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.

The ‘Rule Of 3′ Meets Pareto’s ‘80/20′–And You Get Fit Faster As A Result!

Everybody likes simple lists.

Everybody likes Rules Of Thumb.

And as far as I can tell, everyone wants tighter abs and more energy.

So, naturally, we all look for the “best” diets and the “best” training routines to bring us closer to that six-pack…ideally, in the least amount of time possible…

…Oh yeah–and we don’t want to think too hard either!

The Old Way:

Counting calories? Fuh-ged-a-bow-dit!

Getting a bodyfat measurement each week? No way!

Calculating our new “estimated 1-rep max” for 27 different exercises? Puh-leeze.

So what’s the solution?

Well, if you don’t mind limiting our example to exercise for the moment, I think I have a few things that can help you in your endless search for the most efficient use of your fitness time…

(which is like, what? about 45 minutes a day 3-4 times a week if you’re lucky?)… It’s OK–you’re human! I do this stuff for a living, and I don’t spend much more time than that myself.

Introducing: “The Rule Of 3-80/20 (Principle)”

Any activity of importance (like exercise) can be broken down into three, and only three Critical Success Factors.
Furthermore, one of these critical success factors should account for 80% of your efforts. And the other two, on average, just 10% of your time, energy, and effort (that is, of course, if you actually want to get anything done).

Thus sayeth The Fitness Sage (that’s me).

And you should listen to me when it comes to getting things done, because I have a Masters Degree *and* ADD! (attention deficit disorder). Without principles like the above, I would be hocking blackmarket Pi-Tae-Boga-Lates tapes to out-of-work actors in LA…

Yeah, so I’m ripping off the Pareto Principle and the Rule Of 3–but you’ll forgive me real quick when you see how this applies to your exercise routine.

Now that I’ve circumnavigated my point a few times, here it is real simple, in 3 (surprise, surprise) easy steps:

The Three Critical Exercise Routine Success Factors

   1. Consistent Progression: Needs 80% of your time and attention.
   2. Sufficient Intensity: Needs 15% of your time and attention.
   3. Intelligent Evolution: Needs 5% of your time and attention.

Simple huh?

But maybe you need some clarification, so here goes…

Consistent Progression Explained:

There are really just 3-4 workout parameters that even matter to the average Jane or Joe who wants a good body and excellent health: Rest Period, Load, Reps-Per-Set, and Total # Of Sets.

So your job is to simply pick one of these, hold all the rest constant, and improve your chosen workout parameter from week-to-week, workout-to-workout until you can no longer do so (just remember to hold everything else constant! especially total workout duration).

When you can’t improve on your chosen parameter, pick a different one and repeat.

That’s it. It really is that simple. Tools needed: 1 pocket-sized notebook and a stopwatch.

Of course, you might want some proven, superior methods to “improve on your chosen parameter.” At the bottom of this article, you’ll get your wish! But first…

Sufficient Intensity Explained:

Make sure you’re doing resistance training folks. Not aerobics. Not LSD (long slow distance cardio). Or any other fitness fad that makes your lungs burn more than your muscles. If you’re consistently getting 20+ reps on all your exercises, then you need to choose more difficult exercises. Period.

Cardio and aerobics have health benefits no doubt, but if you’re really looking for “bang-for-your-fitness-buck”, and you’re short on time, then stick with resistance training.
It’s the only kind of exercise that builds muscle and boosts your metabolism permanently–not just during your workout.

Shoot for exercises that are so difficult, you can only perform between 1 and 15 reps. This could be weightlifting (if you lack the creativity and sophistication of a “Tao Of Functional Fitness” devotee who relies solely on portable exercise equipment–like Fitness Bands–and their own bodyweight), but it doesn’t have to be. If you know how to manipulate leverage, even bodyweight only exercises can be made difficult enough.

Why just 15% of your time worrying about this? Because all you have to do is make sure most of your exercise (excluding a proper warmup of course) falls within this rep range. Not exactly rocket-science. Nuff said.

Intelligent Evolution:

This is just another term for “periodization” or “cyclic training.” Basically it means that you need a strategy for changing your exercise routine over the long haul as you get stronger and closer to realizing your goals. Most of the time the Consistent Progression rule takes care of this, hence the paltry 5% of your noggin that’s required to intelligently evolve.

