Building muscle is a fairly standard process. You decide how many sets, reps and exercises you’re going to do, bring all this information together in a workout and then follow it through. However, if you want to get the best possible results when it comes to building up your muscles, there are a number of other tips you can implement. In this article I’m going to be sharing 10 of these tips with you and helping you maximize your muscle growth.
1) Focus On Form
If you want to avoid injury and get the maximum muscle building benefit from your workouts, you need to be focusing on form. Therefore, before you start hitting the heavy weights, practice new exercises a few times with a light weight and make sure your form is perfect. Then once your form is perfect, you can start increasing the amount of weight you lift while maintaining good form.
2) Aim For Consistent Improvements
Another thing you need to be doing to get maximum muscle growth is aiming to improve every week. If possible, increase the amount of weight you’re lifting during each workout while maintaining the same number of sets and reps. However, if you can’t manage this every time, increase the number of reps you perform instead. Doing this will constantly push your muscles and stimulate new muscle growth on a regular basis.
3) Start With Compound Exercises & Finish With Isolation Exercises
Compound exercises do a great job of targeting multiple muscle groups and allow you to lift heavier weights than you can with isolation exercises. Therefore, if you start your muscle building workouts off with compound exercises, you’ll be able to target all your main muscle groups with maximum intensity. Then you can drop the weight slightly and finish each muscle group off with isolation exercises. The end result is more total weight lifted and a more efficient workout for all your muscles.
4) Use Barbells, Dumbbells & Machines
While it is possible to build muscle by using just one type of equipment, if you want to get the maximum benefit from your workouts, you should be incorporating barbells, dumbbells and machines. All these pieces of equipment target your muscles in different ways and by using all three, you can have the most effective muscle building workouts possible.
5) Try New Exercises
While it is a good idea to have some core muscle building exercises that you stick to, it’s also a good idea to try new exercises every few weeks. Doing this keeps your muscle building efforts fresh and interesting and also prevents you from becoming complacent and going through the motions when you workout.
6) Drink Plenty Of Water
Water supports smooth muscle contractions and helps you maintain your performance when you workout. However, the act of working out causes you to sweat and lose water. Therefore, it’s essential that you drink plenty of water to replace the water you lose when you sweat and to maintain optimal performance when lifting the weights.
7) Don’t Neglect Your Forearms
Since the vast majority of weightlifting exercises involve holding barbells or dumbbells, strong forearms are essential. However, the vast majority of people don’t incorporate specific forearm exercises into their workouts. Therefore, if you want to perform at your peak during every lift and ensure that your forearms don’t let you down, include some weekly forearm strengthening exercises in your workout program.
8) Eat The Right Foods
Even the best muscle building workout program requires a strong nutritional foundation to be successful. So make sure you base all your meals around protein, fill up on healthy fats regularly and eat natural, nutrient rich carbohydrates. Doing this will boost your energy levels, stimulate muscle growth, help you recover faster between workouts and much more.
9) Get At Least 6 Hours Of Sleep Each Night
Sleep has two main benefits when it comes to building muscle. First, it increases your growth hormone levels and this enhances muscle growth. Second, getting at least 6 hours of sleep per night has a positive impact on your physical performance and allows you to lift to your maximum potential.
10) Take One Full Day Off Each Week
Although consistent training is essential if you want to build big strong muscles, you also need to be giving your muscles enough time to rest and recover. Therefore, make sure you take at least one full day off from physical activity each week. Use this day to rest, relax and allow your muscles to recuperate and grow back stronger.
Summary
If you implement these 10 muscle building exercise tips, you’ll take your muscle growth to another level and achieve your goals in record time. So if you’re not currently following all of these tips, start making some changes to your routine today and give your muscle building efforts a boost.