Get "Back to Basics"
When Vince Lombardi took over the Green Bay Packers everyone
asked him what he was going to do: "Are you going to
change the playbooks?" "Are you going to change
the players," "what are you going to do differently?"
To these questions he replied, "I'm not going to change
anything, we're just going to get brilliant on the basics.
Our opponents may be able to predict exactly what we're
going to do, but we're going to be so good at the basics
that they won't be able to stop us."
When your goal is to gain muscle, your training mantra
must become "back to basics." I believe there
are three reasons why people fail to get back to basics.
The first is because they have been on a fat-reducing plan
for so long that they become locked into a fat-burning training
and nutrition mentality and they simply refuse to shift
gears for fear of getting fat. You should stay reasonably
lean all year round, but trying to stay ripped all the time
will severely limit your size gains. When you've finished
dieting to lose weight, shift gears, get back to basics
and get focused on a mass-building mentality.
The second reason people fail to get back to basics is
because the basics seem so basic. What I mean is that people
don't see the forest for the trees. People are always looking
for some exotic, esoteric, magical formula, theory or program.
Meanwhile, the answer is right in front of their face, but
they overlook it because it seems too obvious. The third reason people fail to get back to basics is because
the basics are so darn hard! It never ceases to amaze me
how people always gravitate towards the easiest exercises
while avoiding the harder, more result-producing exercises.
Let's face it, squats are tough - real tough! But if you
don't learn to love heavy, basic exercises like squats,
you'll never join the ranks of the massive.
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Choose Compound vs isolation movements
First and foremost, "back to basics" means using
compound, multi-joint exercises over isolation movements.
Compound movements are those that involve the largest muscle
groups as well as smaller, stabilizing muscles. Because
they utilize a greater muscle mass, they allow you to lift
the heaviest weights possible. There is a direct correlation
between the amount of weight lifted in an exercise and the
size of the muscle. Therefore, it is logical that compound
exercises like squats have a greater potential for building
mass than isolation movements like leg extensions because
squats allow the utilization of much heavier poundages,
resulting in much greater hypertrophy.
The Best Mass Building Exercises
Here is a list of the best basic mass building exercises
for each body part:
Quads: Squats, Front Squats, Leg Presses
Hamstrings: Stiff-Legged Deadlift, Lying Leg Curl
Back: Deadlift, Bent Over Row, One Arm Dumbbell Row
Chest: Barbell Bench Press, Dumbbell Bench Press, Weighted
Wide Grip Dips
Deltoids: Press behind Neck, Dumbbell Press, Military Press,
Shrugs
Triceps: Lying Tricep Ext., Close Grip bench Press, Pushdowns,
Seated Tricep ext.
Biceps: Standing Barbell Curl, Seated Alternate Dumbbell
Curl, Preacher Curl
Calves: Standing Calf Raise, Donkey Calf Raise, Seated Calf
Raise
If you don't Squat, You Ain't Squat!
Out of all these basic mass building exercises, no exercise
is better for packing on pounds of quality muscle than the
squat. Ironically, however, no exercise is more ardently
avoided either. I've heard just about every excuse in the
book for not squatting, and believe me, after rupturing
a lumbar disk, I've had every reason not to squat myself.
Despite my injuries, I squat any way. Why? Because barbell
squats are positively the single most result producing exercise
you can do. I'm not suggesting that you ignore the advice
of your physician if you have an injury, but if you are
physically capable of squatting and you're not doing them,
you are compromising your results. Squats hype your metabolism,
pump up your legs and make your whole body grow! Leg presses
are OK, but they just aren't the same.
Rest and Recuperation
Muscles don't grow during a workout. They grow between
the workouts - if you allow them to rest, that is. All too
often, the over-enthusiastic trainee works out longer and
more often under the impression that more is better. Over
training is the arch-nemesis of the bodybuilder. Training
by itself does not necessarily translate into growth; training
plus recuperation does.
Proper recuperation includes two separate components; specific
recuperation and systemic recuperation. Specific recuperation
refers to how much time you allow between training a particular
body part. The rage these days seems to be training every
day and hitting each muscle group once per week. This is
not a bad idea, but if you're training six or seven days
per week, you're defeating the purpose of one body part
a week training. Individual muscle groups need to rest between
training sessions, but so does the entire body. Systemic
recuperation means allowing your entire body to recuperate
by not training too many days in a row. If you train too
frequently, this places excessive demands on your nervous
system. Two or three days of weight training in a row is
the most you should ever do. If you are a "hard-gainer"
then an every other day routine might be even better. A
two on, one off schedule where you work each muscle every
five to seven days is extremely effective. This allows individual
muscles and your entire body sufficient recuperation for
maximal growth.
Progressive Resistance - The # 1 key
key to gaining mass
There are many factors involved in building a muscular
physique, but in the long run the only thing that really
matters is that you progressively overload your muscles.
There are many ways to overload a muscle such as decreasing
rest intervals, increasing volume, slowing rep speed, increasing
time under tension, doing more repetitions, and using stricter
form, but the granddaddy of them all is simply adding weight
on the bar. The more weight you can lift in strict form,
the bigger the muscle will get, period. Constantly adding
weight at every session can seem like an insurmountable
task at times, but the best way to achieve this goal is
to make tiny, incremental increases consistently over time.
Don't attempt large jumps in weight loads too quickly. Aim
for adding just 2.5 lbs to 5 lbs with every workout on the
basic exercises. You may not always be able to increase
the weight, but you must make progress in some form at every
single workout or you are wasting your time.
Keep your workouts brief in duration and high in
intensity
The definition of intensity is the degree of momentary
muscular effort that you exert during a set. In other words,
intensity is how hard you workout. Most people simply do
not train hard. Most likely this lack of intensity is due
to the volume being too high. There is an inverse relationship
between intensity and volume. The harder you train, the
less sets you'll be able to do (and the less sets you'll
need to do). As a general rule, it's most effective to keep
your workouts brief and intense (under 60 minutes). More
is not better, harder is better. Always train to the point
of failure or just short of failure.
Avoid excessive cardio work
The entire point of adding a 250-500 calorie surplus to
your diet is to allow extra nutrients and energy to support
the growth of new muscle tissue. If you continue to do cardio
every day for prolonged periods as you do in a fat-reducing
program, you'll only be burning off those extra calories
you needed for growth. Never completely stop doing cardio.
Everyone should always do 20-30 minutes of cardio 3-4 days
per week year round regardless of your goals - that should
be a part of any healthy lifestyle. But too much is counterproductive.
Conclusion
Getting big is not the result of using some secret eastern
bloc training program, a miracle diet or a super muscle
building supplement. Gaining muscle isn't rocket science.
The formula for getting big is deceptively simple; it is
just a matter of being "brilliant on the basics."
Do yourself a favor; stop wasting your time searching for
an easy way, because it doesn't exist. Just eat big, work
hard, work heavy on the basic exercises and get plenty of
recuperation and you'll soon be adding pounds of lean body
mass faster than you ever thought possible.
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Click here for Tom's Burn the Fat Feed the Muscle program
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