular body part.
4. Eat right
When you work a muscle out, the strain that you exert on that muscle causes the muscle fibers to tear. These small tears repair themselves over the next week or so causing your muscle to grow in size. In order for your muscles to heal correctly though, they must be fed in order to grow.
An ideal bodybuilding diet allows you to grow muscle without adding to your fat intake at the same time.
10 Tips on Mass Gain5. Increase the Amount of Protein in your Diet
The best sources of protein are chicken, pork, steak, cheese, nuts, eggs, and seeds such as sunflower seeds. You can also buy various whey protein powders for making high protein shakes. In order for your body’s muscle tissue to heal itself after each workout session, it has to have the protein to do so.
Some lifters take in too little protein while others take in huge amounts of protein, but where is the happy medium of just the right amount? Here is how to calculate the daily protein requirements that your body will need.
A good rule of thumb to know what your protein intake should be is to eat one gram of protein for each pound of your total body weight. Therefore, if you weigh a hundred and eighty pounds, then you should intake about one hundred and eighty grams of protein a day.
6. Contrary to what most people think, you do need to eat some fat.
For bodybuilders, a low-fat diet is not desirable. Fat intake increases the anabolic hormones, or muscle building chemicals in your body such as testosterone, growth hormone, and insulin like growth factor {IGF-1}.
Some people also may resort to anabolic steroid use to speed the muscle growth rate, but some studies deem this an unhealthy practice just to get faster results than eating a correct diet.
7. Drink plenty of water.
Water is critical in reaching high energy levels and your potential strength level. Drinking at least ten to twelve eight-ounce glasses of water a day is recommended. Protein drinks and shakes can be included in your daily water intake.
8. Watch your cardiovascular workout amount.
Cardiovascular workouts can lessen your muscle gains. If losing fat is your goal then you should be doing cardio workouts immediately after you weight train doing a “high intensity interval training” form of cardio for twenty minutes maximum. Too much cardio releases catabolic hormones, which break down your muscle tissue.
9. Get plenty of sleep.
Sleep is extremely important when building muscle mass. During rest periods, muscle tissue makes needed repairs to itself, which causes the muscles to get thicker, more than when awake. This is because during deep sleep, the body releases growth hormones, and your metabolic rate slows down to the ideal rate for muscle repair and growth. There is an increase in the body’s blood flow rate as well.
10. Reduce stress.
Stress makes the body enter a catabolic state, which begins to break down muscle. A calm and relaxed person tends to build muscle faster than his easily upset and hot-tempered counterpart. Try not to let stress steal your weightlifting gains from you.

Bicep Blowout Workout For Huge Mass

This bicep workout provides all the information in order to pack some serious size onto your arms in no time!
Every serious bodybuilder knows that the size of their arms will either make or break them. If your arms aren’t busting the threads on your sleeves, then it means you need to turn up the size factor!
Let’s face it, having a huge set of arms is great for many reasons. For one, it’s going to help you add more weight to lifts like your bench press. But it’s also going to get you the attention of every girl in your gym, and none of them can resist a perfectly sculpted set of guns! And if that’s not enough motivation for you, then you may as well put the weights down and pick up a burger.
Anyone can add more size to their arms, but in order to do it you need an intense approach to your training, diet and supplementation. So if you’re ready to add tons of head-turning size to your arms, we’ve got the hardcore training routine that you’ll need to load your arms with more size than you ever thought possible!
Here’s the workout/exercises to follow for this bicep mass gaining routine:

Bicep Blowout Workout – Exercises

Dumbell Hammer Curls* (Warm-Up)** 2 sets x 12 rep (To Failure) 3 sets x 10 reps

Standing Barbell Curls* (To Failure) 4 sets x 10 reps (Drop Set) 1 set x 20 reps

Super 7′s* (To Failure) 4 sets x 21 reps (7+7+7)

* Rest time between sets should be 30-45 seconds. ** Warm-up weight should be a weight that is light enough to get the blood flowing and not so heavy that you have to struggle to complete the 12 reps. This is a warm-up, not a working set, so don’t take it to failure. Just start out by getting loose

>> Arm Blast:

• For the duration of this training program, you should be going at a high intensity and taking only 30 to 45 seconds of rest between sets. You’re really going to feel a burn, but maximizing the blood in your muscles will make sure you add even more size. So give this program a shot; you’ll be surprised with the results you’ll see!

