When you first started lifting weights you probably thought to yourself: “Is a piece of cake. I’ll start lifting weights, a little bit of chest, a little bit of arms, eat some chicken and tuna and in a few months I’ll become big and muscular.” The fact is that even your high protein diet and your everyday workouts are not going to help you in building muscle and developing an extraordinary physique if you don’t master the basics of building muscle.
Here are three simple, but essential steps, that any beginner can implement for quick and quality muscle gains:
1. Concentrate on the Squat and the Deadlift.
These two should be the base of your workout routine. The Squat and the Deadlift are two lifts that are responsible for building muscle mass and power.The muscles that get worked by these two exercises activate about 75% of your entire muscle system. By neglecting these exercises you can never get that thick and muscular physique. These two exercises work your glutes, hams, quadriceps, traps, back muscles, shoulders, arms, forearms, calves and abs.
Also the level of intensity that is required to perform squats and deadlifts will force the body to produce more growth hormone, which results in building bigger muscles all over the body. This is why these exercises are even more important to ectomorphs that want to build muscle.
The advice applies to females too. Don’t worry doing squats and deadlifts is not going to turn you into a muscle freak.
2. Concentrate on other compound movements
Now that we are clear about the Squat and the Deadlift, let’s talk about the other exercises. You can always use more weight on compound movements and with that you stimulate more muscle fibers and send signals for more growth hormone production.What do you think, which exercise will target more muscle fibers – a dumbbell bench press or cable crossover ? A standing overhead press or front dumbbell raises ? Isolation exercises are not bad, but they should not be the the base of the workout.
3. Monitor the rest periods between sets
In general, there are short rest periods in the range of 60 to 90 seconds and long rest period that last 3 to 5 minutes. Each of these has its own purpose. When training for strength gains you should use long rest periods, while short rest periods should be used when training for muscle hypertrophy.
If you spend too much time resting you will not give your metabolic system a honest workout and your muscles won’t be stimulated enough for muscle growth. On the other hand if you are training for strength, too short rest periods don’t allow your nervous system and muscles enough time to recover from the previous set.
It’s not easy to build a great physique. Using random exercises will not get you even close to your goal. Apply these 3 principles and build your dream physique faster.
