Using Your Brain and Your Muscles

As you work out, engage your brain in the exercises that you are doing. Ensure that your concentration level is at 100% as this will assist you in training more intensely. As you focus on your training, convince yourself that you can grow as big as you want.

You can use your brain to command your muscles to lift the weights. You can also command them to grow large and strong over time as you work out. This is known as a visualization technique. Arnold Schwarzenegger is well known for having visualized his muscles bigger and he succeeded in achieving this, with the result being his multiple Mr Olympia titles.

Train Harder than Everyone Else

There is no shortcut to achieving big muscles. You have to lift heavy weights and maintain the intensity. To be the biggest you have ever been, you have to ensure that you work extra hard in every work out. Seek to beat every other guy in your gym. Train so hard that every muscle in your body is burning. To train this hard, you have to force your mind to stay focused on the training and its effect on your muscle groups. As you train, concentrate your efforts on the basic movements.  This is known as maintaining the form.

To achieve the desired results, you have to train every muscle by moving your body in the correct manner. Also, it is advisable to use the barbells and dumbbells more than the cables and machines as you train, this is because these force you to maintain balance and form as there is no frame or machine to rely on. Thus, you end up training that particular muscle even harder.

Choosing the Correct Exercises

Training exercises at the gym are divided into single joint and multiple joint exercises. To get as big and strong as possible, it is advisable to focus on multi-joint exercises more than the single joint ones. This is because multi-joint exercises force the different muscle groups to coordinate with each other. These allow your muscles to get bigger and more defined.

Examples of multi-joint exercises are the bench press, squat, overhead press, bent-over row and power clean. You can perform very intense exercise routines when you are performing multi-joint exercises. This is because the weight you are lifting is distributed across multiple muscle groups, meaning you can train for longer and thus build bigger muscles.

Lower Repetitions with heavier Weights

It is important to pick the right weights for the right exercises. When you’re lifting, begin with the lighter weights and warm up with those. After, you can begin adding the weight and decreasing the repetitions that you do. As you lift heavier weights, keep lifting until your muscles fail rather than to a set number of reps.

It is often helpful to have someone who will help you to lift the weights when they get too heavy for you; known as a spotter or ‘lifting buddy’. As a rule of thumb, never go for less than 6 repetitions in every set. Also, it is advisable not to exceed 12 repetitions. This rule will fit for most of the body parts that you can exercise. Maintain this routine and you will increase the size and strength of your muscles.

Vary Your Exercises

If you workout in a specific way for too long, the gains from the workout will reduce over time. You’ll notice that your muscles are not growing as fast as you would like them to. If you reach this point, it is easy to get stuck in a rut. To avoid this, ensure that you change up your exercise style often. This is so that your muscles do not get too used to the same routine and grow slower.

Track your muscle gains as you exercise. This will help you to know when an exercise is no longer producing the gains that you desire. When you see that your muscles have reached this point, change up and do a different style of exercise. Keep searching for different ways to keep your exercise routine fresh, if you’re running out of ideas the internet is a gold mine and you’ll soon find a new routine.

Recover faster: Lift for Gains not Injury

Recovery is just as important as the workout itself. As you workout, it is advisable to push beyond your limits. However, you should not push your muscles such that you harm them. As you do your repetitions, push your muscles and body until you feel the burn, however, don't push until you tear your muscles. This will help to create a stimulus that will assist you to grow muscle and not hurt yourself.

If you push your muscles beyond their ability, then your body will focus on repairing your muscles as opposed to increasing their size. This will mean you waste time in the gym instead of building muscle. Just push your muscles such that you get out of your comfort zone. However, don't injure your muscles. Follow this tip to recover faster and gain more muscle.