>> Alternating Dumbell Hammer Curls:

• Grab a pair of dumbells from the rack and remain standing. Keep your elbows tucked in at your sides and your palms facing in as you forcefully curl the weight up. As you reach the top of the movement, try to touch the weight to your shoulder and rotate your wrist to emphasize your peak contraction. Pause at the top and squeeze for a two count before slowly lowering the weight back to the starting position.

>> Standing Barbell Curls:

• Set up a barbell with enough weight on it so that you can complete 10 reps before failing. Begin the motion with your arms fully extended below waist level. Keep your elbows tucked in at your sides and contract your biceps, bringing the weight up to the top of the movement.
• Avoid leaning back or throwing the weight; this will only remove tension from your bis. Squeeze your biceps as hard as you can for a two count at the top of the movement before slowly returning to the starting position. After your last set, drop the weight and bang out another 20 fast reps to feel an intense burn deep in your bis.

>> Super 7′s:

• Finish your bis off with this growth-inducing move. Grab an EZ curl bar and put on a weight that you can curl roughly 15 times. With Super 7s, start like the. standing barbell curls, but only bring the bar up until your forearms are parallel to the floor, then reverse the movement.
• Repeat that 6 more times to complete 7 reps. Without rest, bring the weight up to shoulder level. From here, lower the bar until your forearms are parallel to the floor, pause and then reverse the movement back to the top. Repeat 6 times to complete another 7 reps.
• Now, lower the bar below waist level, and complete 7 full-range reps from bottom to top, squeezing each rep as hard as you can at the top of the movement for a two count. After 7 reps of this, you’ve completed a total of 21 reps without rest, or one set of Super 7s.

Make sure your arms are ready for a brutal workout before starting up this routine. If your muscles are over trained, they won’t react as well to this workout. If you’re feeling worn out, make sure to take a few days rest out of the gym, to heal back up and prep yourself for a huge arms day!

Press Pause For Extra Gains

Your workout shouldn’t always be all fast or all slow—a nice even middle is best to switch it up. The following exercise routine includes pauses before the explosive “up” portion of two of the movements.
This increases the load placed on your muscles and has a tendency to ignite new gains. Since this is a technique very little people take advantage of, it can yield great results. Muscle confusion is a huge part of keeping it fresh to enhance gains.
For the first two exercises, 4-second pauses break the momentum and make you work harder. Do each of the three exercises continuously as a circuit, or all-in-a-row. One circuit should last about 4-5 minutes. Avoid resting between exercises or circuits, and complete three circuits before being finished.
Rebound Lunge
In a split stance, lower your body until your back knee is an inch off the floor. Hold the position for 4 seconds and then quickly push back to the starting position, similar to an explosion of movement, but a controlled explosion.
Return to the bottom position and hold for 4 seconds. Do as many reps as you can in 60 seconds. Switch Legs and repeat.
Rebound Pushup
Assume a traditional pushup position, hands about shoulder-width apart. Lower your body, pause for 4 seconds at the bottom of the movement, and then, as quickly as possible but also controlled, press your body up and lower yourself to the floor again.
Hold that position for another 4 seconds. Do as many reps as you can in 60 seconds and continue on.
Two-Point Dumbbell Row
With a dumbbell in each hand, bend at your waist while maintaining a flat back. Your feet should be shoulder-width apart. Keeping your torso nearly parallel to the floor, pull the dumbbells to your chest as you pull your elbows back.
Do controlled, slow reps, resting at the peak of the rep for 4 seconds. You’re finished after 60 seconds.
This press pause training technique is nice for a change, but not for use all the time. If you’re looking to switch it up for a workout or two, this is a great technique to cause some muscle confusion, and promote some new mass.
Otherwise, stick to the mass building workouts for the best gains.

