Muscle Building Tips

The muscle building tips page has been created to give you some insight and ideas that you may not have heard before. I will be providing many tips you may not have seen or heard before as well as some you may have heard but have not been using. I would also like to use this page as a resource where you can add your own muscle building tips. The more we can collect the better. So if you have any tips that may not be common knowledge send it in and I will post it on this page.

Tip.1 Change it up. We humans are creatures of habit. When it comes to building muscle we know to use progressive resistance. Add more weight at each workout, or more reps. We may also know that we need to change our routine every six weeks or so. Quite often we are told to change it a little, try leg press instead of squats. Incline bench instead of flat. Dumbells instead of barbells etc. These are good tips and you should be doing this, however if you want to really make progress, change it up completely, heres how. Think about what you don't do. Here is an example. The hip machine in most gyms. You will see females using this all the time, but rarely will you see a male using it. Have a break from squats and leg presses and do some work on the hip machine for a few weeks. Take a break from bench press use, dips, push ups and cable pulleys instead. Include walking lunges with a barbell on your shoulders if you have never done this. Add in some pilates (I am not kidding) and body weight exercises, use swiss balls and medicine balls. Think of exercises you do not normally do.

We tend to use the same exercises with small variations which is fine, but when you want to really progress, spend four weeks doing something completely different, this will shock your body, you will discover muscle you never thought you had and when you go back to regular weight training, your routines will be 100 times more effective. The great strength coach Ian King has a 12 week workout that includes zero to very little loading with in the first 4 weeks. I can tell you after the first week, I was in pain, could barely move. You may not like the fact that you are struggling with almost no loading, but you will like the results.

Tip.2 The second of the muscle building tips is to vary the reps. I am not talking of just changing the speed of up and down. Try this for some of your sets. Let's use the standing barbell shoulder press as an example. Normally you will start at chest height and raise it above your head and lower it again for 1 rep. Start the same way and raise it above your head fully extended, then lower it 1/3 of the way only, then back up fully extended, then lower to your chest. Count that as 1 rep. Do all your sets like this. For another rep variation use isometric holds. For this example I will use the 45 degree leg press. Extend your legs, (push the weight out fully) now as you lower (bend your legs) only come back 1/4 of the way. In this position hold for 10 seconds. Now come back another 1/4 and hold for 10 seconds again. Now full extend (that’s 1 rep). Repeat this for all reps. These are some examples that can make a bog difference to your results. I and our readers will be adding more so check back often.

If you have any questions and want to add your own muscle building tips please use the form below and I will add them to this page.