All About Muscle Building
Posted: Monday, January 19, 2009
by Bill Davis
There are a ton of "experts" and "gurus" in the world of muscle building. Guys like Vince Delmonte, Jason Ferruggia, Joe Weider, and Vince Gironda come to mind. The first two are "new wave" gurus; the latter two are "old school."
Either way, they claim to know all about muscle building, and they do. But the majority of so-called "experts" try to shroud muscle-building principles in secret, or disguise the principles as their own proprietary methods.
There is only one thing to make a muscle grow: You have to push it past its limit. There are many ways to do this, but the most well-known and effective way is through progressive resistance weight training.
Sure, you'll see some cyclists with tremendous quadriceps. And you'll see gymnasts with huge upper bodies.
But for the majority of people, their training methods won't work. In short, they'd be that huge if they were mailmen.
Take, for example, Chris Dickerson, who might possess the most awesome calf development in bodybuilding. His brother, who doesn't weight train, has similar calves in terms of shape and size (clearly, not the separation or definition).
Hershel Walker was a huge football player who did only body-weight exercises like push-ups, chin-ups, and sit-ups.
In both of these cases, these guys would be huge no matter what.
The same cannot be said for us "Average Joe's." We have to train hard.
Here's the deal about muscle growth: Train a muscle in a fashion that it's familiar with and it won't grow. Push it past it's "comfort zone" and it's forced to grow. You do this by progressively adding weight to your exercises, adding sets or reps, or a combination of all three.
That's really all there is to it. Oh, another way: Reduce the rest period between reps and sets. This effectively makes the muscles work harder because they don't have time to rest.
When you're really trying to build muscle size, though, you'll want to focus on adding weight, then reps, then sets.
Variety in your exercise program also makes a difference. Your muscles will adapt to whatever "set" exercise program you establish. So, the idea is to change it up as frequently as necessary. Doing so keeps the muscles "guessing," plus it keeps your mind fresh. The last thing you want to do with respect to bodybuilding workouts is to "zone out" and lose focus on the task at hand: Building muscle as quickly as possible!
If you want more Muscle-Building Truths, check out Muscle-Build.com and The Hard Gainer's Manifesto.
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