Tips For Gaining Lean Muscle Mass

It would be great if we could all gain weight without getting fat. Just think of how nice it would be to be able to gain weight and not have to worry about working it all back off at the gym or totally ruining all of the hard work that you have already done at the gym. Well here are some proven ways to do exactly that.
Ensure That You Are Eating Quality Calories
If you were to ask just about anyone, “how do you gain weight,” most of the time they would say, “I just eat.” That is not the way to do it and still be able to keep what you have already done. You have to know how many calories that you consume in a day.
These people desperately want to gain weight but usually when you see them at the gym, they have some excuse as to why what they are doing is not working. This has a lot less to do with the food that they eat than it has to do with their metabolism.
If you are trying to gain weight, not just weight in general, but good quality weight, then you need to eat good, quality, and dense foods. But the catch is that you have to eat enough of them. Also, if you are trying to gain weight without gaining fat too, then you have to bulk up with the same fundamentals that you would if you were on a cutting diet.
Make sure that you are choosing the higher-calorie foods when you can, but make sure too that you are eating more than your usual body maintenance calorie intake.
In doing this though, you must keep track of what you are eating and not eat so many calories that your body just stores all of the excess calories by creating a lot of fat. Not only that, but your diet must be consistent. This is a major key to keeping the fat off in the long run.
Just because you want to gain weight, it does not mean that you have a free ticket to eat everything in sight. In order for you to gain good weight and lean muscle mass without getting fat, then you just need to eat a bit over what your body needs to maintain itself.
This way, you will give your body all of the calories that it needs to build lean muscle mass without giving it enough to make it store it all as a lot of fat. Anything that you eat in excess, proteins included, will be stored as fat. You must gain healthy weight while minimizing excess fat gains.
Don’t Just Go Shopping For Food, Choose What You Buy
Empty cupboards will not feed you enough to gain weight. You need to make sure that your kitchen is stocked with the different kinds of foods that will give your body what it needs, and not a lot of excess items that are not good for you. Make sure that you are buying dense foods that take a while to digest.
Dense foods will work wonders for you in your goal of gaining weight. Some examples of the types of foods you should be buying are vegetables like avocados and potatoes, whole-grain breads, lean red meat, kidney beans, fish and poultry. Also remember that your food bill does not have to empty out your bank account.
The key to saving money is to buy in bulk. There are a lot of stores where you can buy items in bulk, such as COSCO and Sam’s Club. Large packages of turkey, tuna, pastas, and chicken legs are all very good foods that do not cost a lot of money. It is the perishable items, such as fruits, sugary items, and condiments that make the shopping bill skyrocket very quickly.
Time and Plan Your Meals
It is recommended that you eat about five to six times a day when training your body to gain lean body mass. You should be consuming a small meal that contains lean protein, a potentially healthy fat, and fibrous or starchy carbohydrates approximately every two to three hours.
If you really want to gain weight, you need to consistently eat up to five or six times a day as well without skipping meals. Making sure that you are keeping your metabolism running high and nitrogen (protein) in your system will ensure that you will keep the muscle that you have worked so hard to build.
Also, you should be consuming slight excess calories for weight gain as well. Keep in mind that if you fail to plan out your meals, you will ultimately not be eating enough food to gain the weight you want.
Take In A Variety Of Nutrients
When we start to get used to eating certain foods, and refuse to change our diet up, this can be a killer to the efforts of gaining weight. If you are being finicky in your diet choices you can drastically limit the calories that you eat as well as nutrients and vitamins, which are needed for proper body growth. Do not neglect them.
Speed Up Your Metabolism By Eating
This does not mean gorging on food, stuffing yourself, or making yourself sick. It does means eating more than you have been which will gradually prepare your body’s metabolism for the added meals each day.
You should be slowly adding more food to your daily diet, while eating more meals a day until you know what the perfect weight gain calorie need if for your body and goals. Simply said, in order to gain weight without fat, you need to raise your metabolic rate and consume more calories!
Additional Tips For Weight Gaining
- Make sure that you are drinking enough water to keep your muscles hydrated.
- Remain on a good weight-training program. The priority of your workout regimen is building muscle and your carbohydrate sources should give you plenty of energy to power through your workout sessions.
- Make sure you are monitoring your cardio workouts in contrast to your metabolic rate. If you are not putting on the weight, then reduce the frequency of your cardio workouts. If you are putting on too much fat, then you should increase the cardio. They should be hand in hand.
- Track your body fat percentage weekly. This way, you will be able to see if the weight you are gaining is fat or muscle and adjust everything accordingly.

