How To Get Muscles: 8 Tips For Optimum Muscle Growth
If you're really serious about learning how to get muscles, there are about 8 basic principles you must understand to build the optimum muscle mass your body can possibly achieve.In this article I'll cover the weight training aspect of an effective muscle growth program. (However, understand that you must also have knowledge about Nutrition and getting adequate rest.)
Seek to apply these 8 principles whenever you do your weight training. Otherwise you will not build muscle mass at all nor will you achieve the optimum level of muscle gain your body is capable of.
How to Get Muscles Tip #1: Warm Up!
Warming up is very important because it makes you less prone to injury. There's nothing more frustrating than making significant muscle gain only to suddenly be unable to train for weeks just because you pulled a muscle!
You can warm up by doing 5 to 10 minutes of cardio, lifting lighter weights (about 50% to 60% of your normal load) for 1 to 2 sets prior to your actual weight training program, and then giving each muscle group a good stretch. I found that stretching in between sets and after my work out too really helps speed up my recovery time.
How to Get Muscles Tip #2: Proper Form
Heavier doesn't necessarily mean better. To build muscle mass, what's important is that the weight you are using is providing the required stimulation to the muscles being trained.
It's a common mistake to lift "too much" weight. A weight is too heavy for you if you need to use momentum to finish a whole set. Using momentum doesn't target the muscles so you don't get any benefits. In other words, your muscles will never grow..
You might as well just go home.
* Avoid extraneous body movement and momentum. * Be still and let the target muscles do ALL the work. * Let the target muscle move the weight - no momentum, swinging or bouncing. * Don't let the muscle relax or rest during the set - keep it stimulated by squeezing, contracting, breathing right - don't pause and no "resting" in between reps!
How to Get Muscles Tip #3: Sets and Reps
Repetition Maximum (RM) is the maximum reps you can do for a given load; Thus, your 8 RM is the weight you can lift for no more than 8 reps.
The rep range one needs to do depends on the goal. As general guide:
* 1 to 7 RM is for strength training
* 8 to 12 RM is for muscle growth
* 13+ reps is for endurance
To get muscles, concentrate on the 8-12 RM range. However be aware that some muscles, like your abs and calves, respond best to 13+ RM.
How to Get Muscles Tip # 4: Do Whole Body Exercises
Focus on whole body exercises, as they stimulate the most muscle fibers in the least amount of time. In other words, they give you the best output with the least input. Performed correctly and at challenging resistance, compound exercises will give you the best results - and fast.
The best muscle producing compound exercises are squats, bench press, pull ups, dips, deadlifts, clean and press, rows, military press, calf raises, and crunches.
How to Get Muscles Tip #5: Intensity
If you have been training for a while and you still look the same, chances are you hadn't been training intensely enough.
Remember that in the gym your objective is to challenge your muscle. You need to give your body a reason to think, "uh-oh I need to get bigger and stronger, otherwise I won't be able to keep up with all these demands!". That can only happen if you train with intensity. So work hard, and your efforts will pay off.
As your body adapts you'll hit a plateau and your gains will diminish. This is good news. It means you've progressed and ready for more challenge. When you see your gains decreasing, it's a sign that it's time to increase the intensity of your work out up by another notch yet again.
How to Get Muscles Tip #6: Tempo
The speed at which you execute your moves plays an essential role on your results, too. To build muscle, pay attention to the releasing phase of each rep and "fight the negative" - don't just let it go and use momentum; using momentum is cheating.
This portion of the rep creates the most "damage" in the muscle fibers. As the muscles get damaged, your body adapts as it is forced to rebuild itself, and each time it does, it gets stronger and bigger so that it can withstand the challenges you are continuously placing on them.
So remember:
Proper Tempo = more muscle damage = more repairs = bigger, stronger muscles!
How to Get Muscles Tip #7: Progression
I've mentioned before that your body will keep adapting and hit a plateau. The only way to get out of a plateau is Progressive Overload. It means that you have to keep raising the challenge. Each workout should be harder than the one before.
To get muscle growth you have to progressively increase the stimulation your muscles receive. Doing the same old thing will only condition your body to maintain itself - not good if what you want is change, particularly growth. Don't be one of those people who look the same even after months of working out.
How to Get Muscles Tip #8: Variation
Another way to keep you on your toes is changing every element of your workoout routine as often as possible. Change your exercises, rep and set range, weight, intensity, etc. Don't do the exact same routine for more than 6 weeks, and change as soon as you notice that your results are staring to decrease again.
Conclusion
Many hardgainers get on the gym to do weight training without really understanding exactly how to get muscles or what elements are involved in the process. Don't be one of them.
The weight training principles we covered are Warming Up, Proper Form or Technique, the importance of Compound Exercises, Sets and Reps, Intensity, Tempo, Progressive Overload, and Variation.
But it's not easy to achieve maximum muscle growth all by yourself. Without proper guidance, you can easily acquire poor habits like eating fast foods, working out inconsistently, or not pushing yourself hard enough. I myself had been training ineffectively for years so I didn't see any significant muscle growth - that is, until I found reputable bodybuilding teachers and applied their teachings.
But don't just seek any bodybuilding teacher. Learn from those who have demonstrated the effectiveness of their knowledge for a body type like yours.
If you're built as an ectomorph, have super fast metabolism and struggle to put on muscle or gain weight, the best teacher I found was Vince DelMonte, who wrote No Nonsense Muscle Building. You can read my No Nonsense Muscle Building Review here.
Don't let your hard work go to waste. If you're going to spend time bodybuilding, you might as well get it right. If you're a hardgainer, visit my blog to get more No B.S. advice about how to get muscles using only natural bodybuilding.
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