INCREASE YOUR MASS
When it comes to training, are your gains faster than with a one-two Ali combination? Or are you being worked in the corner like a washed out pug, bent over under a hail of body punches?

While you probably don’t want to admit it, it’s most likely the latter. You see, many of us don’t make any progress after months, even years of struggling in the weight room. Unfortunately, and contrary to popular opinion, building your body is not a brute force effort. When you’re not making progress, simply putting your head down and performing the same exercise regimen week after week won’t wear down the forces that stunt your growth. But that’s what many of us do.

As in boxing, the man who usually stays on his feet is the one who knew his opponent: knew when to punch, when to duck, and when to go in for the kill, not the one who stuck his chin in and flailed out. You need to take the same type of strategy to your training: fight smart.

To help you strategize, I present 18 tips for gaining and understanding the “sweet science” of resistance training. I hope that by incorporating this advice into your own regimen, you will find that the fight for more muscle is not about a quick knockout punch; it’s all about going all the way and slipping in some punches at the right time. Keep your gloves up!

1. PUSH yourself. If you’re lifting about the same weight now as you were a year ago, don’t expect to get much bigger. While the biggest muscles are not the strongest muscles and the strongest muscles are not the biggest, there is a substantial link between strength and size as long as you avoid very low reps, the rest/pause technique , partial repetitions and long rest periods between series. . Those techniques generally produce a lot of strength, but little to no size gains.
2. DO “good form” your mantra. Don’t just pay lip service to the cliché “use good form.” Allow absolutely no bouncing, lifting, bursting, or excessive range of motion, and never be so greedy for increasing weight that you sacrifice good form. Good form is needed not only to prevent injury but also to stimulate optimal muscle growth. In addition to proper form, avoid high-risk exercises, such as squats with your heels raised on a board or plates, bench presses to the neck or upper chest, or behind-the-neck shoulder presses with very heavy weights. Also, use a controlled repetition cadence: about 2-3 seconds for the positive phase of a rep and three seconds for the negative phase.
3. INDIVIDUALIZE your selection of exercises. If an exercise hurts, and you’ve been performing it using good form with a controlled cadence and tried sensible modifications, drop that exercise. The first rule of exercise selection is “do no harm.” Disregard the reckless maxim of “no pain, no gain.”
4. SQUAT. Do your best to squat well and intensely. The benefits aren’t just limited to the thighs, buttocks, and lower back; The squat stimulates the muscles of the entire body. While some people really can’t safely do power squats, most can. Reverse the squat, improve your squat form, and pay your fair share on the rack, and you’ll reap the rewards.
5. DEAD WEIGHT. The deadlift is one of the most productive exercises for mass bodybuilding. Master the technique (traditional style, sumo, or stiff legged) and slowly build the weight up to something very impressive. The flawless shape of the flat back is imperative; avoid any exaggerated range of motion. Deadlift correctly, or don’t do it at all.
6. TRAIN tough but smart Do enough to stimulate growth, then get out of the gym and give your body a chance to recover and grow. The end result is progress, not training intensity. However, if you always shorten your sets by a couple of reps, stopping even though you know you had more in you, take it seriously, eliminate all stopping, and put 100% effort into finishing what you start.
7. record he. You’ve heard about the importance of keeping a training log, but how many people actually do it? Accurately record all your reps and pounds. As the weeks go by, you should be able to see small but gradual improvements in the weight lifted and/or the number of repetitions performed. If not, you have clear evidence that you need to modify some aspects of your training regimen.
8. LEVERAGE the power of one Get a couple of half-pound plates, homemade weight increments, or some creative alternatives, like wrist weights or large washers, so you can add just 1 pound to the bar at a time. Adding a minimum of 5 pounds to an exercise in one sitting when you’re at your current best weights, as many people try to do, often leads to poor form and injury. Instead, push up on the weights. Strength builds slowly.
9. COUPLE above. Find a training partner who has similar recovery skills to you so that he can use a similar training program. Then push each other to deliver perfect workouts every time: intensive, progressive, and always in great shape. But just as a good training partner will help, an inappropriate training partner can be your downfall. If he or she can recover faster than you, can tolerate more sets and exercises, and pushes you to abuse forced reps and other intensity enhancers, cut your ties soon.
