Gaining Mass

To build larger muscles you generally need to increase your 6 RM - 10 RM in the basic compound strength exercises. Your 6 RM is the amount of weight you can lift 6 times before reaching failure and your 10 RM is the amount of weight you can lift 10 times before reaching failure. By increasing your 6-10 RM in the major basic body exercises it can generally be assumed that there is muscle growth in all of the major muscle groups. Basic compound exercises of the upper body include all bench presses, chins, pull downs, rows, and shoulder presses. Basic compound movements for the lower body include various forms of squats and leg presses For this assumption to be correct your form needs to be strict and consistent (getting extra reps by cheating will obviously not represent an increase in muscle mass). So how do you increase strength in these exercises?

First, your training program needs to be designed in such a way that you are including the basic compound exercises in your program and training in the appropriate 6-10 rep range. There should however still be some variability in the program. Going in to the gym and doing the exact same workout routine week after week will not create continual gains in strength. I like to create an A and B routine that is followed for about 8-10 weeks. Each routine incorporates important upper body compound exercises that will create gains in upper body size and strength.

To increase strength, you also need to be highly motiv

ated to train past failure by using different intensity techniques such as forced reps, drop sets, super sets, etc. Only by pushing your body to complete repetitions that you have never previously completed will you force your body to adapt and grow. You also need to be honest with yourself and ensure that you are truly reaching failure before you jump to forced reps or start the drop set. Many times I have trained clients who seemed to have a low threshold for pain and would often want to stop the set prematurely. I can detect this because they would complete their last rep forcefully and then say "OK, I am done". To ensure you reach muscle failure I recommend that you keep performing repetitions until you try a rep and you literally fail to complete it. Since you are using a 6-10 RM there should be little risk for injury but just to be safe a spotter should be used to support you and give you a couple forced reps if it is called for.

To optimize strength gains the training program also needs to be designed to give your muscles adequate rest between workouts. This is why for natural athletes I usually advocate splitting the shoulder workout and train front and side deltoids on chest day and read deltoids and traps on back day. In this way all of the pushing movements are completed on one day and these muscles (except for the triceps which are trained again on arm day) get a full 6-7 days of rest. likewise all of the pulling movements are completed on one day and the associated muscles (except for biceps which is also trained on arm day) also get a full 6-7 days of rest.

Lastly a diet rich in protein and essential fats should be followed with enough calories to put you in a positive caloric balance. It is very difficult for experienced lifters to gain strength while on a negative caloric balance diet. Gaining strength goes hand in hand with gaining size (and hence a little extra fat). As most of my clients know I generally prescribe a one to one and a half pound increase in body weight per week to ensure strength is increasing steadily and fat accumulation is minimized.