If you've been weightlifting for a while, but you haven't seen
the results you want, chances are, you're doing a few things
wrong.
Don't worry, this article will show you exactly what you need to
do in your workout program in order to build the most muscle
mass possible.
1. Lift Heavy
To gain muscle mass, you have to lift big. Lifting big means
going as heavy as you can with strict, form. This is how your
muscles are stressed and forced to gain more muscle.
When you lift heavy, you put stress on the muscles and your body
adds more muscle tissue to handle the future stress.
2. Change Things Around
Mix up your routines and exercises from time to time, so that
you don't get bored in the gym.
Stick with the same proven, basic exercises, but change the
muscle groupings around or change the days you work out.
Keep things fresh and keep things interesting, so you're more
likely to keep going to the gym.
3. Stick With The Proven Basics
Too many people do too many different exercises for each body
part. To get the most muscle mass from your weight lifting, use
basic compound movements like the squat, bench press, military
press, barbell rows, and barbell curls.
These place more overload on the muscles, forcing them to grow.
Since muscle mass comes from heavy and intense lifting, you want
to use the exercises that offer the chance to use the most
intensity and weight. Stick with the basics.
4. Warm Up Before Lifing
Warming up before lifting helps prevent injuries. You can either
warm up on the cardio machines for 5 minutes or you can do a few
warm up sets with light weight.
If you're going to do the bench press, just use the bar and lift
it for 15-20 reps, until you feel warm enough to put more weight
on.
Warming up before lifting will help you feel more energetic, so
you're able to lift more weight.
5. Use Max Intensity
To train with intensity, you have to use more weight. And keep
workouts short and sweet. The shorter the workouts, the more
intensity you can put into your sets.
Stick with just 2 to 3 heavy sets for all exercises. This will
allow you to use the most intensity, since you don't have to do
a ton of sets.
6. Use Free Weights
While machines can be good for isolating muscles, free weights
offer more overload to the muscles and are better for putting on
muscle size.
The machines do some of the balancing for you, so the overload
to the muscles will be less.
If you want to hit the muscles with more weight and overload,
use free weights instead of machines.
7. Use Low Reps
For maximum muscle, keep reps in the 6-8 rep range. This allows
you to use heavier weight than if you did 10 reps.
Again, building muscle comes from overloading the muscles with
more weight. It's easier to do more weight when you use lower
reps.
8. Don't Be Too Strict
If you're too strict and rigid, you'll have a tough time using
the most weight possible. Yes, be safe and somewhat strict, but
give your body the chance to move around a little when lifting.
9. Use Proper Nutrition
Eat 6 small, nutritious meals per day. Use meal replacements or
protein powders if you can't get 6 whole food meals in.
You want to eat every 3 to 4 hours and that can be tough when
you have to prepare the food yourself. That's where meal
replacements help.
10. Use Only Proven Supplements
Forget about all the hype supplements out there, stick with
what's proven to work.
Use only protein powders, meal replacements, creatine,
glutamine, essential fatty acids, and multi vitamins.
All other supplements are more hype than promise.
There you have 10 ways to get more muscle mass from your weight
lifting workouts.
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