No Nonsense Muscle Building Tips It is common for new trainees to go to the gym with the goal of gaining weight and getting strong. But some of them never reach this goal or don't get there as quickly as they could if they used different strategies. Here are a few tips for building muscle. Exercise Selection Generally speaking you are much better off sticking to the basic, old-‐school movements when you are trying to build your foundation of size and strength. Go with squats, deadlift, bench press, dips and similar exercises. These compound, multi-‐joint exercises will train several muscle groups at once and give you more proverbial bang for your buck. Remember your goal is to build as much muscle as quickly as possible, so you want to start off with a strong overall foundation. You'll notice that a lot of bodybuilders started off as powerlifters and built their foundation on these exercises. Rep Range You'll see a lot of recommendations out there regarding the number of repetitions you should do for hypertrophy. Here's what you need to know: most of your gains are likely to come from the 5-‐12 rep range. That's why programs like "5x5" (Mive sets of Mive reps) are so popular-‐-‐they work. This range is ideal because it gives you a good balance of intensity and volume-‐-‐both of which are factors in building muscle. You can experiment with higher reps as you become more advanced in your training, but you'll Mind this range is where most of your gains come from. Diet You'll need to increase your dietary protein if you want to build muscle. Most of the experts recommend about a gram of protein per lb. of lean body weight. You'll see some variations in this (with some recommending a lot more), but stick with this formula and I think you'll do just Mine. In addition to protein you'll need to eat plenty of complex carbohydrates and healthy fat to fuel your workouts and help you recover. You'll probably Mind that you need to eat more than 15 calories per lb. of body weight a day in order to gain weight. You may have to eat signiMicantly more than that depending on your metabolism. Supplements There's a log of confusion out there about supplements. It is an industry worth billions that spends a lot of money on advertising. It also isn't regulated very well, so you never know if the claims of supplement marketing are true. I always encourage guys to just use a few basic supplements like creatine monohydrate (micronized is best), whey protein, and a multivitamin. Fish oil is also good. Just keep in mind that supplements don't really make much difference in the long run-‐-‐training and overall nutrition are a lot more important. Patience Time You should see quick results if you are a new trainee-‐-‐especially in terms of strength games. But understand that you can't build muscle overnight. Don't give up just because your body hasn't transformed after a couple of weeks. Keep putting time in the gym, eat properly, and you should see results in due time. Finally I'd recommend Vince Delmonte's No Nonsense Muscle Building Program if you would like a more detailed, step-‐by-‐step guide to bodybuilding.
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