But over the long haul, you sometimes need to dramatically change your workout protocol. There’s not space here to explore all the ins-and-outs of doing this, but a simplified recommendation would be to cycle between phases where you focus on increasing the Average Load you handle during your workouts, and phases where you’re more concerned with the Amount Of Work Per Unit Time you perform (i.e. “Strength” vs. “Density”).

Conclusion

Consistent Progression (80%) + Sufficient Intensity (15%) + Intelligent Evolution (5%).

Find an exercise routine that gives you that, and you’re on to something!

While the old adage ‘No Pain, no gain’ holds true when it comes to exercising especially while getting used to a new fitness regime, one should not ignore constant warning signs of pain.

It is normal to feel a little discomfort while exercising but it shouldn’t leave you in severe pain.As muscles get actively used lactic acid,micro-tears and other physiological changes are bound to occur which indicate that fat is being burnt to form muscles.

But if one is experiencing continuous knee or joint soreness, back pain or neck aches it is always advisable to consult a physician.The main reason for such pain can be because our technique is incorrect, we possess a medical condition that we are not aware of or we are taking on too much exercise too soon.

One must always being an exercise routine with a warm-up. A workout should be tailored based on a persons age, individual differences,prior exercise routines and overall fitness levels.It is always advisable to do a few stretching exercises before actually beginning the work out as it makes the muscles warm and flexible. This way one can avoid strains and muscle pulls.

An ideal warm up should last at least 15 minutes and can include slow jogging in one place, jumping jacks to activate the cardio and lung systems followed by some slow stretching that help relax the muscles and get the joints in form. Warm ups that are too short can lead to severe stretched or torn cartilage that may take awhile to heal.

Do not get intimidated by quack trainers or friends who influence you into getting up and vigorously exercising just days after you have recovered from an injury,surgery or weakened condition. Although physical therapy sometimes involve exercises that might be a little discomforting, it is harmful to over exercise just a short period after recovering.

Although each of us wants to achieve our fitness goals it shouldn’t come at a heavy price. By overdoing work outs and trying to prove we are ‘mentally tough ‘we are in fact doing more harm to our bodies than good by maximizing health and attaining a strong and fully toned body.

Before beginning a new routine,always make sure you are aware of the correct techniques.Incorrect technique is one of the most common causes of injury after short warm ups and over exercising. Do not be embarrassed to ask how a particular equipment works as everyone learns sometime or the other about it so there is nothing to feel awkward about.

Always be aware and conscious of your surroundings while exercising. It is very easy to lose balance on a treadmill, trip on a pavement while jogging or crash into an approaching car or bicycle if one is not aware.Pay close attention to surfaces so that you don’t trip and have good reflexes.

Exercise however much you can without overdoing it because injuries caused by over working ones muscles may sometimes deter a person from exercising again.The key is to start with the levels you can handle and gradually increase your ability to do more.Your health and body will thus be benefited greatly.

Are you eating your prescribed six bodybuilding meals a day and not gaining muscle?

Have you been blowing your hard-earned cash on body building supplements with techie names like “Nitric-this” and “Cell-Max-that”, yet still fall short of getting the size gains you’re after?

You’re not alone. Thousands of muscle building enthusiasts are needlessly struggling – grunting and sweating for painfully little progress – and mislabeling themselves “hard-gainer”.

Building muscle, like accomplishing anything, requires some rational thinking and a well-executed strategy. It doesn’t just happen because you made it to the gym and finished your workout. It won’t occur simply because you’re using a product that was purportedly created by a “genius” wearing a lab coat. Successful natural muscle growth takes place as a result of adherence to laws of nature – just like success with any endeavor in life.

To back my point, let’s look at what many muscle building aficionados counter-productively do in gyms around the world. This is a simplistic example, but some variation of this scenario is the cause for much unneeded frustration for too many natural bodybuilders.

Let’s say Bill and Joe are training partners. They arrive at the gym to perform their much-anticipated biceps workout. Bill likes to start out with standing barbell curls and he’s glad he has Joe there to spot him. Bill just knows that if he can get Joe to assist him with the heavy sets, some “forced reps” will really get his arms growing. He’s decided to use the ever-popular ‘pyramid technique’ to work his way up to those heavy sets.

