If you are a hard gainer and want to pack on the mass, it’s important to follow the right exercise routine. Selecting the right exercises is critical! Keep your workouts simple and stick with the basic compound movements. Try to avoid the machine exercises and isolation movements you see many do at the gym. Avoid a high volume of reps. Let your body rest after your workouts and get enough sleep. Try not to stay up late. It’s better for your organs vitality. Your body needs the relaxation and recovery after heavy lifting.
Choosing the right exercises can make a huge difference will make a dramatic difference in your results. Even if you workout hard in your routines and choose the wrong exercises, you will be wasting your time. Exercise selection is one of the most important building blocks of your quick muscle mass routine.
So which exercises should you stick to?
The best exercises for fast muscle mass are multi joint free weights that use as much muscle as possible. These include exercises such as:
– Squats
– Deadlifts
– Chin ups
– Dips
– Overhead Presses
– Rows
Again avoid using machines and isolation exercises if you want fast muscle mass gains. They give a great pumping iron feel as the blood rushing to your muscles, but are not effective to build size, mass and strength.
Having too much variety in your workout can be a stumbling block in many bodybuilding routines. Jumping around with rep speeds can even add to the problem. Stay with a controlled negative movement and explode on the way up. Quit being indecisive and have paralysis or analysis of your workout routine. Look at the overall big picture and you can grow muscle mass more quickly. Those who over analyze their workouts, brain drain themselves and don’t stick with the basics of simply taking action by training, eating healthy, and getting proper rest. KISS, keep it simple silly!
So how much stress for your muscles is enough? Actually it’s a lot less than most body builders think! Your muscle growth can be progressed in just a few hard sets. Avoid getting the most massive pump possible. Most beginners do this and that’s why they remain skinny. Doing an extra 3 sets because it temporarily makes you bigger is wasting your time. It minimally does anything to create real muscle growth. The exhilarating feeling of the pump is just a rush of blood in the muscles. It’s not the real lasting size you want to aim for.
The best way to stimulate muscle growth is by lifting heavier weights or doing more reps with the same weight (up to a point) Going above 12 reps on most exercises is wasting your time. For most hard gainers, you’re better to stick with 10 reps and under. Those who are advanced can get away with higher reps.
Try tracking your progress in a journal every week. It will also help to have a workout partner and have some friendly competition to progress quicker. A good spot from your partner, and having someone to motivate and keep you on track can do wonders. Build your strength with no excuses! Stick with working out 3-4 days a week in the gym and don’t spend more than an hour in the gym. Note in your journal as the numbers increase and your training is on track. Make sure to be eating healthy and stretching as well.
Give your muscles a stimulus that it isn’t used to. Confusing the muscle in your workouts will give it stress and cause the body to get bigger and stronger. However don’t annihilate the muscles. You want to give your muscles the proper recovery time. Training frequency is key. When you increase your recovery time, you have to lower your training frequency.
Workout with just enough to stimulate size and strength but don’t overdo it so that it takes too long to recover and put your body in a state of over training. One of the simplest ways to change up the pace and confuse the muscle, is to add more weight or do more reps with the same weight, but no more than 10-12 for the upper body muscles and no more than 15-20 for the lower body.