Getting ripped muscles takes frequent strength training workouts, each consisting of a significant number of exercises, sets and repetitions. If you're interested in building muscle mass, prepare to spend at least an hour nearly everyday of the week in the weight room. Both men and women can build muscle size by participating in a muscle building weight training program.
Split Routine
According to Dr. Lee E. Brown, in order to effectively build significant muscle mass and get ripped, you will need to adequately overload your muscles by completing a significant number of exercises per muscle group. Because of this, most lifters will split their muscle groups into separate workouts. For example, you could focus on your upper body on Mondays and Thursdays and then develop your lower body on Tuesdays and Fridays. A more aggressive split routine is to lift six days per week by training only your chest and shoulders on Monday and Thursdays, your back and legs on Tuesdays and Fridays, and your biceps and triceps on Wednesdays and Saturdays. This way you have more time to complete more exercises per muscle group.
High Volume Workouts
In order to overload your muscles to stimulate muscle growth, each of your workouts needs to consist of eight to 10 strength training exercises and each of the exercises should be completed for two to five sets of three to 12 repetitions, according to Dr. Joseph A. Chromiak of the National Strength and Conditioning Association. The rest period in between sets should be relatively quick, lasting one to three minutes.
Effective Exercises
Choose three to five exercises for each muscle group you're developing in your workout. It's a good idea to incorporate variety into your regimen to consistently change the way your muscles are working and to prevent hitting a plateau. Exercises effective at developing your chest include bench press, dumbbell chest press, pushups and chest flys. For your back, complete pullups, lat pulldown, dumbbell rows, t-bar rows and bent-over rows. Your shoulders can be trained with shoulder press, dips, lateral raises, front raises and upright rows. For your biceps, complete bicep curls, hammer curls and isolation curls -- and for your triceps, perform lying tricep extension, overhead tricep extension and kickbacks. Your leg muscles develop with squats, lunges, step-ups, deadlifts, hamstring curls and calf raises.
Appropriate Weight
Completing the appropriate number of exercises, sets and repetitions is essential to effective muscle building, but they won't be effective if you're not using the correct amount of resistance for each exercise. If you're using a weight that you could complete 20 repetitions with, you're not providing enough of a stimulus to overload your muscles. The weight you're using should cause you to become fatigued within the assigned range of repetitions. Make adjustments as necessary to ensure the weight you're using is appropriate.
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