Bill ends up doing six sets. His sets are as follows: 50 pounds/8 reps, 55 pounds/8 reps, 60 pounds/6 reps, 70 pounds/6 reps, 55 pounds/7 reps, 50 pounds/6 reps.

Bill feels proud of himself. It was a grueling biceps workout. His first three sets were moderately challenging. However, the 70 pounds he piled on the bar for his fourth set of 6 reps represented a respectable stretch for him.

Although he didn’t ask for any help from Joe, he definitely had to dig deep within himself to find that extra pride-inducing push that allowed him to achieve the set of six reps. This fatigued his biceps enough to make the final three sets extremely challenging, even though they were performed with descending amounts of weight.

Five days later, Bill and Joe are back again for another biceps workout. Why? Because their schedule says it’s time to work those muscles again. Of course, muscles only grow from recovery between workouts – not directly from the tissue-ravaging training sessions themselves. But Bill and Joe have apparently worked out some kind of deal with their biceps in which the muscles have agreed to recover and grow in a four to five day span (sarcasm).

Bill wants to get bigger, so he’s decided to boost his heaviest set up to 75 pounds. He figures this will really “shock” his biceps into growth. His sets on this workout look like this: 50 pounds/8 reps, 55 pounds/8 reps, 65 pounds/6 reps, 75 pounds/6 reps, 55 pounds/6 reps, 50 pounds/5 reps.

Wow… Bill got a little assistance from Joe and managed to use five pounds more weight on his two heaviest sets. That extra intensity caused him to fall short a couple reps on his final, lighter sets. But that’s okay, right? Bill is increasing the poundage and getting stronger and bigger, isn’t he?

Hell no! … Bill is deceiving himself. If you add up the total volume he moved in the approximate twenty minute time period during the first workout, it was 2,305 pounds. Five days later, he moved 2,260 pounds in the same time frame. His volume of lifted weight went down. Now he’s counting on moving forward after having possibly over-trained in this most recent workout. Yet he’s not even aware of what he’s doing.

Until Bill straightens this out, it won’t matter how many stomach-stretching meals he piles down. And all the nifty powdered supplements made by smart looking guys in cute little lab coats won’t help much either. He’ll just be peeing all that into the toilet and wasting time to boot.

That is, unless and until he gets his bodybuilding strategy on track. Nice, huh?

Training movements through compound exercises, single limb and alternating limb exercises will bring about the greatest real world performance improvement… Not training muscles through Isolation exercises.

For performance improvement you can actually use in the real world, you must train movements that are multi-planar and multi-jointed.

People in movement almost never isolate muscles or joints… so why train that way?

Favor compound exercises over Bodybuilder type isolation exercises.

Remember, Bodybuilding programs are specifically designed for muscle growth, not muscle performance… and are definitely not for training the body to work as one complete unit.

Compound exercises use multiple muscle groups in unison to perform the movement… much like we move in sport, work and life activities.

Let’s take a look at the worst possible combination… isolation exercises on machines.

First of all I would like to say that I am not completely against the use of machines under certain circumstances.

For example, I believe that the use of machines for physical therapy and rehabilitation can be very helpful.

If one isolated muscle needed to be rehabilitated due to injury, using a machine that isolated that muscle would be a very productive, safe and controllable way to improve that muscles performance.

The goal of the therapy would be to bring the injured muscle up to the performance level of the rest of the body… allowing it to contribute to compound exercises and multi-planar, multi-jointed movements.

But what happens after the muscle has been rehabilitated and functions equally with the rest of the body… would you continue to isolate it with the hopes of further improving performance?

I think not… you would move on to some other type of training to use the healthy muscle in conjunction with the rest of the body to improve over-all performance… such as compound exercises.

Does this mean that the vast majority of commercial gyms believe your fitness level is so bad that you must use rehabilitation methods?

It is definitely something to think about.

I believe that the reliance of machines in the fitness industry comes from trying to develop a system of physical training that can be used for the greatest cross-section of the population with relative safety… but this does not mean that it is the most effective training method.

