Top 25 Fitness Tips and Strategies from the Experts (2nd page)

MASS BUILDING: 6. Muscle-Building Basics

Talk to any personal trainer and they’ll tell you there are certain muscle-building basics. First, increase your caloric and complete protein intake. Then, when you enter the gym, focus on your form. Perform compound movements and train with weights on average around four times a week. Never underestimate the importance of rest. Remember, muscle tissue grows outside of the gym when you’re giving your body time to relax and recover following your workouts.

7. Range of Motion

Don’t take any short cuts. As personal trainer Lee Boyce explains, that means you should “aim for the largest ROM you can achieve in your exercises.” Why? Simple, according to Boyce, an ex-athlete with a background in Kinesiology and Health Sciences, “your muscles will do more work per rep, and it will result in your breaking down more tissue by the end of the workout.”

8. Up and Down

Wondering how to get the most out of lifting weights? Duffy says that he tells his clients to “use a weight that will have them failing on the set between the 30 and 40 second mark because research has shown that it’s the time under tension that causes muscle to grow if you are trying to build more muscle." He cautions that if “you’re failing at 20 seconds, you know that weight was too heavy.”

9. Contradicting Cardio

Do you love your cardio exercises? If so, you’ll be disappointed to know that, as LaCerte states, “during times of mass building you do not want to do large amounts of cardio.” Why? Chances are you’ll be burning far too many calories. So what should you do if you still want to get in some cardio? LaCerte says “a light jog a few days per week for 20 minutes is adequate.”

10. Supplementing

Some feel supplements can play a key role in boosting muscle gains. If you subscribe to that theory chances are you’re already taking protein supplements, but what else? Trink says that creatine “seems to be about the most effective strength and size-building supplement.” And, to boost your performance, you may also want to try peppermint. Cardiello explains that, the scent “alters the perception of how hard you’re working out” making it seem “less strenuous, slower paced, and easier to complete.”

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