A strength training routine is the most common form of building muscle size, and there’s a reason why it’s so popular.
When a this training method is utilised properly it’s the most effective method that can be used to build muscular strength and size.
What bothers me though is how rarely I see it being PROPERLY used.
The first concept you’re probably familiar with is progressive overload. If you’re a beginner then this is the key to getting results and you should trust its principals.
For those of you who are advanced, I still recommend you remind yourself the most efficient and safest way to achieve results as it’s easy to slip in to bad habits and lose focus when you start to see results. Naturally when you start to see results you begin to want better results even quicker!
The key word is PROGRESSIVE. Trying to up your bench press by 20kg in a week to impress the lads in the gym is not going to build bigger muscle! And will only prevent you from achieving the results you want.
If you want to attain advances in strength power AND size, then work at 80% of your 1 rep max for between 5-10 reps.
If you’re looking solely at increasing your size then you can get away with working at 60% of your 1RM for 8-12 reps.
My advice is to try and increase the weight weekly in a way that is safe and logical to you.
So maybe add 5Kg to your bench each week. Over 6 weeks you would have added 30kg which is a significant increase. However bear in mind that as you lift heavier it’s harder to continue to add 5 kg each week. Again, trust your logic and maybe decrease your weekly increase to 2.5 or 3kg.
If you’ve been training for over 6 months then you should consider using split training. This is training certain muscle groups on certain days which ensures that all muscle groups are getting plenty of rest and recovery time after a workout.
This is essential as your muscles grown when they are resting not when they are in the gym training.
I always recommend training two upper body parts and one area of the legs during each workout. So for example, train chest triceps and quads on Mondays.
By training this way you keep the body in aft burning mode for longer and this in turn will see you keep trim in when trying to build muscle. See leg workouts to find the best way of incorporating leg training in to your workouts to increase your results.
Following these principles will see you achieve your muscle building goals quicker. They’re not advanced techniques by any means but they will avoid over training; the single biggest contributor to not seeing results.
If you over train your muscles become damaged and therefore don’t recover as they should. If your muscles haven’t recovered, you can’t expect to lift heavier next week.
