Working out at a fitness club is the best way to build muscle because you will have access to a wide variety of equipment. According to the fitness center at Rice University, free weights are the best equipment to use if muscle building is your main goal. This is because they allow a wider range of motion than weight machines, and thus require you to use more of your stabilizing muscles while lifting. How you decide to use the weights and machines at the gym will depend on your fitness goals.
Power Lifting
Free weights are the most effective way to improve your overall strength at the gym. A power lifting routine should focus on the core lifting exercises of bench press, deadlifts and squats. Each day your exercise should focus on one of these main exercises and then have three or four complimentary exercises to sufficiently exhaust your muscles. An example workout would be to perform three sets of deadlifts at 80 percent of your maximum lifting capacity until your muscles are exhausted, and follow this with two or three sets of rows and pull-ups.
Pyramid Volume Training
Pyramid volume training is similar to power lifting, but has you to focus on doing more sets rather than overloading your muscles in a few sets at a heavy weight. According to rehabilitation specialist Mike Roussell, varying the number of sets and repetitions you do for an exercise can greatly stimulate muscle growth. For pyramid volume training, it is most common to perform one set of an exercise at a heavy weight for a low number of repetitions, then reduce the weight and increase the repetitions by two or four. This process is repeated for three or four sets per exercise. Using high quality gym equipment during this type of training is useful because there are often safety catches in case you cannot control the weight in a later set.
Circuit Training
Having a wide variety of equipment available in close proximity to each other is a perfect environment for circuit training. Former Navy SEAL Stew Smith recommends selecting around 14 different exercises that you will perform for a maximum number of repetitions in one or two minutes. Combining a variety of upper and lower body exercises in the routine will give you the best results. Performing such a workout in a gym is also beneficial because you can add aerobic exercise like a stationary bike into the routine to keep your heart rate elevated.
Split Bodybuilding Routine
Workout splits are one of the most common training routines for serious bodybuilders. This type of program encourages regular muscle hypertrophy across your entire body, which results in building up your muscle size rather than strength. For this type of routine, break up your workout into three or four sets of exercises that target similar muscles and perform one set of exercises each day you workout in the week. Each exercise should be performed for three or four sets of six to 12 repetitions. Sports physiologist Phil Davies notes that you should not conduct the same group of exercises on consecutive days.
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