INCREASE YOUR MASS
When it comes to training, are your gains quicker than an Ali one-two combo? Or are you being worked around the corner like a finished pug, doubled over under a hail of body shots?

While you probably don’t want to admit it, it will most likely be the latter. You see, many of us make no progress after months, even years of struggling in the weight room. Unfortunately, and contrary to popular opinion, building your body is not a brute force effort. When you’re not making progress, simply keeping your head down and doing the same exercise regimen week after week won’t wear down the forces that stunt your growth. But that is what many of us do.

As in boxing, the man who usually stays on his feet is the one who knew his opponent: knew when to punch, when to duck, and when to go in for the kill, not the one who stuck his chin in and came out flailing. You need to take the same kind of strategy for your training: fight smart.

To help you devise a strategy, I present 18 tips for gaining and understanding the “sweet science” of resistance training. I hope that by incorporating this advice into your own regimen, you will find that the fight for more muscle is not about a quick knockout punch; it’s about going all the way and slipping in some well-timed punches. Keep your gloves up!

1. PUSH yourself. If you’re lifting about the same weight now as you were a year ago, don’t expect to be much bigger. While the biggest muscles are not the strongest muscles and the strongest muscles are not the biggest, there is a substantial link between strength and size, as long as you avoid very low reps, rest/pause technique , partial reps, and long rest periods between sets. . Those techniques generally produce a lot of strength, but little to no size gains.
2. MAKE “good shape” your mantra. Don’t just pay lip service to the cliché “use good form.” Allow absolutely no bouncing, lifting, popping, or excessive range of motion, and never be so greedy for weight gain that you sacrifice good form. Good form is needed not only to prevent injury but also to stimulate optimal muscle growth. In addition to proper form, avoid high-risk exercises such as heel-up squats on a plank or plates, neck or upper chest bench presses, or behind-the-neck shoulder presses with very heavy weights. Also, use a controlled rep cadence: about 2-3 seconds for the positive phase of a rep and three seconds for the negative phase.
3. INDIVIDUALIZE your selection of exercises. If an exercise hurts, and you’ve been performing it using good form with a controlled cadence and tried sensible modifications, drop that exercise. The first rule of exercise selection is “do no harm.” Dismiss the unwise “no pain, no gain” maxim.
4. SQUAT. Do your best to squat well and intensely. The benefits are not just limited to the thighs, buttocks and lower back; the squat stimulates muscles throughout the body. While some people really can’t do heavy squats safely, most can. Reverse the squat, improve your squat, and pay your fair share on the shelf, and you’ll reap the rewards.
5. DEAD WEIGHT. The deadlift is one of the most productive exercises for mass bodybuilding. Master the technique (conventional style, sumo or stiff legs) and slowly increase the weight until it becomes very impressive. Flawless flat back shaping is imperative; avoid any exaggerated range of motion. Deadlift correctly, or don’t do it at all.
6. TRAIN tough, but smart. Do just enough to stimulate growth, then get out of the gym and give your body a chance to recover and grow. The bottom line is progress, not training intensity. However, if you always shorten your sets by a couple of reps, stopping even though you know you had more in you, take it seriously, eliminate all stops and put 100% effort into finishing what you start.
7. Log in that. You’ve heard about the importance of keeping a training log, but how many people actually do it? Accurately record all your reps and pounds. As the weeks go by, you should be able to see small but gradual improvements in weight lifted and/or number of reps performed. If not, you have clear evidence that you need to modify some aspects of your training regimen.
8. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF the power of one Get a couple of half-pound plates, homemade weight increases, or some creative alternatives like wrist weights or large washers, so you can only add 1 pound to the bar at a time. Adding a minimum of 5 pounds to an exercise at one time when you’re at your current best weights, as many people attempt to do, often leads to failure of form and injury. Instead, push up on the weights. Strength builds slowly.
9. BUDDY up. Find a training partner who has recovery skills similar to yours, so that he can use a similar training program. Then push each other to deliver perfect workouts every time: intensive, progressive, and always in great shape. But just as a good training partner will help, an inappropriate training partner can be your downfall. If he or she can recover faster than you, can tolerate more sets and exercises, and pushes you to overuse forced reps and other intensity boosts, cut your ties early.
