No-Nonsense Muscle Building

Muscle building and weight gain can be a long and tiresome project. There are several techniques to achieve results. There are bodyweight exercises like push ups, pull ups and dips. There are the machines you find in your gym. Then there are free weights. These are the most successful way to build muscle and gain weight. Do not discount the other two methods but focus the bulk of your training on free weights. To get that muscle ripping work out you need to stimulate as many muscle fibers as possible and this is where machines will let you down.

The reason for this is that a bicep or tricep is not just that. All muscles are supported by there own set of support muscles called stabilizers and synergists and it is these muscles we need to stimulate for maximum growth. Free weight exercises such as bench presses require huge stabilizer and synergist assistance but performing the same exercise on a machine would yield much slower results.

Machines are locked into a certain range of movement. This is to help support the weight along a specific path but to also safeguard the gym against injury to its users. This means the do not stimulate the surrounding areas of your muscles (stabilizers and synergists!) areas with weak stabilizers will never grow!

The best way to stimulate these muscles is to use free weight exercises such as the dumbell press or squat, you will get tired quicker but you will gain more muscle become stronger very quickly and be able to gauge your strength more easily.

As a beginner I used a combination of machine, bodyweight and free weight exercises but as soon as i was familiarized with the different methods i found that bodyweight exercises were not stimulating my muscles anymore. The most effective muscle gaining exercises are compound movements that involve stimulation of many muscle groups at once.

These movements are proven to encourage muscle growth unlike other exercises.

Here are some examples of compound movement exercises:

* Pull-ups/Barbell Rows (back, bicep)

* Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, tricep)

* Overhead Presses (shoulders, tricep)

* Squats (legs, lower back)

* Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)

* Bar Dips (shoulders, chest, arms)

I cannot overemphasize the importance of these exercises! They will overload your entire skeletal and muscular system like no machine could ever do, giving you and effective workout in a very short period of time.

By using these simple compound exercises you will quickly start to see results but be aware of over training.

Over training is dangerous because you are not giving yourself enough time to recover and therefore you will not be at full strength leaving your muscles prone to injury. Remember muscle only grows when you are resting not while exercising. You need to give your body time to recover and build new muscle.

Below is a weekly workout schedule.

Monday:

* Wide grip pull-ups, latbar pull down superset

* EZ bar bicep curl, incline dumbbell curls superset

* Crunches (4 sets of 20

This set will work your back, abs and biceps.

Tuesday: Rest Day

Wednesday:

* Heavy Squats, leg extension superset

* Seated Calve Raises, 4 strips sets

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

This set will work your legs and abs.

Thursday: Rest Day

Friday:

* Flat bench press, incline dumbbell flyes superset

* Shoulder press, side raises superset

* Tricep pushdowns

* Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 20)

This set will work your chest, shoulders, triceps and abs

Saturday and Sunday: Rest Days

As you can see these are very simple exercises but they will achieve massive results in a very short time if used effectively.