Top 5 Tricep Moves For Mass

You’ll probably be surprised to know that your triceps actually take up as much as two-thirds of your entire arm. When your goal is to achieve large, rock hard arms, then it is a must that you commit yourself to focusing hard on your triceps, maybe even a little harder then on your biceps.
Below are 5 of the top triceps moves we recommend for mass. If your goal is to increase the size of your arms, you might try adding a few of them to your regular workout routines.
For the best results, you should try to isolate your triceps, and be sure to not use your back during the exercises.
While performing any of the exercises for your triceps, make sure that your feet stay firmly on the ground. You should exhale as you perform each exercise, and inhale as you return to the beginning position.
1. Weighted Dips – Get two benches that are placed five feet apart. For taller people, you will need to place them a little further apart. Place both hands (palms down) on one bench, and both of your feet on the other.
Slowly lower your body until your arms reach a 90-degree angle, then go back to the starting position, and repeat. To work out your triceps even further, try laying extra weight plates flat on each leg. You should do at least three sets of ten of this exercise.
2. Skull Crushers – Try not to slip while performing this exercise, or you just might find out how it got its name! Lie down on a flat bench. Using either an ez-bar, or a straight barbell with a significant amount of weight on them, you can either have another person hand you the bar, or reach overhead and grasp the bar yourself.
You will want to place your hands about one foot apart, while keeping your elbows in. Slowly stretch your arms outward, and then bring them over your skull slowly. You should do three sets of eight, of this exercise.
3. Sitting Dumbbell triceps extensions – An adjustable bench comes in handy for this particular exercise, and for good back support, you will want to adjust it in a seat position. Using a good amount of weight, grab a hold of the dumbbell, holding it with both of your hands, behind your head.
Do not let it fall any lower than around the middle part of your head. Then you will extend your arms to straight up in the air, and return to behind your head again. Do not arch your back very much, or let your shoulders fall back too far.
4. Triceps Kickbacks – Bend forward from your waste, taking care to keep your back straight, then grabbing the dumbbell, and hold it at a 90-degree angle. While your arm is kept locked by your side, using just your triceps, let your arms kick the weight back.
This can be a great exercise for the end of your routine, to burn out. Use a light weight, and do sets of either ten or twelve reps.
5. Rope Pull-downs – Using the machine for this exercise, you will want to set it high enough where you will be able to do twelve to fifteen reps, yet low enough where you will feel the burn. Grabbing the rope with a hand on either side, pull it down completely, making a ‘V’.
It is important to keep your arms locked at your sides, and your back kept straight. If you don’t, you can easily overcompensate, and instead of using your triceps, you’ll end up using your back or shoulders.
You will see pretty fast results by adding these triceps exercises to your workout regime, along with getting the proper amount of sleep and protein in your daily diet. For a variation in the exercises, try using a reverse grip, and different pull down bars.

