Putting on size can be an uphill battle. Books say it’s a matter of training for sets of eight to 10 reps with heavy loads. But ask anyone who’s been doing that for years and is still a pencil-neck, and they’ll be quick to say it can’t be that simple. They’d be right.SEE ALSO: Essential Moves for Strength TrainingThere are plenty of “tips” articles out there that tell you to: lift big, get more sleep, add more volume and eat a lot of chicken. Here are some things you might not have tried. We all know the importance of the squat, deadlift, overhead press and pullup. People often switch to exclusively training using machines; that’s fine, as long as they take second place to the big lifts. Don’t drop them off – they’re too important.
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: Tone it Down
Lee Haney used to say “stimulate, not annihilate” referring to muscles. Just because a workout doesn’t leave you crippled for 4 days following, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective. Be sure to have workouts that groove your patterns, and make you feel stronger. Every workout shouldn’t kill you.
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: Isolate Muscle Groups
Like the last subheading mentioned, hitting up a machine has its place. To play devil’s advocate, there are many camps who think the “big 3” are all you need to get muscle, and that’s not true either. To zero in on muscle size, it sometimes means zeroing in on the muscle.
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: Pull More Than You Push
Having a good foundation of strength comes from training for it, and pulling motions are more important than pushing movements to avoid injury and develop a base. Plenty of your body’s potential lies in the strength of your posterior chain, so row, deadlfit, and chinup to oblivion.
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: Go ‘High-Carb’
If you want to get big, you’ll have to eat big at some point. A “clean bulk” may add you a cool 10 pounds, but you have to be OK with losing your razor-sharp abs if you want to add appreciable size. That means you have to be OK with going high carb at times, and packing down some calorically dense meals. Any pro bodybuilder will tell you the same thing.
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: Go Light
Contrary to what many think, it’s not all about lifting heavy when you want to get bigger. Increasing the rep range using lighter weight (especially on certain movements) can cause muscles to respond very well and produce a serious pump. Give it a try.
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: Drop the Straps
Speaking of pulling, remember that you can only lift as much as you can hold. Wearing straps may be good for isolation, but they can cut off plenty of activity of the forearm, upper arm, and even shoulder capsule. That can actually hold back gains in favor of completing a heavy set. Rely on your own grip strength.
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: Chase the ‘Pump’
On paper, many exercises may be said to be “not worth the time”. In truth, after you’ve done the meat and potatoes of your workout, it’s not a bad idea to add in “finishers” that do nothing more than amplify a pump you’ve created over time. For instance, after a good chest/triceps workout, throwing in some pressdowns on the gravitron dip machine can be the best fit for you.
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: Add Weekly Volume
There’s no harm in repeating an exercise twice in one week. No one made a rule that you have to train only once. If you want your legs to grow, you’ll have to hit them harder than just once every seven days. Doing this will apply the SAID principle (specific adaptation to imposed demands), and the legs will respond by growing bigger and stronger to handle the added volume. You may notice they recover faster too.
10 of 12
: Rest Less
Properly exhausting muscle is also a product of making light weight feel heavy. That can easily be accomplished by simply giving yourself less time to recover. Lower your rest interval and it’ll up your rate of perceived exertion.
11 of 12
: Train Frequently
Repetition is the key to success. That means working out 3 days a week probably won’t cut it. That’s not even half. Get into the habit of getting in to lift most of the week, and make sure you’re eating and sleeping well enough to accommodate that. Your body will have no choice but to grow.
12 of 12
: Train Intuitively
Last but not least, know your body. There are going to be days where you don’t feel as strong or energized as others – it happens to the best athletes too. Rather than run the risk of a horrible workout, or worse, an injury, it may be a smart call to lower the intensity for the day, and possibly scale back on the volume a bit. You’ll have more workouts to follow, and PR’s will always be there to set. Don’t forget that.
Putting on size can be an uphill battle. Books say it’s a matter of training for sets of eight to 10 reps with heavy loads. But ask anyone who’s been doing that for years and is still a pencil-neck, and they’ll be quick to say it can’t be that simple. They’d be right.
There are plenty of “tips” articles out there that tell you to: lift big, get more sleep, add more volume and eat a lot of chicken. Here are some things you might not have tried. We all know the importance of the squat, deadlift, overhead press and pullup. People often switch to exclusively training using machines; that’s fine, as long as they take second place to the big lifts. Don’t drop them off – they’re too important.
: Tone it Down
Lee Haney used to say “stimulate, not annihilate” referring to muscles. Just because a workout doesn’t leave you crippled for 4 days following, it doesn’t mean it wasn’t effective. Be sure to have workouts that groove your patterns, and make you feel stronger. Every workout shouldn’t kill you.
: Isolate Muscle Groups
Like the last subheading mentioned, hitting up a machine has its place. To play devil’s advocate, there are many camps who think the “big 3” are all you need to get muscle, and that’s not true either. To zero in on muscle size, it sometimes means zeroing in on the muscle.
: Pull More Than You Push
Having a good foundation of strength comes from training for it, and pulling motions are more important than pushing movements to avoid injury and develop a base. Plenty of your body’s potential lies in the strength of your posterior chain, so row, deadlfit, and chinup to oblivion.
: Go 'High-Carb'
If you want to get big, you’ll have to eat big at some point. A “clean bulk” may add you a cool 10 pounds, but you have to be OK with losing your razor-sharp abs if you want to add appreciable size. That means you have to be OK with going high carb at times, and packing down some calorically dense meals. Any pro bodybuilder will tell you the same thing.
: Go Light
Contrary to what many think, it’s not all about lifting heavy when you want to get bigger. Increasing the rep range using lighter weight (especially on certain movements) can cause muscles to respond very well and produce a serious pump. Give it a try.
: Drop the Straps
Speaking of pulling, remember that you can only lift as much as you can hold. Wearing straps may be good for isolation, but they can cut off plenty of activity of the forearm, upper arm, and even shoulder capsule. That can actually hold back gains in favor of completing a heavy set. Rely on your own grip strength.
: Chase the 'Pump'
On paper, many exercises may be said to be “not worth the time”. In truth, after you’ve done the meat and potatoes of your workout, it’s not a bad idea to add in “finishers” that do nothing more than amplify a pump you’ve created over time. For instance, after a good chest/triceps workout, throwing in some pressdowns on the gravitron dip machine can be the best fit for you.
: Add Weekly Volume
There’s no harm in repeating an exercise twice in one week. No one made a rule that you have to train only once. If you want your legs to grow, you’ll have to hit them harder than just once every seven days. Doing this will apply the SAID principle (specific adaptation to imposed demands), and the legs will respond by growing bigger and stronger to handle the added volume. You may notice they recover faster too.
: Rest Less
Properly exhausting muscle is also a product of making light weight feel heavy. That can easily be accomplished by simply giving yourself less time to recover. Lower your rest interval and it’ll up your rate of perceived exertion.
: Train Frequently
Repetition is the key to success. That means working out 3 days a week probably won’t cut it. That’s not even half. Get into the habit of getting in to lift most of the week, and make sure you’re eating and sleeping well enough to accommodate that. Your body will have no choice but to grow.
: Train Intuitively
Last but not least, know your body. There are going to be days where you don’t feel as strong or energized as others – it happens to the best athletes too. Rather than run the risk of a horrible workout, or worse, an injury, it may be a smart call to lower the intensity for the day, and possibly scale back on the volume a bit. You’ll have more workouts to follow, and PR’s will always be there to set. Don’t forget that.
