I’m always amazed at the amount of ignorance that exists relative to weight training and fitness. I see guys and gals in the gym every day doing the same things and wondering why their bodies never change. Assuming you lift hard, consistently, and properly, here are three tips that will shoot your muscle gain into the stratosphere:

1. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition! Why do people ignore this fact? You can’t run a NASCAR and pump it full of unleaded gasoline and expect to win the race. Similarly, you MUST eat right, meaning daily multivitamin supplementation, 6 meals a day with the correct portion sizes, and adequate protein combined with complex carbs. It’s amazing what happens to your body when you cut refined sugar and white flour products out of your diet! Really? Do people really think that the white poison actually has any nutrients in it over just calories? Why eat it every day. If you’re one of those frequent gym goers who hasn’t made this commitment yet, try it for a month and watch what happens to your body. If you get hungry, snack on nuts.
2. Don’t Overtrain. I often want to say, “Hey idiot, you’re working the same muscle group three times a week - no wonder it won’t grow!” For young athletes with the proper diet, this may be acceptable for a time but ultimately as we age, our bodies can’t adapt as quickly, coupled with repetitive stress injury potential. I only blast my muscle groups once a week on a specific split routine, but since shoulders and chest will always have at least one tricep movement, they get indirectly hit. Hence, I only do a shoulder routine, chest routine, back routine, leg routine, arm routine (bi’s/tri’s), but ultimately because of the overlap mentioned, I’m working each group directly once but indirectly on another day. Even shoulders sometimes involves legs with power cleans etc. Calves are always done with shoulders and chest because they can recover quickly.
3. Proper Overload, Correct Form. Strength and mass require 3 - 6 reps or less. This means you must be dying by the 6th rep and unable to do more, or several 1-3 RM sets as well, but you’ve got to lift heavy enough to be exhausted at the end of each set. Same principle applies for simple hypertrophy gains in the 8-12 rep range. In your heavy lifting, however, you should never sacrifice form. This will save you from injury and ensure you are stimulating your muscles properly. Lift hard, but lift right.

Do you have some favorite mass gain movements or tips? One of mine is the power clean and press. It stresses not just shoulders but traps, arms, the power core (hips, glutes, quads) and all stabilizers. Submit your favorite movements and what benefits you’ve seen, and we’ll publish them in an upcoming blog!