Top 5 Bicep Moves For Mass

Most people think that having big biceps is really just to impress others. Either you have been blessed with the genetics that give you short biceps and a potential to make your biceps look huge much easier, or you don’t have those genetics and have longer biceps that will make you have to work much harder to begin to show your efforts. Either way, it will take some time to make your biceps grow and get bigger.
To do that though, you need to do a few other things that will help in your efforts. You’ll need to get plenty of sleep each night so that your biceps will have time to grow and repair. After you workout your biceps, make sure that you get enough protein.
There are many sources of protein that will help you. You need to consume a protein shake, a lean piece of meat, or a different source of protein like an energy or protein bar to help out. Also remember that with all workouts, you need to inhale as you begin the repetition and exhale as you end the repetition.
Check out the following bicep exercises below. They’ll give you the most mass and all around workout, when done with enough intensity, so get at it!
1. Standing Bicep Curl: Using dumbbells, stand up with your arms by your side. Face your palms forward with the dumbbell in your hand then lift the weight up until your fist almost hits your shoulder. (Not literally, obviously) Make sure that your bicep is flexed throughout the repetition.
Now slowly lower the dumbbell back to your side. Repeat this for 3 sets of 8-10 repetitions. Make sure you are working with weights that you can complete this task with. When doing bicep workouts, always keep your elbows locked by your sides.
This will ensure that your arms are also tight against your body and that you are working out your bicep and not your back or your shoulder.
2. Standing Barbell Curl: This exercise is very much like the Standing Bicep Curl, but instead of dumbbells, you use a barbell. Make sure that, again, you are standing straight and that you are gripping the barbell with an underhanded grip with your hands shoulder width apart.
Do not rock back and forth as you do this exercise. Make sure that you are keeping your back and abdominal muscles tight and still, moving only your arms while keeping your elbows locked by your sides.
Although you can use a little more weight with this exercise than with the Standing Bicep Curls, if you have to lean, rock, or use your back, then you need to lighten the weight load.
3. Seated Preacher Curls: Just like the name suggests, you will not be standing on this exercise. You should be sitting on a Preacher Bench that has an inclined pad elevated in front of you.
Also, you will need an EZ bar or straight bar with a manageable amount of weight on it. Just like the other exercises, make sure that you are only using your biceps and not your back. This exercise is one of the fastest bicep growing exercises used in weightlifting today.
4. Reverse Curls: Reverse Curls can be done while either standing or sitting. You also have a choice of using dumbbells or a barbell. The only difference with this exercise is that you have to have your palms in an overhand grip, or bicycle handlebar grip.
This exercise will not only work on your biceps like the other exercises mentioned above, but you will also work on your forearms and wrists quite well. Definitely a good idea to throw it in to put some extra work in on your forearms.
Note: Reverse curls are not particularly a move that build’s a lot of mass on your biceps. It primarily hits your forearms, which is quite beneficial as well, making it a solid choice to throw into your arms routine.
5. Hammer Curls: This workout is very similar to the Standing Bicep Curl, except that your palms are facing inwards, like you are using a hammer, hence the name. You’ll want to do this workout towards the end of the other bicep exercises because help burn everything out.
You also want to do this with lower weight to feel the burn more. Do about 3 sets of 10 repetitions. Also, due to the burn that this exercise will cause, you may want to do it towards the end of your workout session.
Just remember that results won’t show up overnight, but with the right amount of protein and sleep, you’ll begin to see some sick gains. Stick with it and stay consistent!

