Guide on How to Build Muscle
I am boldly calling this article the definitive guide on how to build muscle.
The secret to building muscle is to get stronger. The stronger you get, the more weight you can lift and the more weight you can lift the more muscle you will get. The bottom line is more strength means more muscle. If you are already a member of a gym you will see guys training every day on a split routine.
If you have been training less than 6 months then you should stay away from fancy split routines you see in muscle mags. The truth is that most people who are training isolation movements on a split routine will never gain muscle. If you come back three months later that same guy doing the fancy split routine will be the same lean body mass that he was 3 months ago.
There are genetic exceptions called mesomorphs that can build muscle with any resistance on a regular basis. It does not mean that because you are more endomorphic or ectomorphic than mesomorphic that you will never gain muscle. It means you need to train differently, that's all.
Do yourself a favor and don't put the cart before the horse, whether you are training at home or training at a gym you need to build the basic foundation when building muscle. Unless you are genetically gifted it is recommended by the experts that you stay away from these fancy split routines until you get stronger.
Let's assume you have been training with weights on a regular basis for only a few months. If you are not able to lift a heavier weight than you were able to lift a month ago you are wasting your time. The objective when building the foundation of muscle in your body is to get stronger and that means lifting a heavier weight, this is called progressive resistance.
Lifting the heaviest weight you can until failure every time you train is also not the answer. The first step is correct form, you need to know exactly how to do the movement. Arnold won 7 Mr. Olympia titles because you could squat reps with 500 lbs and deadlift 700 lbs, he would bench-press around 450 lbs and his chest shows us why.
You get muscle packed on your body because you are strong, all competitive bodybuilders know this and train to increase strength as fast as possible. Arnolds training partner Franco Columbo was super-strong, deadlifting well over 750 lbs and benching 525 lbs with a 655 lbs squat.
There is a long list of professional bodybuilders who squat with over 500 lbs on a regular basis. They do this because it helps to increase muscle bulk, the 8 X Mr. Olympia Ronnie Coleman is a good example deadlifting over 800lbs. Or we could go back in time to one of the greatest bodybuilders Sergio Oliva, who could press well over 300lbs overhead press.
Although very few people training at a gym and building muscle actually want to stand onstage all oiled up with no clothes on, they still know that the only way to gain any muscle is to get stronger. All bodybuilders know that gaining muscle is all about gaining strength, the more strength the more muscle.
Fancy new split routines using advanced techniques like negatives and drop sets are only worked by bodybuilders who already have the basic foundation, which they got by training three times a week. Training every day on a split routine should be limited to those bodybuilders who already have at least 20 pounds of muscle on their bodies.
If you train for strength instead of training to get that pump in your body you will build the basic foundation of muscle. There is a great story of Milo who competed in the first Olympic Games in ancient Greece. He trained for the Olympics by taking a new born calf up a mountain every other day.
As the calf grew Milo grew stronger and by the time the Olympics arrived Milo was carrying a fully grown bull on his back up the mountain. This is progressive resistance, it adds muscle to the body everywhere. Your core strength increases with every workout.
If you are a genetically deprived hard gainer with ectomorphic genes running through your body, you will still be able to increase lean body mass in your body by steadily lifting more and more weight. If you can lift even 5 more pounds than you could lift last month then you will have increased the muscle size in your body in order to do this.
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