Now, just because I have focused on machines does not mean that I am in favor of isolation exercises done with free-weights or any other method.

The reason I do not favor isolation methods is that it leaves gaps in your strength… whereas compound exercises train the body to perform as one complete unit.

Let’s say that you train the bicep curl and military press separately… what happens when you have to curl and press an object in one fluid motion?

The transitional period of the movement between the end of the bicep curl and the beginning of the military press would rob the movement of strength since that movement had never been trained.

I am assuming that the purpose of your physical training is to optimize your performance for sport, work and life… and not just improve performance in the controlled environment of the gym.

You will perform how you train… so train the same movement patterns that you actually use in the real world by using compound exercises, single limb and alternating limb movements.

Compound exercises, single limb and alternating limb exercises most closely mirror how we perform in nature… so it would stand to reason that the greatest amount of usable, real world performance improvement would be made by training these exercises.

I would further contend that the majority of activities in the real world are done with the feet planted firmly on the ground… therefore, for the greatest amount of functional improvement your training should take place in this fashion.

Unless there is some specific reason you need great amounts of isolated strength while seated or lying down… concentrate your physical training on compound exercises, single limb and alternating limb exercises where your feet are in contact with the ground.

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Fitness is a vital element in a person’s life. It does not refer to fitness of body alone. Workouts enable a person to achieve the perfect body. A person must eat well, sleep well and exercise well to have a sound mind and body. It is observed that an obese person may have a lot of stamina and a slim person may hardly have any stamina to withstand daily pressures. Exercise and workouts are the most effective ways of increasing stamina and achieving good health to cope up with stress. Workouts enable a person to perform at optimum energy levels.

A workout involves exercises carried out in an effort to exert the muscles in different ways to stay fit. Workouts must be supported by a balanced diet. It is not advisable to cut out on eating to achieve the perfect body. Today, there has been an increased focus on the importance of fitness and workouts. A lot of people exercise to reduce or manage weight. The ‘feel good’ element of exercise is as important as the ‘look good’ element. It is recommended to consult a fitness expert before undertaking any workout program. A person must have a customized workout plan and set smaller goals initially. A beginner must not do a workout for too long at first, as this may result in joint-aches and exhaustion.

People usually enroll themselves in a fitness center or a gym. The monthly fees vary, and some can be expensive, while others are quite affordable. Many gyms have advanced fitness machines. Treadmills and stationery bikes are very good for lower body exercises. Most exercisers like to use a fitness ball for abdominal workouts. One of the main advantages of joining a fitness center is that workouts are carried out under the supervision of experts. The wrong workout can cause harm and lead to sprains or body-aches.

Exercises like boxing and martial arts increase energy levels. High energy levels are very effective stress-busters. Workouts help in reducing stress hormones in a human body. A lot of people practice Yoga or Tai chi to relieve mental stress. For more details visit http://www.soundbodytrainer.com/

In order to gain any amount of muscle or strength, you must subject that muscle to overload. To continue making gains, you must continue to increase the amount of overload you place on each muscle group over time.

This progressive increase in resistance is the only way to gain muscle mass. The greater the amount of resistance you place on a muscle, the larger that muscle will become, provided you get the proper nutrients needed for muscle growth to occur.

Progression of this resistance is what causes muscle gains to keep happening. If you keep lifting the same amount of weight, your muscles have no reason to get any bigger. They can already handle that weight.

There are 3 ways to increase the amount of resistance you place on a muscle:

1. Do more reps with the same amount of weight each time.

2. Do the same number of reps but use more weight

3. Use the same number of reps and same amount of weight, but shorten the rest periods in between sets.

The most common ways to add progressive resistance to build muscle is with the first 2… using more weight and/or doing more reps.

One of the easiest ways to increase the amount of weight you lift is to decrease the number of reps you do. You keep increasing the weight until you use a heavy enough weight so that you reach muscle failure between 4 and 8 reps.

When you increase the weight each set while performing the same number of reps, you want to go easy for the first few sets, they are just warmups. Only your last 2 heavy sets, the ones with max poundages, are the ones that build muscle. All other sets just help you get ready for these heavy sets.

