KEYS TO BUILDING MUSCLE MASS
Building muscle mass is something that often eludes people. With so much information out there online, from friends, etc. it's very difficult to know what to do. I guess it's times like these that I'm glad I grew up and started training long before the existence of the internet. Back in the 80s when I was a teenager starting to workout, it was really very simple. You read magazines, books, or you had a coach. Luckily I had all three. And at that time, people writing books or magazines were trusted authorities who knew their stuff. Some of the garbage I read now online is just unbelievable. The overcomplicating of things, people telling you that you have to use testosterone, pre workout supplements, the pushing of useless programs, idiotic diets, the list goes on and on.
Like with many things, simplicity is best. There were a few things I did when I was learning about working out. First I never had any doubt that I could do it. Having the right mindset is extremely important. Another was that training for strength and muscle was viewed very simply. My coach taught me very simply to train progressively heavier on the basic compound exercises and eat enough food to fuel those workouts and build muscle. This is key. We just drank lots of milk and ate tons of eggs and beef along with plenty of fruits, vegetables, and grains. We also had dim sum at the Chinese restaurants or burgers and pizza here and there. Hardly scientific but it worked and we all got huge doing that. And lastly, don't worry about staying cut. You can't get bigger and smaller at the same time. If you want to build muscle mass, you must be willing to put on some body fat. It's impossible to build muscle without doing so. However this doesn't mean you gain so much fat that you see your waistline growing on a daily basis. But you certainly can't be worried about being ripped.
When we say basic compound exercises, we're looking at exercises that train many muscles with a single movement. Here are some of the best ones to do.
Squats
Deadlifts
Good Mornings
Bentover Rows
Chin ups
Bench Presses
Parallel Bar Dips
Overhead Press
Upright Rows
When you look at building big arms, then bicep curls and pushdowns really aren't the most important thing. They can build upon the foundation, but that foundation is built from the above exercises.
Another thing is try to structure your workouts around either full body workouts or two day splits. Don't do the bro split which many people like doing now where you train one or two muscles a day. Your muscles need to be trained more often than that if you want to build serious muscle mass. So your schedule could look something like this.
FULL BODY SCHEDULE
MONDAY, WEDNESDAY, FRIDAY
TWO DAY SPLIT SCHEDULE
MONDAY AND THURSDAY - Chest, Back, Core Stability exercises
TUESDAY AND FRIDAY - Shoulders, Legs, Core Contraction exercises
I hope this gives you a basic idea of how to build muscle mass the old school way. Keep things simple and you can't go wrong.