How To Build Muscle and Muscle Strength

Most men want to build muscle and muscle strength. So why do the vast majority of them never manage it? The answer is that they never do the right thing. It is such a shame that so many people are trying so hard to build muscle and putting so much effort into training and their diet but not getting results because they are not doing the right thing. Think about it another way. Say you wanted to run to the next town from you which is only 1 mile away. If your running in the right direction (doing the right thing) and have the motivation to do it, then you will eventually get to where you are trying to go. However if you start running in completely the wrong direction (doing the wrong thing) then you are never going to achieve what you headed out to achieve.

Here are the 10 most valuable points on how to build muscle and muscle strength. If these basic fundamental points are followed you are already on your way to achieving your goals.

1. Follow the Elimination Diet - If you are not able to keep to a good diet then you are wasting your time when trying to put on muscle. You need to eat lots and lots of good healthy, whole and nutritious food for muscle to grow at a good rate.

2. Use compound movements - Compound movements are movements that use more than one joint and are by far the best exercises when trying to build muscle. An isolation movement is something like a lateral raise or a bicep curl where only one joint moves. Compound movements are lifts like squat, bench press, deadlift, pull ups, shoulder press etc. As they use a lot of muscle, they burn a lot of calories which is good for burning fat. Also because you are using a lot of muscle that means that you are going to build a lot of muscle. They teach all the joints in the body to work together and work as one like that body was designed to do.

3. Complete whole body routines - The more you work a muscle, the more it is going to grow and the stronger it is going to get. There are a few times when this isn't true but generally for most trainers it is. If you train three times a week and split your body into three sections to train on separate days then you are only training each muscle once a week. Now if you are training three times a week using a full body routine all of your muscles are getting trained three times a week. Surely you can see that a muscle will grow more if it is trained three times a week rather than once a week? The reason people do a split routine when they shouldn't is because they see pro bodybuilders training with split routines and think it will work for them. Pro bodybuilders train every day of the week and even twice a day. That is why they split things up! Another reason trainers like to train with a split routine is because a full body routine is harder than a split routine. A full body routine means that you come out of the gym feeling exhausted and sore all over. This is harder than just working arms and shoulders!

4. Use free weights - Weight machines only work in one plane of motion which is not the way the body was build to function. You can actually cause damage to the body because by using a weights machine because they cause imbalances. An example of this is using a leg extension machine which is not only bad for the knees but will build strength in the quadriceps and not any other part of the leg like the hamstrings, glutes, adductors and abductors. When you start lunging and running around you are likely to get an injury as your leg can not stabilize itself. Free weights and free weight exercises like squat, lunge, pull ups all work not only the prime mover but the stabilizing muscles. This will allow the body to function as it should and grow as it should.

5. Don't neglect legs - Legs are half of your body so not training them because they are exhausting and hard to train or because you always wear trousers will really hold you back. Training legs will burn a lot of calories, release lots of growth hormone and testosterone which will help other body parts grow and raise your metabolism.

6. Get rest and recuperation - This is a fairly simple one which I'm sure you already know. You build muscle when you rest. A few things that happen when you don't get enough sleep your testosterone levels go down, your cortisol levels raise, you are tired and won't be able to train to your potential. This will all really hold you back when trying to build muscle and muscle strength.

7. Get stronger - The stronger you get, the more weight you will lift. If you are able to lift a lot of weight then your body is going to reflect that.

8. Get all the different types of hypertrophy - This involves doing low reps (1-5) to get a neurological adaption in strength. Medium range reps (5-15) to get sarcomere hypertrophy. High reps (15+) to get sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. This makes perfect sense when you thing about as if your not taking advantage of a type of hypertrophy then you are robbing yourself of results.

9. Change your exercise program regularly but not too often! - Your body will adapt to what you are doing and you will start to plateau. Changing your routine around every 4 weeks is advised. A word of warning though, if you don't stick to a routine for long enough to get benefits from it then you wont progress. Many people don't give a routine time to give them results. Be persistent!

10. Always always try to lift better than you did last session - The only way that you will build muscle and build muscle strength is by using the principle of 'over load'. This basically means that each and every session you are trying to add a rep, a set, a tiny amount of weight or a shorter rest period between sets. This will make the workout harder than the previous session which will mean that your body will have to adapt to keep up. You can actually regress if you keep things the same because your body will improve its neurological system so that it gets stronger that way and then can get rid of some muscle. The body does this because muscle takes a lot of energy (calories) to keep it going and this is not what the body wants as your body is out there to survive and doesn't know if a famine is coming.

So thats it, follow these 10 tips to build muscle and you will give yourself the best chance to achieve your goals.

For a more specific workout on the biceps that includes some of the very best exercises for building big strong biceps follow the link here.