Again, overloading a muscle group is the only way to gain muscle, increase its size, and tone. So, for your heavy sets, you want to reach the point of failure with low reps and heavy weight.

The more weight you use and the harder you work, the greater the muscle gains. This method is very intense, so you want to ensure proper rest and nutrition.

Overload will help you gain muscle indefinitely, as long as the environment for constant muscle growth is met. Again, it takes intense training, proper nutrition, and plenty of rest.

If one of these conditions is not met, you will not gain the muscle mass you could.

Now that you know what causes muscle gains to occur, you should be well prepared the next time you enter the gym to workout. You’ll know that merely lifting weights is not good enough. You have to keep getting better and stronger, by increasing the amount of weight you lift or the number of reps you do.

But be aware, this process takes time. Be committed to slow, constant growth and you’ll soon be making more gains than you ever thought possible.

Seeing a beautiful body on a magazine cover can indeed be a product of modern technology. Many people ask how do I start to look in shape?

So to answer this question you need to know that no amount of physical activity can give you your desired body if it is not coupled with bodybuilding nutrition and a total body workout. Actually, it is the bodybuilding nutrition that is the most vital factor in building the best body. But I will give you ten rules for building that good body.

1. You Must Use Free Weights for all Heavy Sets

Some machines might feel heavy, they do not involve as much of the ancillary muscles areas as the free weights do and, therefore, do not build as much compound mass as needed.

2. Use Lots of Compound Movements

The way that you perform an exercise is perhaps the most important dynamic in building mass. If you want full, hard bulk, do not isolate. Instead, use what Dave Draper calls ‘body thrust’ to compound the involvement of all the muscles in the area. And try not to fall for the theory that cheating robs you of separation and definition. But on the other hand, it augments the compound benefit and builds even greater size so that there’s more muscle in which to carve separations to define the cuts.

3. Try To Find areas of Improvement

Check out your physique to determine which muscle groups need to be brought up in size, then go to the gym with that in mind, concentrating on working those areas first. Begin your workout with a barbell movement and follow with dumbbells. When you do use cables, do so at the end of your workout program. Remember not to count cable sets as mass building sets as well.

4. You should experiment to find your best mass building exercises

In the past I used to perform lots of squats, and I became incredibly strong with them, going as high as 40 reps with 315 pounds. But there came a point where, even at that level of intensity, my legs weren’t growing to my satisfaction. I discovered that my lower back and hips were taking too much of the stress; the solution lay in working my quads more exclusively. So I stopped doing squats and switched to some leg presses and hack squats. My legs are now better than ever.

5. Its a must to avoid injuries

Make an effort to be cautious of dangerous exercises. Squats and flat bench presses, for example, possess the highest injury potential, so I stay away from them. I can’t count the number of individuals whose bodybuilding careers were ended by torn pecs, slipped discs or strained erectors. With proper knowledge and execution, you can get commensurate or even better growth from exercises that work those muscle groups thoroughly without placing undue stress on tendons and ligaments in and around their joints.

6. Make an effort utilize optimum sets

Its good to use a range of 16 – 20 total sets per bodypart.

7. Don’t count exercises

There is no optimum number of exercises. Most bodybuilders prescribe four sets each of four or five different exercises per bodypart, but for some muscle groups, there might be only one or two movements that work them effectively. In those cases, you should do 16 – 20 sets of one exercise, or 8 – 10 sets each of two exercises for that muscle group.

8. Always perform optimum reps

Me personally, I like to train heavy, but I also like to use lots of reps. I recently performed incline barbell curls with 405 pounds for 10 reps, but I consider that to be medium to light weight, and, therefore, not mass training. My favorite number of mass reps on a regular basis is 10, to failure, of course. However, that doesn’t mean you should avoid going as heavy as possible.

9. Test your maximums

find out your strength levels every so often by maxing out with one or two reps. Remembers, though, that any time you play around with benchpress poundages above 405, you flirt with danger. A body cannot consistently withstand that type of weight lifting. When you want to test your max, do not take big jumps. Rather, work up gradually to keep your body accustomed to the changing forces and their deflections at each level. As an example, I go up to 500 pounds for two reps on the incline barbell press, but I do not jump directly from 405 to 500 pounds. But actually, I make sure I can do 465 for at least four reps before I go to my set of maxs.