10. BE consist. Bodybuilding success is all about getting every rep, every set, every workout, every meal, and every night of sleep right, week after week, month after month. Compromise a little on this and you’ll slow down your rate of progress; commit too much and it will kill your profits. Note that there are no “small” wins. Don’t set limits, but don’t expect the impossible. Just live for the next progress, and then the next, and then the next. Little by little, you will develop bigger muscles.
11. DO your sacred training time. Protect your privacy while you train. You need to be fully in charge and say no to intrusions, be they human or otherwise. Don’t do this to make yourself a hermit or to alienate your family and friends; do it to satisfy your need for the focus required to do your best at something you’ve committed to.
12. FOCUS. Only highly gifted bodybuilders can build mass and refine it at the same time. The rest of us need to focus on building mass by concentrating primarily on the proven compound exercises for a year or more. Only then do detail work like cable crossovers, dumbbell lats, and triceps kickbacks have real practical value. If used sooner, detailed exercises hinder progress by taxing your recovery ability and reducing the level of effort you can put into compound movements.
13. PERSONALIZED your training program to find what works best for you. No single program works well for everyone; even good programs must be adjusted to suit the individual user. Customize factors for exercise volume, training frequency, and exercise selection. Once you find a good program, don’t cut it off and change it randomly. Stick with a given set of exercises long enough to make substantial progress in the weight you can lift.
14. CONTINUE excellent nutritional habits every day. No matter how well you train, rest, and sleep, if you cut corners with your nutrition, your muscle growth will suffer, if not stop altogether. Take your nutrition very seriously. Divide your caloric and nutritional needs into five or preferably six meals a day. Eat more and eat more often. If you weigh the same now as you did a year ago, you can’t expect to have bigger muscles unless you’ve substantially reduced your body fat.
15. NO making progress? Reduce. If his bodybuilding has plateaued, chances are he’s spending too much time in the gym. Cut back and give yourself a chance to grow. Try to reduce your weight training to just three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, alternating two different routines: chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs on one routine, and legs, back, and biceps on the other. Perform no more than three work sets per exercise and a maximum of eight exercises per routine. If you can do more than three sets of work per exercise, you’re slacking off: train harder. Never fight the warning signs of overtraining. Symptoms include loss of enthusiasm for training, stuck pounds during exercise, reduced appetite, and persistent aches and pains. Whenever you feel any of these symptoms, take action by increasing recovery time and sleep, reducing training volume, and improving nutrition.
16. STRETCH. Follow a program of a dozen stretches three times a week. Stretching won’t make you bigger, but it will help keep you resistant to injury. Stretch only after warming up, hold stretches for 15-30 seconds, never do ballistic stretching, and don’t try to improve your skills too quickly by forcing a stretch beyond your limits.
17. REST generously between workouts. Despite proper recovery time being so critical, many bodybuilders make the mistake of minimizing recovery time and maximizing training frequency. If you still feel tired and must train today, rest another day. Then modify your training schedule and lifestyle so that you recover properly between workouts without having to take unscheduled rest days. Also, get at least eight hours of quality sleep each night. If you have trouble sleeping, look for solutions; consult a sleep clinic if necessary. Changing yourself in the sleep department can stall bodybuilding gains even if your training and nutrition are in good shape. If you rely on an alarm clock most mornings, you’re not getting enough sleep. Give your bodybuilding recovery a higher priority than late-night socializing.
18. APPLY the central creed of bodybuilding: progress. Target your training and the whole package of recovery-related factors to make muscle mass gains a reality. If the gains aren’t happening, make changes until they do. The money stops with you. You select the exercises, volume and frequency of training that you use. You decide when to leave a set. You must discipline yourself to use good form. You determine your hours of sleep. You are responsible for your nutrition. Take advantage of the tremendous power you have to change your physique!