How to Weight Train for Maximum Muscle Gain

Weight training involves the use of equipment that enables variable resistance. This resistance can come in the form of "free weights" like barbells and dumbbells, machines that use cables or pulleys to help you lift the weight and bodyweight exercises like pull-ups or dips.

Free Weights vs. Machines vs. Bodyweight Exercises

For maximum muscle gain, the focus of your workouts should consist of free weight exercises. Not machines or bodyweight exercises. This is not to say that you should not use machines or bodyweight exercises, but they should not be the focus of your training. To get an effective, muscle blasting workout, you must stimulate the most muscle fibers as possible, and machines do not do this.

The main reason for this is a lack of stabilizer and synergist muscle development. Stabilizer and synergist muscles are supporting muscles that assist the main muscle in performing a complex lift. The more stabilizers and synergists worked, the more muscle fibers stimulated. Multi-jointed free weight exercises like the bench press, require many stabilizer and synergistic muscle assistance to complete the lift. On the other hand doing a bench press using a machine will need almost no stabilizer assistance.

Since machines are locked into a specific range of motion and help to support the weight along that path, they fail to stimulate the muscles that surround the area you are working (stabilizers). This is a mistake. If your stabilizer muscles are weak, then the major muscle group will never grow!

Free weight exercises like the dumbbell press or squat, for example, put a very large amount of stress on supporting muscle groups. That's why you will get fatigued faster and not be able to lift as much weight as you did on the machine. But you will gain more muscle, become stronger very quickly and have a true gauge of your strength.

If you use machines in your program, they should be used to work isolated areas and only after all multi-jointed exercises have been completed.

Beginners should begin with a limited combination of machine exercises, bodyweight exercises and mult-jointed free weight exercises. Before increasing the weight levels, they should work on becoming familiar with the proper form and execution of each. Soon, bodyweight exercises will become insufficient to stimulate growth and they will need to focus on more free weight exercises.

Multi-Jointed Exercises

The exercises that work the large muscle groups are called compound (or multi-joint) movements that involve the simultaneous stimuation of many muscle groups. These compound exercises should be the foundation of any weight training program because they stimulate the most amount of muscle in the least amount of time.

Here are the basic movements:

* Bench Presses (works the chest, shoulders, tricep)

* Overhead Presses (shoulders, tricep)

* Pull-ups/Barbell Rows (back, bicep)

* Squats (legs, lower back)

* Deadlifts (legs, back, shoulders)

* Bar Dips (shoulders, chest, arms)

I cannot overemphasize the importance of these exercises. Do not start an advanced weight training program without them!

They will overload your entire skeletal and muscular system like no machine could ever do, giving you and effective workout in a very short period of time. If you can only do a few exercises, then do these. They have been proven (and not just by me) to encourage muscle and strength gain unlike any other exercises.

Lift Heavy Weight

To build mass, you must weight train with heavy weights. By heavy, I mean a weight that is challenging for you -- not me, or anyone else. To consider a weight heavy, you should only be able to do a maximum of 8-12 reps before your muscles temporarily fail. A weight is considered "light" if you can do more than 15 reps before muscle fatigue sets in.

Heavy weights stimulate more muscle fibers than lighter weights. It's that simple. More muscle stimulation means more muscle growth.

Don't Overtrain

Heavy weight training puts a huge strain on your body, so adequate rest and recuperation after your workouts is essential. If you are prone to train too often, several things happen:

You don't give your muscles enough time to recuperate between workouts. If your muscles have not repaired themselves, you will not be at maximum strength for your next workout. Rest is essential. Other than eating, this should be your main focus.

You are setting yourself up for burnout or an injury. I know you are motivated and excited about working out, but don't be careless. You must pace yourself, you want to be able to keep this up for a long time, not burnout before you reach your goals. I only weight train 3 times per week, that's all. Anymore than that and I would not give my body enough time to repair and build new muscle.