10. BE consist. Bodybuilding success is about getting every rep, every set, every workout, every meal, and every night of sleep right, week after week, month after month. Compromise a bit on this and you’ll slow down your rate of progress; compromise too much and you will kill your profits. Note that there are no “small” wins. Do not limit yourself, but do not expect the impossible. Just live for the next progress, and then the next, and then the next. Little by little, you will develop bigger muscles.
11. MAKE your sacred training time. Protect your privacy while you train. You must be fully in charge and say no to intrusions, human or otherwise. Don’t do this to become a hermit or to alienate your family and friends; do it to satisfy your need for the focus required to do your best at something you’ve committed to.
12. FOCUS. Only highly gifted bodybuilders can build mass and refine it at the same time. The rest of us should focus on building mass by concentrating primarily on the proven compound exercises for a year or more. Only then do detail work such as cable crossovers, dumbbell lats, and triceps kickbacks have real practical value. If used earlier, detailed exercises hinder progress by draining your recovery power and reducing the level of effort you can put into compound movements.
13. PERSONALIZED your training program to find what works best for you. No single program works well for everyone; even good programs must be adjusted to suit the individual user. Customize factors for exercise volume, training frequency, and exercise selection. Once you find a good program, don’t cut it out and switch randomly. Stick with a given set of exercises long enough to make substantial progress in the weight you can lift.
14. FOLLOW, CONTINUE excellent nutritional habits every day. No matter how well you train, rest, and sleep, if you cut corners with your nutrition, your muscle growth will suffer, if not stop altogether. Take your nutrition very seriously. Divide your caloric and nutritional needs into five or preferably six meals a day. Eat more and eat more often. If you weigh the same now as you did a year ago, you can’t expect to have bigger muscles unless you’ve substantially reduced your body fat.
15. NOT making progress? Reduce. If his bodybuilding has plateaued, chances are he’s spending too much time in the gym. Cut back and give yourself a chance to grow. Try cutting your weight training down to just three days a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, alternating two different routines: chest, shoulders, triceps, and abs in one routine, and legs, back, and biceps in the other. Perform no more than three sets of work per exercise and a maximum of eight exercises per routine. If you can do more than three sets of work per exercise, you’re slacking: train harder. Never fight the warning signs of overtraining. Symptoms include loss of enthusiasm for training, stagnant pounds during exercise, reduced appetite, and persistent aches and pains. Whenever you feel any of these symptoms, take action by increasing recovery time and sleep, reducing training volume, and improving nutrition.
16. STRETCH. Follow a program of a dozen stretches three times a week. Stretching won’t make you bigger, but it will help keep you resistant to injury. Stretch only after warming up, hold stretches for 15-30 seconds, never do ballistic stretches, and don’t try to improve your skills too quickly by forcing a stretch beyond its limits.
17. BREAK liberally between workouts. As critical as proper recovery time is, many bodybuilders make the mistake of minimizing recovery time and maximizing training frequency. If you still feel tired and need to train today, rest another day. Then modify your training schedule and lifestyle so you properly recover between workouts without having to take unscheduled rest days. Also, get at least eight hours of quality sleep each night. If you have trouble sleeping, look for solutions; consult a sleep clinic if necessary. Changing yourself in the sleep department can stunt bodybuilding gains even if your training and nutrition are on point. If you rely on an alarm clock most mornings, you’re not getting enough sleep. Give your bodybuilding recovery a higher priority than socializing late at night.
18. APPLY the central creed of bodybuilding: progress. Guide your training and the entire package of factors related to recovery so that the progress of muscle mass is a reality. If gains aren’t happening, make changes until they are. The money stops with you. You select the exercises, volume and training frequency you use. You decide when to leave a set. You must discipline yourself to use good form. You determine your hours of sleep. You are responsible for your nutrition. Harness the tremendous power you have to change your physique!