10. Always eat your meat

Remember that the more protein you eat, the better, and the best form of protein for mass is meat, especially red meat. That’s where you get your muscle building nutrients, your strength reserves and the necessary fats for joint protection. Make all of these tenets second nature to your bodybuilding lifestyle and you will gain good solid mass that you will love.

Aside from big arms, there’s no desire among aspiring underweight muscle building enthusiasts that quite outdoes the longing for a big, well-developed chest. And why not; big pectorals command respect. They’re somehow primitively associated with courage and assertiveness. When you have pectoral muscles that only slightly protrude beyond your abdominal section, you’re considered to be “in shape”. What’s more, in a world of male competitiveness where one’s height seems to unfairly monopolize the aura of dominating physical stature, powerful pectorals can be a great equalizer. They tell the world that regardless of the level your genetics had you lengthened, you’re packaged physical prowess by choice. You exude strength and athleticism with well developed pectorals.

So what’s the best method for developing a big chest? Well, that shouldn’t be our only question. For if the pectorals aren’t built in a balanced manner, excessive size can contribute to a feminizing effect on the male torso. Does anyone really want to develop “man boobs”? I didn’t think so. Therefore, it’s imperative that we make our pecs just a little bit top-heavy (upper pecs that protrude slightly more than the middle pecs) in our bid to increase chest size. An emphasis on making sure we are successful with incline exercises will ensure good upper pectoral development.

Notice I didn’t recommend doing “a lot of incline exercises”. Instead, I mentioned making sure you’re ’successful’ with your incline movements (this goes for all bodybuilding exercises). Although this might sound like a subtle play on words, it’s really a vital issue for your muscle building progress. Overtraining is probably the biggest setback most natural bodybuilding enthusiasts unwittingly engage. Thus, you might need to add more incline bench movements to build bigger upper pecs, or you might need to lay off of those movements. It really depends on what you’re currently doing. Just keep in mind that many times our enthusiasm to make progress on a particular body part leads us to inadvertently overwork that area – resulting in the exact opposite of our desired effect.

As a lifetime natural bodybuilder, nothing has done more for my pectoral development than taking emphasis off ‘pressing movements’ and putting it on ‘flye movements’. The widespread notion that you “have to bench press” and “bench press heavy” has only been outdone in holding back pectoral growth by the practice of overtraining. Combine the two with the typical plights of the natural bodybuilder and you have a scenario in which pectoral growth is almost nonexistent for too many gym-goers. If heavy bench pressing were the key to a great chest, we’d see power-lifters epitomizing pectoral development. As it turns out, some of them have big pecs and some seem to have nearly none – despite the fact they can bench press heavy.

What if you could do heavy flyes? What if you could get on an incline bench and strictly move seventy-five pound dumbells from the top of the movement – slowly down to having your arms outstretched and the weights parallel with your head (elbows only slightly bent) – and back up to the top position without any arm movement? If you can’t do that for six to eight repetitions now, but you can do it a few months from now, I’d bet on your pectoral muscles being significantly larger after those few months. Making strict and heavy flye movements into the cornerstone of your chest routine can work wonders for the growth of those muscles.

Besides changing bench pressing movements to a secondary position and flyes to the primary one, I’ve also accelerated my pectoral gains by splitting my first flye movement into two partial rep exercises. So when I get to the gym to start my chest routine, I head straight to one of those pec/flye machines in which you hold the handles with your arms extended (only a slight bend in the elbows). These are the kind of pec dec machines that are also used for rear deltoid exercises. I adjust the seat on the machine so that a flye movement done on the apparatus will hit squarely in the middle of my pecs.

I then proceed to do two different exercises with this machine; one for my outer pecs and one for the inner. For outer pectorals, I move my arms from the fully outward position to about halfway through the range of a full flye. I do about five to eight sets like this. For inner pecs, I go from about the twenty degrees angle (where I ended my rep for the outer pec movement) to the point where the handles make contact with each other in front of me. I do those for another five to eight sets. When I’m done with these two partial rep exercises, my entire chest is worked and pumped to the max.