Contrary to popular belief, you do not grow while working out, you only grow when you are resting.

Below is an example mass workout. I did 4 heavy sets for 4-8 reps each.

Wednesday (legs, abs)

* Heavy Squats, leg extension superset

* Seated Calve Raises, 4 strips sets

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

-------

Friday (chest, shoulder, triceps, abs)

* Flat bench press, incline dumbbell flyes superset

* Shoulder press, side raises superset

* Tricep pushdowns

* Reverse incline leg raises (3 sets of 20)

------

Sunday (back, biceps, abs)

* Wide grip pull-ups, latbar pulldown superset

* EZ bar bicep curl, incline dumbbell curls superset

* Crunches (4 sets of 20)

Nothing fancy, but effective.

Former "skinny guy" Anthony Ellis is the author of Gaining Mass! The most widely used weight gain program in the world.

This unique program designed to help people gain weight and build muscle, is currently being used in over 90 countries and boasts the largest private weight gain forum on the Internet, with well over 13,000 members at http://www.fastmusclegain.com

Click here to view over 200 user testimonials: http://www.fastmusclegain.com/testimonials.ht ml

---

What Do You Mean Low-Intensity Training Isn?t The Best For Fat Burning?

But how can this possibly be? Everywhere you look, it's... Read More

The Default Rep Range

I had an hour long conversation with Pavel Tsatsouline on... Read More

But I Dont Want Muscles! Part 1: What Muscle is, and how to Build (or Avoid) It

One of the common comments I hear from my female... Read More

Know Your Muscle Building Exercises - The Chest

Every bodybuilder and weight trainer will have his or her... Read More

Moving From Beginner To Intermediate Level Bodybuilding

By now you've made significant progress in your bodybuilding career.... Read More

3 Amazing Ways to Shape Up Your Muscles in Less Than 7 days!

Imagine you need to look great to get all the... Read More

Real Muscle Real Fast!

Adding muscle seems to be a mystery to most, yet... Read More

Four Powerful Tricks for Successful Lucid Dreaming

By definition, Lucid Dreaming means "conscious awareness during the dream... Read More

One Simple Movement Can Double the Effectiveness of Pulldowns

The Pulldown is an excellent exercise for working the Latissimus... Read More

How Proper Calorie Fragmentation Improves Body Composition?

It is a well-established fact that calories control everyone's bodyweight.... Read More

How to Gain Weight and Build More Muscle Mass

In the health, fitness, and nutrition world, achieving optimal or... Read More

The Seven Pillars Of Success

VisionEnvisioning the end-result is enough to put the wheels in... Read More

Back Exercises For Beginning Bodybuilders

From a bodybuilder's perspective one of the most important body... Read More

Strong To The Core of Your Being - The Benefits Of Core Training

If you were to ask me which muscle group in... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Leg Curl

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

Build 80 Pounds Of Muscle?

Is it possible to gain 80 pounds of shredded muscle... Read More

Weight Lifting 101

WHY WEIGHT LIFTING?What's the one thing that you can do... Read More

The How To Guide for Six Pack Abs

First off I want to mention that, for most people,... Read More

How To Get A Flat, Toned Stomach

One of the most common fitness questions this time of... Read More

Exercise The Right Way - The Standing Calf Raise

Other articles in this series looked at a number of... Read More

Preliminary Isometric Tension Improves the Effectiveness of Dynamic Work by up to 20%

Are you looking for a simple and effective way to... Read More

Monster Triceps

They make up the biggest trio in bodybuilding.No, not Arnold,... Read More

Burning Fat

The more muscle a person has, the greater their metabolism... Read More

The Skinny on Muscle Imbalances - Restoring Order As A Means Of Eliminating Back Pain

There are many causes of back pain. Injury, illness, herniated... Read More

Reasons Why Leg Training Should Not Be Ignored

As a modern weight lifter or body builder, I want... Read More