We all have seen that late-night commercial promising a sculpted, muscular look in just a few weeks after spending 10 minutes a day on some "novelty" gadget.
Is gaining muscle mass quickly really that simple? We love quick fixes.
And these are busy days.
Anything that does a good job of convincing us that we can get it here and now flies out the window.
Then another item (a pill or something) comes out the next day and, forgetting that just yesterday we purchased an item with similar promise, we whip out our wallets and buy.
On and on it goes.
As they say, if it were that simple, everybody would have it.
The first lesson you should learn, if you are serious about building muscle, is that you will have to put in the time and work to build muscle.
Yes, you can make rapid gains, but it won't happen yesterday.
The second thing that you should learn is that you have to learn.
And you have to keep learning.
What was a bodybuilding science "breakthrough" yesterday could be ancient today.
The basics remain the same, but the intricacies keep changing.
Speaking of basics, this is what should form the core of your muscle gaining regimen.
Forget all the fancy equipments and diets.
Good old free weights, good old healthy food, and good old compound exercises are what build muscle mass.
Yes, these are not really "secrets", which is yet another lesson.
There are no secrets for building muscle mass.
Certain techniques and nutritional guidelines work better than others.
Some training strategies work better than others, but the big secret simply does not exist.
Here are some basic (that word again) tips for gaining muscle mass quickly: 1.
Do compound exercises: Multi-joint, compound exercises should be central to your weight training routine.
These include squats, bench presses, dumbbell presses, shoulder press, bent over rows, pull downs, barbell curls etc.
2.
Do the "toughies" first: You should start with the most demanding exercises, which naturally also happen to be the greatest mass builders.
For example, you should do squats first on a legs day, and pull-ups first on a back day.
3.
Don't get stuck in the rut: Like anything else, doing the same exercises the same way everyday will lead to bored and frustration.
Also, your muscles will get used to the movements and simply stop responding.
To avoid this add variety to your routine and keep changing it.
4.
Do heavy sets first: This goes against the grain of conventional teachings.
But some days you will need to tackle your heaviest weight first, when you are at the peak of your energy and strength.
Just make sure your body is thoroughly warmed up before starting the heavy set.
You can reduce the weight with consecutive sets.
What you are doing is pyramiding down as opposed to pyramiding up.
This also adds variety to your workouts.
5.
Utilize negatives: Also known as eccentric, negatives are when you lower the weight or bring it back to starting position.
This means going very slow when lowering the weight and resisting all the way.
Negatives can cause a lot of soreness so don't use them too often.