5 Keys To Building Serious Muscle

[BigD]

By Bob Myhal
RULE # 1: SHORT, INTENSE TRAINING SESSIONS

If you’re goal is to add muscle mass, then there’s no way you should be in the gym for any longer than an hour, tops.

I’m a firm believer that quick, intense muscle-blasting sessions are best, especially for natural bodybuilders and/or hardgainers.

The "get in the gym, hit your muscles hard, then get home and grow" philosophy of Mentzer, Yates, and others has proven time and time again to be a highly successful strategy for mass training.

As an example, I train my complete chest in about 20 minutes. I see some people in the gym who take 30-40 minutes to bench press! Unless you’re looking to set the powerlifting world on fire, this is counterproductive.

And forget about doing 15 sets for biceps and expecting to grow. Train them all-out in 5 or 6 sets and you’ll get much better results.

RULE # 2: EMPHASIZE THE NEGATIVE

Research has shown beyond any doubt that the eccentric or negative portion of a movement is at least as important to muscle growth as the positive or concentric phase.

By periodically placing greater emphasis on the eccentric, you’ll push your muscles harder than ever before . . . and as a result, you’ll stimulate new growth.

For each bodypart, I like to focus on negatives once every couple of weeks. The easiest way to do this is resist the weight during the negative, lowering slowly.

For instance, you can focus on the eccentric portion of the Standing Barbell Curl by raising the weight at a normal tempo (for me this is usually a 2 count) and then lowering the weight very slowly (a count of 4 or 5).

This is a high intensity technique that you shouldn’t use every workout . . . doing so will likely lead to overtraining. For best results, use the technique periodically during a couple heavy sets of each bodypart.

Because muscles are generally stronger during the eccentric phase of the movement (muscles can resist more weight than they can lift), you can also use a spotter to allow you to use more weight during the negatives. Just have your partner help you out on the positive portion of the movement, and really blast your muscles with those heavy negatives.

RULE # 3: VARIETY

Variation is the most important principle you can implement if you want to allow your body to continue to pack on serious muscle mass. I cannot emphasize this enough.

Our bodies are incredible machines; they’re capable of adapting very quickly to the physical stresses we place on them during training. In fact, it’s one of the things they do best.

It’s because of this ability to adapt that you must constantly be using variation in your program—or even changing your program altogether—in order to prevent this adaptation from stifling progress. There’s no doubt that it’s precisely the failure to change and alter things up in your training that results in plateaus and frustration.

Ideally, you should be following a training program that has variation built into it on all levels. In any event, a training program that does not use variation as an organizing theme is doomed to offer only short-term, sporadic gains.

RULE # 4: FUEL YOUR BODY FOR GROWTH

If you want big muscles, then you have to feed your body lots of high-quality nutrients. Your best bet is to give your body a continual influx of food.

I suggest eating at least 4 and as many as 8 meals per day. Of course, these meals should be well-structured and evenly distributed and proportioned.

Ideally, if you want to take in say 5000 calories over the course of 6 meals (a good target for an intense training 200 lbs. male looking to pack on muscle mass), then each meal should be around 800 to 850 calories. This is preferred to having say one meal of 350 calories, one of 1400 calories, and so forth.

Organize your meals around quality sources of protein like egg whites, tuna and other fish, chicken and turkey breast, lean cuts of beef, etc. Try to take in around 1 to 1.5 grams of protein per pound of weight. If you weigh 200 lbs., than eat at least 200 to 300 grams of protein per day.

Getting enough good fat is also important for muscle growth, and experience suggests that drastically low fat diets are counterproductive in this area.

For best results, I like to cycle carbohydrate intake. Check out the Anabolic Nutrition Program for more details.

Now, it’s admittedly difficult to eat 5 or 6, not to mention 7 or even 8, quality meals per day . . . especially given how busy most of our schedules are. This is where using a solid meal replacement powder (MRP) and other supplements becomes absolutely essential.

RULE # 5: SUPPLEMENT SUPPORT

The days of people knocking the benefits of supplements are thankfully over. Now, even mainstream physicians and nutritionists recognize the importance of supplementing our diets. And the real-world results bodybuilding and fitness enthusiasts have achieved through intelligent supplementation speak for themselves.

