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Getting Started With Building More Muscle

By Russ Howe


Every day at work as a Personal Trainer I come across guys who want to know how to build more muscle but are so confused at the conflicting advice in the fitness industry that they literally don't know which way to turn for results. This affects both gym newcomers and seasoned veterans.

Today we answer this question for you. Right here, right now.

Firstly we need to establish your goal. Believe it or not, this is the area where men first lose their way. Whereas women are forthcoming in their desire to lose body fat, men tend to want the best of both worlds. How many times have we heard that somebody wishes to lose fat but also get bigger and stronger? Too many.

If you have had long history of gym training already you will know it's very hard to get both weight loss and strength results simultaneously, which is why you need to set this goal at the start. Those beginning on their fitness journey will be able to enjoy perhaps 2-3 weeks with the results of both fat loss and tissue building, but once the body gets used to your new training lifestyle you too need to make the choice.

Most people assume what they do in the gym will determine whether they get bigger or lose fat. This is incorrect. This mainly comes down to diet. In order to get bigger you must eat more than you do now each day, whereas to cut you'll need to eat less. So this is why we must make a choice, depending on our individual goals.

Most people try to fit a workout in after a hard day at our jobs or when our family life permits us a break, so we are not able to construct a complex workout routine or the nutritional plan of a top athlete, therefore we need to decide what we want to do and stick with it.

Once you have simply decided what you want to achieve, you can begin dieting for that specific goal and then we're ready to begin looking at your actual workout routine. We'll cover the following aspects here:

* What type of exercises should you do?

* How many times per week should you train?

* Are you doing too many or too few reps?

When it comes to strength and size there is one type of resistance exercise which stands above all others by a long, long way. We're talking, of course, about compound exercises. That's right, the basic exercises such as bench press and squat still reign supreme when it comes to muscle mass. Don't waste time isolating the lower half of your forearm, focus your time on big exercises.
If you don't know how to build muscle today's interview will assist you a lot.


One of the most misunderstood aspects of a good size training routine is the importance of rest. Believe it or not, rest is actually just as important as your gym work and nutrition. We advise no more than four sessions per week with weights, split to cover all body parts and avoiding training the same muscle group two days in a row.

When trying to figure out how many reps you should do to add size and strength this simple system will help you on every exercise you perform. Your reps should land between 8-12, the ideal zone for hypertrophy (growth). Good for you if you can perform 100 reps on a bench press with a certain weight, but it will not make you any bigger. Once you can push beyond twelve the resistance should be knocked up.

The world of fitness is an often over complicated one. If you ask five trainers for tips on how to build muscle you will probably get five different answers. The tips above will help you to get down the basics!




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