Five Steps to a Well Chiseled Body

There are five basic rules that you must keep in mind when doing muscle building. Each one is important in its own way and sticking to the rules will soon have you rippling your way through the streets. These five orders are:

1. Never Do More Than Ten Repetitions.

Now, the number of reps. you have to do depends on the kind of training you’re into. To put it succinctly – light reps. for good tone and more reps. for forcing growth and the golden rule is not more than ten reps at a time. The ten rule will force your muscles to grow. More muscle fibers will begin to grow adding bulk to the muscle. Choose your weights in such a way that you get the maximum benefit with just ten repetitions.

Heavy lifting is the only way to get bulkier muscles. You have to get keep that always in your mind. For every exercise and for every set in every exercise, more weight is the one factor that will tell on your gaining muscle fast. You have to get into the mindset that you must lift more weights. And it is better if you do your workouts with a partner to eliminate any accidents and increase safety.

2. Cut Down On Your Workout Time

Simple physics. More work in less time means an increase in work capacity. Work here refers to the kind of exercise, the number of sets in the exercise, the no. of reps in a set and the weight that you are lifting. Who would you say is fitter? One who can do’ x’ number of sets with ‘y’ lbs. with a’ z’ second rest or another who requires more than ‘z’ seconds for the same number of sets and poundage. The first one of course. And who is the muscular one. The one who has the greater work capacity, undoubtedly.

So the next time you go to your gym, try to finish your present workout in lesser time. Shorten the workout time by taking shorter rests. Shift from one exercise to another in a shorter time. You may feel out of shape initially. But this is the best way to a higher muscle density and a higher fitness level.

3. Restrict Your Exercise To One Per Muscle Group

It is surprising, is it not? Yes, unless it is assumed that working a group of muscles to exhaustion is going to make them sit up and grow. Take for example a chest exercise. A bench press exercise. Start the first set with 185 lbs, move to the next with 205 and to the third with 225 and finally the fourth with 245 lbs.

We’ll assume also that this is the maximum weight for the desired number of repetitions. It should be stopped with that. There is no point in exhausting your muscles. All that is needed is to give them a push button start and they will take over in nature’s own way. There is no necessity to give them a kick or a jump start. The lesson is: perform one exercise for one muscle group, move on to the next group.

4. Restrict Exercising To Three To Five Sets For Each Muscle Group

It is questionable if you do more than 3 to 5 sets of exercise for each group of muscles. This, of course, doesn’t apply to users of steroids and those whose muscles grow with just a little stimulus. But keep in mind, new rules are required for hard gainers.

Normally, it can be easily seen that you’ll be putting in 85% of your maximum effort in the first two sets which will increase to 95% for the third and the maximum in either the fourth or the fifth. It’s the last and final effort that gets you the muscles. Any effort more than this is only going to overwork your muscles with less time to recuperate. You will not be able to perform the same way again. So restrict your muscle growing to the mandatory three to five sets for each muscle group.

5. Increase Your Effort By 5% Every Fortnight

You have to keep track of your progress. Some people make the basic mistake of mot tracking their progress. Day in and day out, they go to the gym and repeat the same set of exercises just like a zombie, without any care to see if they are progressing or not. You can’t expect any progress if you are not going to slowly increase the weights you are lifting. Your body can take it. Make your arms to lift a little more and it will adapt itself to do so. That is nature and so hit it hard and watch it grow.

Aim for a 5% increase in weights each fortnight or once in fifteen days. Do it and you will see a marked difference in the size of your muscles and in your strength. You will feel it in your bones. Just imagine, six months from now and twice as stronger. Good progress, wouldn’t you say? It would be even better if you keep a written record of your progress and look at it a few times. Aim higher and become stronger.

To Conclude

These may not be the ultimate in muscle building advice. But you have to learn by practice. Question everything that you hear and whatever you read. Don’t follow the masses, strike out on your own and train smartly and not hard.