Quick Full Body Workout Circuit

In today’s world, everything we do is rushed, hurried, and made to make you feel that you should get instant gratification in all that you do. Just think about it for a few seconds. Fast food, fast cars, microwave meals, drive through banks and speed dating.
All tailored around a civilization that is on the go. So, why would you spend hours working out in the gym each day? Want to work out more of your body than just one muscle group a day? There are ways to save time and get a great workout at the same time. Here are some examples.
Quick Weight Training Tips:
- Work in this routine two times a week, with high intensity.
- Only a single set of each exercise will suffice. There is no reason to over do it, but if you don’t focus in and work hard, you won’t be reaping the rewards, so make it count!
- Perform ten to fifteen repetitions per set, sticking closer to 10 for most sets. When fifteen reps become easier to do, then increase the weight that you are using by five or ten pounds. Its best to add five pounds for smaller muscle workouts and ten pounds for the larger muscle groups.
This lets you approach the use of heavier weights on a better-scheduled timetable dependant on your own body.
- Your will need to rest for sixty seconds between each exercise that you do and about two or three days between workout sessions.
If you find that you need a little more time between sets to switch weights, clean your area, or get some water, by all means take the time.
- Concentrate on your posture and form. You should be able to think through your exercises beforehand, thinking about which muscles are being worked out, what position your arms and legs should be in to make sure that the correct muscles are being used.
If possible, find a workout partner or hire a personal trainer. Either way you go, they can help you watch your form and let you know when you are losing concentration or correct form. If neither of these is available, work out in front of a mirror, constantly watching your form and correcting it when possible.
The Exercises:
Squats – While you are doing squats, just about every muscle in your legs are being used. While doing this exercise, your body releases full body growth hormones. Therefore, this exercise is a must for those looking to do conditioning, not only in your legs, all over.
You can also choose which position that you want to use, as in back or front squats.
Dead Lifts – Again, here is another full body exercise. This one involves your quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, plus many other muscles. This exercise is just about guaranteed to get your muscles stronger and bigger in a short period of time.
Your body really does not have any choice but to build more muscle tissue, burn unwanted fat, and get stronger. Although you usually only see men doing deads, women can also benefit greatly.
Lunges – This is a really great exercise for those who want to get strong, well built legs. It concentrates on the hip flexors, hamstrings, and glutes. So far, you have worked every major muscle in your legs as well as from every angle.
Pull-ups – Pull-ups are rarely done unless it is totally out of necessity, like in prison or while in boot camp. This is probably because of how difficult they are to do, and even harder to do correctly. When doing pull-ups correctly, you should face your palms away from you as you grip the bar, then pull your body straight up and then straight down.
By kipping, swinging, or rocking you are in essence cheating yourself by using more than the muscles that you are supposed to be using. Also, if you raise your knees when you pull yourself up, then you are doing it wrong.
If you are having trouble completing a set of repetitions, or even more than five pull-ups, then you should begin doing lat pull-downs on a machine until you can build your strength to a sufficient level to be able to do pull-ups.
Incline Bench Presses With Dumbbells – With this exercise, you should use an incline press bench that is set no more than thirty degrees. If you want to build up your chest, this is the way to do it. It is a lot safer as well since you are not using a barbell and weights.
If you should lose control of the dumbbells, you can drop them beside you. If it were a barbell, then you would have it land on top of you. Make sure that while you are doing repetitions, you are keeping your palms facing inward.
Facing your palms inward will relieve the stress put on the deltoids so that you will not be as sore as you would be otherwise.
Biceps Curl – You should start this exercise in a standing barbell curl position. Now, slowly lift the barbell upward, sliding it lightly against your body, until it is level to where it would be if you were doing a barbell curl.
As you are doing this exercise, your elbows will be moving backwards, keeping them tightly against your sides. Once you have lifted the bar as high as possible while keeping good form, then you should lower the bar exactly opposite of the way it was lifted and making sure that the barbell stays in contact with your body and repeat.
Triceps Pushdowns – This exercise will help build the other seventy-five percent or so of your arms. (Funny how people spend so much time on their biceps, isn’t it?) Start this exercise by facing the triceps push down machine with your feet shoulder length apart.
Grasp the horizontal barbell attached to the end of the cable palms down. The barbell starting position should be at about chest level and relatively low weight. Now, tuck your elbows in against your sides and pull the barbell down until your arms are straight and pointing downward. Hold at the bottom and slowly return to the starting position

Big And Strong Chest Workout

Who doesn’t want to be big, strong and lean? The problem is, most workouts focus on only one of those goals at a time. A somewhat rare training strategy called 5-10-20 (Also known as a pyramid) allows you to train for strength on your first exercise (5 reps), muscle size on your second (10 reps) and muscle endurance and body-fat reduction on the third (20 reps).
By combining all three of these rep ranges in a single, fast workout, you’re able to work your muscles in three distinct ways, and switch in up in case you’ve fallen into a comfortable zone lately.
How you arrange your workout is vital to gaining muscle. The first component should be a compound exercise (done here with dumbbells because they’re more difficult to control and stabilize) using a weight with which you can complete just five reps.
The second move is also a compound exercise, but you do it from a different angle and with a different piece of equipment. If you used dumbbells in your first exercise, select a barbell or machine movement for your second.
The last exercise requires high reps, so the best choices are isolation (or single-joint) exercises. You can do this movement with dumbbells, but you get constant tension on the muscle if you choose cables or a machine.
You can use this type of training when you’re in a hurry or want to target a lagging body part, but as with most training programs, you should follow it for no more than about six weeks before making changes, so switching everything up once in a while is a great idea.
Beginner Chest Routine
Flat-Bench Dumbbell Press | Sets: 3 – Reps: 5
Incline Barbell Press | Sets: 3 – Reps: 10
Cable Crossover | Sets: 3 – Reps: 20
Advanced Chest Routine
Incline Dumbbell Press | Sets: 3 – Reps: 5
Smith Machine Decline Press | Sets: 3 – Reps: 10
Flat-Bench Cable Flyes | Sets: 3 – Reps: 20
* Please note, these set and rep schemes do not include an adequate warm-up set for each exercise. Also, make sure you choose a weight that allows you to reach muscle failure at the desired rep range, and no more.