Along with training and nutrition, establishing a proper supplement program is one of the three equal points of the Triangle of Physical Well-Being and Power.

The list of tried and proven supplements that support muscle growth really isn’t that long: vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants; protein powders and MRP formulas, especially whey and casein; creatine monohydrate; Essential Fatty Acids; glutamine; CLA; and a handful of others. These are the supplements you need to help make your dreams of added muscle mass a reality.

[Darkknight442]

And forget about doing 15 sets for biceps and expecting to grow. Train them all-out in 5 or 6 sets and you’ll get much better results

for the whole work out?????? so that measn 2 excerscises 3 sets each?? don't get that

o it is better to get a spotter go heavy and just accentuate the neg. coo.l. good post mant hanks

[SUPERDAVE]

and if all that fails.....there's still juice

[jbrand]

Originally posted by Darkknight442
And forget about doing 15 sets for biceps and expecting to grow. Train them all-out in 5 or 6 sets and you’ll get much better results

for the whole work out?????? so that measn 2 excerscises 3 sets each?? don't get that

o it is better to get a spotter go heavy and just accentuate the neg. coo.l. good post mant hanks

I personally never do more than 2 isolation exercises per session. Also take into account that I work corresponding muscle groups together.

[Sema]

bump, good post BigD

[Big Show 23]

Rule #1 & #4 are definately the most important of the 5 rules BigD posted

[Pembo]

Bump great post especially for natural hard gainers

[Pembo]

Alongside workout, plenty of good sleep to rack up those REM hours.

[TheGame826]

i agree totally.. short and intense, some of my friends try to show me up by going 2 hours or more. im usually in and out in 40 or 50 minutes. btw none of my friends can even compete with me especially pound for pound

and like SUPERDAVE said "if all else fails theres still juice"

[MIKE_XXL]

One more TIME UNDER TENSION, make each and every set last 40-50 seconds, but i guess that takes care of itself by slowing down the negative...good post, couldn't agree more...XXL

[VitaminT2]

good info, i should probally shorten my workout times, usally like hr. and a half

[undertaker]

man u r fucken totaly right .i use to stay in the gym about 3 hours and i didnt realize any gains,but now i dont satay more than 1 hour and i am seeing good gains very good gains

if u can post me your workout routine

[williampowers]

INTENSITY ,FORM, DIET

sO TRUE MAN

[The French Curler]

BigD, I'm glad you mentioned 5 to 6 sets rather than 15 sets is better for biceps growth.

[SUPERDAVE]

Condensed:

Short, intense, compound training
6-8 clean, protein dense meals a day
multivitamin
Negative= GROWTH
Switch it up every month or two
Sleep 8 hours every night!!(don't cheat yourself)

Even More Condensed:

TRAIN+EAT+SLEEP= GROWTH

[Little Jonah]

great post man it helped me a lot

[RVLom]

hey guys, right now im doing like a three hour workout at the gym per day and ive been told i shouldnt do that before but lemme ask you when u say blasting your muscles do you mean like more reps or more weight or both?






-Ray

[Buddha_Red]

try to shrink your workout to 1 1/2 hours max
I can get an entire resistance workout and 25 mins of cardio in that time.

I do each set to failure, i do 12 reps each exercise but i can never get the last set done without a spot and alot of growling hehe

[undertaker]

u told us 5-6 sets for biceps i dont dont understand this
i wanna know how many moves and how many set per move
and in this way should i train my triceps?

[D3m3nt3d]

great info, since my chest lags the rest of me i have been focusing on the 6121 tempo just on chest, everything else seems to be growing fine so i will stick to the usual routine there

[skid]

thanks, bro! I've been ignoring the NEGATIVE ... thanks for the reminder!

[jamotech]

Bump for some great info!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[D3m3nt3d]

Originally posted by undertaker
u told us 5-6 sets for biceps i dont dont understand this
i wanna know how many moves and how many set per move
and in this way should i train my triceps?

I usually do 4 different bicep exercises, always have and it works for ME..4 exercises, 3 sets each = 12 sets...as far as triceps go...i have been doing either 2 exercises 3 sets or 3 exercises 2 sets for a total of 6 sets on tri's..this is just what works well for me tho