Building muscle and strength requires a personal commitment to make a life change. You won't get muscle and strength gains by doing a few push-ups and walking around the block. Months of intense activity have to be put in to feel and see desirable results. You have to work your body to the point of exhaustion, and often you are in pain for days. The positives are a guaranteed reward, regardless of the speed of your metabolism or your genetic disposition.
The Routine
Step 1
Perform power lifting exercises with major muscle groups. When your major muscle groups get bigger, your entire body looks ripped. Your chest, back and thighs are the strongest muscles on your body. Thus, to reach maximum muscle contraction, they require exercises that are physically demanding and intense.
Step 2
Concentrate on the negative, the stretched point, while lifting. Muscles reach full contraction when they are overloaded, and you aren't going to be able to overload the muscle if you can't lift the weight. At the end of every set, have a partner help you get two to three additional repetitions up, then, as slowly as you can, let the weight descend back down. This overloads the muscle at its most stretched out point.
Step 3
Eat large quantities of protein every day. A person who is trying to build mass and strength requires a much higher calorie and protein intake than someone who is a couch potato. A normal person needs only 0.8 grams of protein for each kilogram of body weight in her diet every day. If you are lifting regularly and want maximum muscle gains, you may have to bump that up to as much as 1.6 to 1.8 grams, according to research conducted at Western Ontario University in 2000.
Step 4
Avoid plateaus as best you can by changing up your workouts every month. As time goes on, your muscles will adapt to the movements in each exercise, which unfortunately results in less muscle growth. This happens to amateurs and professional body builders alike. In order to break through plateaus you have to mix up your exercise routines and confuse the muscles. Sometimes all you have to do is add or reduce the weight, while other times you have to find completely new movements.
Step 5
Get lots of rest so your muscles can recover. It's during the time between workouts that your muscles actually grow. It's fine to work out every day; however, you have to space out the days that you work specific muscle groups. Muscles can take anywhere from three to seven days to recover from an intense workout, depending on the person. Get to know your muscles and assign specific days to work each individual group.
Tips and Warnings
- Always start with small amounts of weight and a focus on proper weight-lifting form. After you have committed the movement of each exercise to muscle memory, you can start upping the weight and building muscle faster. Find a workout partner or friend who will do this program with you. Having another person there can motivate you to get in the gym when you don't feel it.
- Always use a spotter for power lifting exercises. One false move can result in several hundred pounds of weight dropping on your body and a potentially fatal accident.
Things You'll Need
- Weight lifting equipment
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