Add A New Inch To Your Arms

If there was one part of your body that you’d really like to be bigger, what would it be? Okay… if there was two parts of your body that you’d really like to be bigger, the second has got to be your arms.
A largely universal question everyone seems to ask is: How can I get bigger arms? Well, we get a lot of emails asking for this type of thing on a daily basis, asking if we can suggest a routine to build up arm muscles and strength ASAP, so here’s a routine that’ll have you hunting down bigger shirts in no time flat.
First off we need to start with a little bit of truth here; it’s a proven fact that more than 90% of real, dedicated gym rats are over training. If you’re one of those guys who are spending hours working out hard every day, then chances are, you’re overtraining, and treating the gym more as a hobby then anything else.
If that’s the case, nothing’s going to alter the shape of your muscles until you’ve given your body a break. So, take a deep breath and prepare yourself: for the next two weeks, stay out of the gym. That’s right, two full weeks. If you’re serious about adding on new size, you’re going to need to get your muscles fully recovered.
That means no strength training at all for that time. Take this time to get lean and nail all of your meals. It’ll be worth it once you see the drastic changes you can make, when your muscles are fully recovered.
Ok, so on with the arm busting routine, which is designed to add the most muscle mass to your triceps, biceps and forearms, all within three workouts after your two-weeks off.
Biceps – Sitting Curls: While you’re seated on a bench, have your barbell resting in your lap. When you’re ready, with a shoulder width underhand grip, lift and curl upwards as far as your chin.
Because you’re sitting, you’ll be able to lift more weight than you would in standing, so make sure your weights are heavy enough that you can’t do more than 8 reps.
Now, do a set of 8 reps, then rest for thirty seconds. Increase the weight you’re lifting by 10% and go at it again, doing as many reps as possible, to increase your intensity. Do your best to go past your normal threshold for pain and grind out a few extra reps.
Triceps – Close Grip Bench Presses: This exercise is specifically designed to trigger new growth in your triceps and the most important part of it is the heaviness of the weights, not the range of movement.
For that reason, you should limit yourself to the top third of your personal range of motion. You’ll find it much easier to use a power rack or Smith apparatus to perform this exercise.
Start by gripping the bar with your hands evenly spaced and six inches apart. Contract your triceps and lift the weights off the rack to until your arm is fully extended. Again, use enough weight to ensure that you can’t do more than 8 reps.
Like the first routine, your range of motion is restricted in this position so you can achieve a lift of around 50% more weight than you would in other stances. This will ultimately boost strength and muscle gains.
Do one set of eight reps then rest for thirty seconds before increasing the weight by 10%. Now perform as many reps as you possibly can to rep out completely. Again, go past your normal threshold for pain and grind out as many reps as you can.
Forearms – Two Exercises
Sitting Wrist Curls: This move is performed in the same sitting position as the bicep curls above. Grab a seat on a bench and take an underhand grip on your barbell while resting your wrists on your knees. Your hands should be extended beyond your knees. Now permit the weight of your bar to force your wrist down towards the floor. Using your forearm muscles, lift the weight back up.
Do one set of eight reps, then rest for thirty seconds before increasing the weight by 10% and again, now do as many reps as you can till you’ve completely exhausted your forearms.
Behind-the-Back Wrist Curls: For this exercise, hold the barbell behind your back keeping the palm of your hand facing backwards. This is easiest if you have a buddy pass you your weights or have them on a rack behind you.
With the bar hanging downward and your wrist relaxed, using your forearms muscles, bring the weight up by bending your wrists. You may think you can’t do much weight for this one but trust me; you can, so go for the heaviest weight you can manage.
The range of movement/motion isn’t as important as the heaviness of the weights, which will promote the muscle growth.
As with the other exercises, do one set of 8 reps then rest for thirty seconds before increasing your weights by 10%. Now do as many reps as you can manage again until your forearms feel like their on first and you can’t possibly do another curl.
Every time you do these four exercises, try to increase the weight by 15 to 25%. You’re only going to see progress if you add to the weight often because this is what powers new muscle growth and development: heaviness.
Do the above routine three times, over the next twelve days, but don’t do any other arm exercises/training while you’re doing this routine. Feel free to still train your other muscle groups and you can still perform low intensity cardio during this time.
If it’s done right though, no matter how big your arms are, they’re going to be bigger after twelve days! Guaranteed!