If the old workout routine doesn’t seem to be making a difference anymore, it’s time to make some changes and adjustments to start building muscle and get stronger. If you want to see improvements, it’s important to train every muscle group, challenge yourself every time you work out, and fuel your body the healthy way.
Here are the most important 3 rules that without a doubt will make all the difference for anyone who tries them.
- Use the right workout strategy
- Learn perfect technique. When you practice and improve your technique, the nervous system becomes highly efficient and tells your muscles to work. As a plus, learning the right technique helps prevent injuries.
- Use free weights and compound movements. If you’re looking to get stronger AND bigger, these exercises have all the variations of movements you need and recruit the largest amount of muscle mass: squat, deadlift, rows, military press, and power clean.
- Warm up properly. Here’s an article with all you need to know about a good warm up.
- Work your weak points. Consequently, your strengths get stronger while your weaknesses get weaker. Having weak points you don’t put the effort in, can quickly lead to problems and injuries.
- Limit your exercise selection. Make sure you have the training you need and stick to it. Of course, mix up your routine from time to time, but remember that more work is not necessarily better.
- Increase resistance with every training. If you don’t add weights to the bar every other training session, your body will have nothing to adapt to. When your body becomes accustomed to a certain amount of weight or resistance, you need to add more in order to challenge your body. You will know it’s time for more when things start to feel easier.
- Challenge yourself with every workout. When your aim is to gain strength, workouts should never feel easy. If it does feel easy, it meant you’re not putting enough stress on your muscles to help them grow stronger. You need to challenge yourself with every single workout to see maximum results.
- Train every muscle group. All the muscle groups in your body work together, so it’s important to give them equal attention. However, don’t work out every muscle group the same day. Alternate every day so your muscles will have time to rest and heal, thus preventing injury and promoting strength.
- Rest between workouts. If you’re looking to get strong in a short period of time, you might be tempted to work out every single day to meet your goal. That being said, your body needs to properly rest in order to build back the muscle tissue you break down each time you work out. Working out every single day won’t give the muscles time to heal, get bigger, and stronger.
- Make healthy life choices
- Stay hydrated. Best is to drink 8 to 10 glasses of water a day to keep your body hydrated during training periods. As to energy drinks, they contain sugar and additives, so the best option remains water. For a little extra flavor, add a little lemon or give any other fruit a squeeze for some juice.
- Eat enough calories. Strength means building muscles. Building muscles require burning calories. A lot of them. It’s important to eat big meals in order to fuel muscle growth while training. However, not all calories are good for building muscle and you also need to eat healthy to nourish and restore your muscles, so eating vegetables it’s a must!
- Creatine supplements. Creatine supplements help increase muscle mass. Creatine is an amino acid that is naturally produced by your body to make muscles bigger and stronger. Consider trying some supplements to improve your muscle tone more quickly.
- Get enough sleep. Sleep is essential when your goal is to build muscles. There is a saying that “muscles are teared in the gym, fed in the kitchen and built in bed”. It’s true – not getting enough sleep will unable your body to build muscles. Plus, if you don’t get enough rest, you won’t be able to work out as much as you would otherwise.
- Exercise all your muscle groups
- Get comfy with deadlifting. The deadlift is an excellent exercise for your hamstrings, abs and back muscles.
- Do pushups and chin ups. Lifting and pulling your own weight can go a long way for your biceps and triceps. You can increase the difficulty by adding reps or weights strapped to your legs.
- Squats are your best friends. The squat, along with its many variations, is the best exercise for legs glutes and abs. Simple but effective!
- Learn the bench press weight. Very effective for building strength in your arms, pectorals and back muscles.
- Do crunches and planks. Another simple but very effective workout for your abs, without the need of any gym equipment.
Keep these 3 rules in mind each time you go work out. And remember the importance of challenging yourself when your goal is to build strength. Make sure that the basics of your workout program, diet and mentality are on point and go start your own strength journey.
P.S. Sharing is caring, so if you know that one of your friends’ goal is to build strength, you should share this article with him today.