It’s important to know that working the middle chest muscles actually brings the upper and lower pectorals into play. However, isolating the upper chest with incline movements does not bring the middle or lower chest muscles into play. The same goes for isolating the lower chest with declines; it only works the lower pectorals. Therefore, the most efficient way to begin a chest routine is with an exercise that hits the middle chest. My suggestion is that when you begin your pec workout with the above-mentioned exercise, be sure to adjust the seat so that you’re hitting the very center of your chest.

Only when I’ve sufficiently pre-exhausted my pectorals with the strict performance of these partial-rep flyes do I go on to isolate the upper and lower pecs respectively with three more exercises. These include incline dumbell flyes, Hammer Strength presses, and a decline angled pec deck. I do two exercises for upper pecs in an attempt to slightly over-develop them for better balance; the dumbell flyes and the pressing movement with the Hammer Strength machine. Presses are incredibly more effective for pectoral growth when the pecs have been pre-exhausted with flyes.

If you’ve been having trouble with pectoral growth, I highly recommend you switch to making flye exercises the foundation of your routine. In addition, split that first exercise of pec deck flyes into two half-rep movements. This will create maximum stress on both the inner and outer pecs – working wonders on both the size and shape of the muscles.

Exercise and Fitness: Building Muscle Mass

Building muscle mass does not happen overnight and consistent training is the key. Training heavy is important, but you must make sure you are performing enough exercises for each body area and enough sets per exercise. An example of a muscle building program is to perform on average four exercises per body part and four sets of each exercise. That is about 16 sets per body part per workout. Many people pyramid the weights up while other people pyramid the weight down. I would suggest a combination, one week go up and the next pyramid down. You should not pyramid down until you know what your sub-max weight is for each exercise. It is a good idea to hire an experienced fitness trainer to help you with this type of training. With strength/muscle building training you should train each body part one time per week. It is very hard training, but this is one way to add substantial muscle mass. Make sure you vary the exercises and workouts so that your body does not adapt to the training. Once your body adapts to the training you will plateau. You must constantly challenge the muscles in order to build muscle mass. Core gets trained more often than once per week and ,make sure you keep up with your flexibility training.

In other words, if you want to look like a bodybuilder you must train like a body builder. If you cannot hire a trainer to get you started try to find a workout partner who has been successful with muscle building training for a number of years. You should be performing squats, bench press, overhead press, and many other exercises with free weights as well as use the machines for some exercises. Training for muscle mass is very intense. You must be injury free and very healthy to train for muscle mass. Please make sure you discuss your exercise plan with your doctor before you begin.

To add muscle mass you must also take a look at your diet. Nutrition is extremely important for any type of training. You may be eating healthy, but there is a chance you should make a few changes to help with your goals. You must look at the number of calories you are eating vs. the number of calories you are burning. You should be eating some protein and carbohydrate at the end of each workout, within 20 minutes. I would not recommend you start drinking protein shakes because you can get all of the nutrients you need through good food. The quality of the food you eat will play an important role in your success. You may not be eating enough calories. Go to WWW.MYPYRAMID.GOV for safe and accurate nutrition information. There are nutrition tools on that website to help you design the best eating plan for you. Another healthy eating website is WWW.EATHEALTHY.ORG . You must also remain well hydrated. Drink Gatorade before, during, and after your workout. For information on Gatorade and sports nutrition you should go to WWW.GSSIWEB.COM . There are many useful articles on that website.

Be sure to take a close look at the cardiovascular training and your other calorie burning activities. Many people training for muscle mass limit their cardiovascular training to a few days per week. Building muscle mass is not easy if you are burning too many calories. Many people training for mass use stationary bikes rather than elliptical machines and stair climbers. Riding a stationary bike does not burn as many calories as the weight bearing cardiovascular machines. It is a good idea to alternate your cardiovascular training.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or if you would like me to help you more with your training. Let me know how your training is going in a few months. You should see my “Legs Plus” workout! It’s a favorite!

You can download the FREE workouts from my website. They are general conditioning workouts. If you decide to use swing set fitness as part of your summer training you should perform the more challenging workouts near the end of the book.

By Karen M. Goeller