Build Muscle Fast Principles

Most people's first instinct when they get the idea to get into shape or want to building muscle fast is to find a local gym, sign up and spend a couple hours at the gym and hope the rest will come naturally, after all lifting weights isn't rocket science now is it.

But after a couple of weeks ask yourself do you see any noticeable gains? If you've never been to gym or it's been months or years since you last entered a gym you should see some gains however these will plateau quite quickly.

The reason for this is that you've shocked your body and it has produced a natural response to a. burn more energy (calories) to cater for the increased workload and b. testosterone to cater for the repairing of the muscles broken down during exercises.

The danger of this is that after these short lived gains you lose motivation and focus and before long you skipping gym sessions or have given up completely.

To ensure you stay focused and achieve your desired goals the Build Muscle Fast Blueprint Principles must be followed.

These Build Muscle Fast Blueprint principles are:

1. Set Goals

You need to have a clear objective. To set your objectives you will need a scale and a tape measure, note down your weight and your key measurements i.e. biceps, chest, back, waist, thighs and calves.  For each of these actuals set yourself a reasonable short term goal and a reasonable long term goal.

You will come back to these goals week after week to see how you progressing against your short term goals and your long term goals.

2. Plan

You need to know what exercises you will be performing prior to arriving at the gym. You cannot decide once you at the gym. Whether it’s a 3,4,5 or 6 day program you need to be clear on what exercises and therefore what body parts you will be focused on for each day of you program.

Without this you will wonder around the gym aimlessly and ultimately not achieve an effective workout.

3. Warm Up First

Most people don’t warm up properly when they start training. If you going to be training your upper body on a particular day then spending 5 minutes on a stationary bike will get the blood flowing to your legs but do nothing to prepare your upper body for its workout. Make sure you drive blood to the right body parts during your warm up.

This will help prepare them for the exercises and in that case you will be able to train harder and you will avoid unnecessary injuries.

4. Correct Breathing

Breathing is often overlooked and often not done at all during some exercises which is dangerous, by this I mean don’t hold your breath in when training, make sure you Breathe OUT when the weight is been driven up or out and Breathe IN when you bring the weight back to its starting position.

5. Variety

You want to mix your exercises up to avoid yourself from getting stale and your muscles from stagnating. We often get bored of doing the same exercise and there's no reason why this should be the case as there are numerous different types of exercises that can be used to achieve the same result. When bored change your exercise this will keep things interesting for you and keep the muscle guessing. Your body and muscles will thank you for the change and you will see better results.  

6. Sets and Repetitions (reps)

You want to mix the number of sets and reps you doing for the type of exercise and results you after.  Good results can be achieved by incorporate low rep sets of 4 -6 with heavy weights, middle range 8 - 12 with slightly lighter weights and high reps 15 - 30 with light weights.

7. Free Weights vs Machine Exercises

Free weights if available should be your first choice as these train more muscle groups than machines that isolate a specific muscle.  When using free weights especially with a new weight make sure you have a spotter who can help you if you need assistance lifting the weight.

8. Exercise Timing

When lifting weights the weight should always be controlled without the use of momentum and hence cheating the muscle of a good work out, you want to slow the exercise down. To achieve this use a count of 3 to 4 seconds. Count 1 second to raise the weight, 1 second to hold the weight at the top of the contraction and 2 seconds to lower the weight to the start position.

9. Stretching

Stretching the muscles been worked during and after an exercise will help the muscle recover and improve the overall muscle shape. Make sure you stretch the muscle correctly and don’t force or bounce which can cause damage to the ligaments and muscles.

10. Step things Up

After two weeks of following the same routine you will find that your body has adapted to the weight and exercise and you will need to add additional weights to continue the muscle growth process. Start by adding 10% on top of your current weight if you feel you can do more reps after your last rep of that exercise, add additional weight until you can’t.

11. Get Advice or Ask for Help

You don’t have to go it alone, ask for help from other knowledgeable gym goers, doctors, physiotherapists and personal trainers all these people can advise you on the best exercises based on your objectives.

12. Nutrition

This is most probably one of the most important principles and the one that we all tend to fail at. The reason we fail at it is because we think it’s complicated, or that we will starve ourselves or we will eat too much. If you follow the guidelines based on what you want to achieve its not that bad. There are numerous resources and programs available that will give you meal plans to assist you to build muscles fast.

The important thing here is you cannot grow muscle mass if you do not feed the muscle growth.

For more information on nutrition and exercise tips visit Build Muscle Fast Blueprint.