Muscle Building Advice - 3 Tried and True Tactics to Build Lean Muscle Mass

When starting an exercise regimen, everyone envisions themselves gaining significant muscle mass and improving their overall tone and shape. But, building muscle is often harder than we think it will be and you may find that even with regular workouts, the gain is just not what you expected. Some eventually turn to supplements, but quickly find that they too do not boost the muscle mass they promise.

So, what do you do when you pump up the exercise, but are deflated by the results? Here are 3 tried and true tips that you can use to begin building lean muscle mass:

Tip #1

When designing your workout, be certain that the vast majority (at least 95%) of the exercises you choose are large multi-joint compound exercises. Whether you hope to decrease fat, or increase muscle, large multi-joint exercises will work to successfully achieve either.

Exercises that create major movement patterns such as the following are your best choice:

Upper Body 

• Horizontal presses such as bench, pushups and dips
• Horizontal rows such as one-armed dumbbell rows, seated cable rows and bent over barbell rows
• Vertical presses such as overhead dumbbell and barbell, kettlebell clean and presses
• Vertical pulls such as lateral pull downs, pull-ups and chin-ups

Lower Body 

• Squatting movements such as front, back, overhead and bodyweight squats
• Dead lifting movements such as regular, sumo and Romanian

The remaining 5% of your workout should consist of isolation exercises such as bicep curls, calf presses, pec flyers, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises and tricep presses. Your abdominals and core should also be worked out, but only as an additional option after the multi-joint drills.

Tip #2

To ensure the best results, you should schedule an intense 45-60 minute weight training workout 3-4 times per week. Make sure that you do not exceed the 60 minute limit in order to avoid catabolism. While the goal of any workout is to increase the buildup of muscle (or anabolism) catabolism actually breaks down your results. If your catabolism exceeds anabolism, you will achieve a negative result. While you want to stay anabolic, you still need to push your body hard enough to promote muscle growth.

Design a workout plan that maximizes the intensity of your routine. One option is opposing upper and lower body patterns such as squats and pull-ups or bench presses and deadlifts that serve as supersets to maximize your workout without interfering with one another.

These upper and lower body supersets, done with heavy weights, can be very effective if done at a high intensity. And while these are great options for any successful workout regime, to reach your goal of fat burning or gaining muscle mass you will also need to adjust your caloric intake.Tip #3

Tip #3

Finally, as with all healthy lifestyle changes, making quality choices in your foods can have a significant impact on your success.

Choosing whole food options rather than overly processed foods or even expensive supplements, can make a huge difference in your outcome. Proteins are best processed through the body when they are obtained from whole foods such as eggs, meats, nuts, seeds and raw dairy. Supplement bars and replacement meals offer protein as well, but are not as easily assimilated.

Making healthy nutritional choices will increase your chances of success. Keep your eye on the prize and your workout within these 3 rules in order to see the results you hope for: the meaner, leaner, chiseled physique you've always dreamed of.

Men, if you want to get the best in muscle building advice, click either of these links now and check out these tips to get ripped abs the right way.

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