Building a dream body takes days, weeks, and months of persistent work in the gym and sticking to a clean diet. We can throw every saying in the book at you: Rome wasn’t built in a day; slow and steady wins the race; there are no shortcuts to any place worth going; etc.
We’ve preached patience and dedication for years, but we also understand that sometimes you just need to add mass quickly. Perhaps you have a show coming up and you need bigger guns, or you’re looking to impress someone you found on a dating app. Whatever the reason, there are ways to speed up your muscle gains.
These tips won’t make muscles magically appear, but following them will ensure a great pump quicker than whatever it is you’re doing right now.
Just keep in mind that these quick fixes are no substitute for smart programming and clean eating — while these will certainly make you look better, the quest for overall fitness and health is one that still takes some time to achieve. On that note, these tips will do nothing for you if you’re eating like garbage or not getting enough rest.
The basic tenets of bodybuilding and training should still be adhered to, even when you’re trying to speed up your muscle gains a little bit.
Bad form equals bad results. Having good form, feeling your muscles contracting against the weight will develop quality muscle. You will have better workouts and will experience more muscle development going for the feel, as opposed to letting your ego take over.
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Keep It Simple
Don’t let your training become too fancy and overly complicated. Some of the greatest physiques are guys who trained in the 40’s and 50’s. Those guys trained naturally and their routines were simple. 3x per week, full body routine each workout. They also used simple rep schemes, 5 sets of 5 reps, or 5 sets of 10 reps.
A simple routine focusing on getting better every workout will go a long way. There is no reason to get fancy, when doing the basics will get the job done.
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Be Patient
You need a lot of patience to build a great physique. Unfortunately muscle does not grow overnight. In a perfect scenario with optimal conditions your body can make 10g of muscle a day. Gaining 40 lbs of muscle in 30 days won’t happen. Get that idea out of your mind, it does not exist.
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Be Consistent
Consistency is probably the most important item on this list. You have to be consistent when trying to build muscle or burn fat. Every program works to some degree but sticking to a program is what separates the average from the great.
People get results in spite of what they do. Those people are the ones who consistently grind in the gym and who consistently train hard no matter what life throws at them.
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Focus on Progressive Overload
Progressive overload is the most important aspect of muscle building. If you’re not training with progression you’re not working out, period! Muscle only responds to load and training volume.
If you’re doing more work with more load your muscle will have no choice but to adapt and grow bigger and stronger. If your focusing on “confusing the muscles” or you’re not committed to your training program your results will be slim to none in the long term.
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Keep a Workout Journal
How do you know what works for you and what doesn’t? I like to compare our individual bodies to science experiments. We are our own test subjects; you should always be monitoring, tracking and tweaking your program slightly to adjust to the changes you are seeing. Failure to do this will result in plateauing.
Without keeping a workout journal how else would you know if what you are currently doing is working? The more detailed your workout journal is the better and faster you will get permanent results.
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Plan Ahead
Success is a planned event. Getting a better physique is not going to happen on accident. If you want results in the gym you have to plan for them. Plan ahead for each day.
Prepare your meals beforehand so you have access to your food and you’re not running through the drive-thru because you’re starving. If you’re not getting results, you didn’t plan accordingly. Did you get your cardio done for the week? No, why? You didn’t plan ahead.
You missed a meal and had to eat Wendy’s, you didn’t plan ahead. Have the no excuse attitude and get it done.
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Focus on Compound Movements
Isolation movements are great and definitely have their place in training but you should always be striving toward progressing in the basic compound movements.
Compound movements are movements that incorporate multiple muscles at once such as squats, deadlifts, rows, and bench press. With compound moves, you will be hitting multiple muscles at once which in turn will release more muscle building/ fat burning hormones in your body.
You will have a systematic response and you will be placing a greater demand on your body for more muscle.
You should always perform your compound movements first in your routine. Once you start getting tired out then you should switch over to more isolation movements to help further hit the muscles.
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Lift Heavy
Being strong doesn’t have anything to do with size. Some of the best powerlifters are females who weigh 130lbs. Your diet will control how much mass you build, but the more strength you have the better. The more muscle you have on your frame, the leaner and more ripped you will be.
Heavy lifting will help build strong rock hard muscle. Don’t get caught up doing light weight for high reps in an attempt to lose more body fat. That does not work. Stay true to your heavy compound movements.
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Eat Smart
80% of what we see in the mirror is based off our eating habits. If you’re eating like a little pig chances are you will look like one. Proper nutrition goes a long way to help aid in recover and the rebuilding of muscles. Proper post workout meals along with balanced macronutrients will result in an overall healthy and strong body.
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There’s No Magic Pill
Don’t be that person that jumps from routine to routine in hopes of getting a better body overnight. There are no magical potions, secret routines or crazy diets.
People that waste time looking for the next best thing are doing just that, wasting their time. Instead of putting in so much effort searching for the easy way out why don’t you enjoy the process you’re on.
I truly love training and I enjoy training every week. I actually enjoy the process. If you don’t make an effort to stay on your routine and eat a healthy balanced diet your body will rot away. Don’t ignore the basics, embrace them.
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Take Action
Stop procrastinating and start taking action. Do not dilly-dally during your workout. Be as productive as possible in the gym and even in life. You never want to be wasting time. You only have one life to live and you have to be as productive as possible during every hour of everyday. The more focused you are during your workouts the more you will get out of them.
Anthony Bevilacqua has been in the fitness industry for over a decade. His fitness influence has made an impact on millions of people both in and out of the gym. Find out more information about him at www.abfitnesstrainer.com.
