Ok for the second installment of muscle tips we will be getting more in depth on the topic of actually building muscle. We talked about basic muscle building guidelines in part 1 of muscle tips, however there are many other topics I want to touch base upon.
When in the gym, it is very important to spice it up! You don’t want to do the same exercises every single week when working on chest or arms or any other muscle group. In order to keep your muscles guessing and in order prevent yourself from hitting a plateau it is important to switch up your routine every couple of weeks. If you do Barbell Bench Press for a couple of weeks, you might want to do dumbbell bench press the next couple of weeks. Or you can even switch it up every other week. Remember, change is good!
In order to build muscle you must continuously push your muscles to the limit… and then push even further! You can’t squat 200 lbs. every week for a year and really expect to get bigger legs. You always have to put more weight on and test yourself. Who cares if you cannot do 12 reps, a lot of people will tell you that lower reps with higher weight is better for building muscle anyways. 3 sets of 6-8 reps is beneficial for stimulating muscle growth and blasting through a plateau.
It is always good to find new ways to get a good work out and keep things fresh. After all, I know I get bored after doing the same old routine every week. I always find new ways to turn boring exercises into more exciting muscle building techniques. I like to incorporate pyramids, drop sets, negatives, super sets, and multiple other different techniques.
If you happen to work out biceps and triceps on the same day you can get a killer pump by doing some super sets. Try it. Do your warm up and a couple working sets then throw in some super sets. Try doing standing barbell curls and super setting those with skull crushers. (if you don’t know, a super set is when you do a set of say barbell curls which target your biceps then with no rest in between sets you go right into a set of skull crushers which target your triceps. This will pump so much blood into your arms after doing a couple variations that your arms may have trouble bending!)
I would love to hear some feedback or if anyone has any questions as far as topics they want covered in the next addition, please feel free to leave comments.
Keep busting your a$$es in the gym, the hard work you put in now will all be well worth it in the coming weeks!
