You can’t just take a protein supplement and eat a ton of meat, and expect to gain muscle mass and strength. Conversely, you can’t ONLY lift weights and expect to reach your potential. Use the 10 commandments of building muscle and strength simultaneously in order to get the most out of your hard work.
1 – Make Power Lifting Your Top Priority
Powerlifting consists of movements like the squat, dead lift, clean, and jerk. They are explosive movements that recruit the most muscles to move the weight. It also puts the most stress on your body in order to make huge gains in power and overall strength.
It’s ok to focus on crushing your smaller muscles like your biceps, calves, chest, shoulders, etc. But doing that all the time won’t do as much for you.
2 – Be An Absolute Freak!
Go to the gym on a mission. Your mission is to destroy the weights, pull-up bar, rowing machine, or whatever is on the schedule….and then leave.
Keep socializing to a minimum. You have to stay focussed and give it 100%. It’s hard to have this type of intensity every single day. That’s ok, it’s only natural. Feed off of other people’s energy by watching motivational videos or getting one of your ripped friends to go with you.
3 – Control Your Rest Time
Keep your eyes on the clock, or count in your head. When you’re resting you should always be keeping count somehow. That will keep you focused instead of wandering around aimlessly.
Most people are not aware of how much time they really take in between each set. If you’re doing really high intensity lifts with a lot of weight, then that’s ok. Longer rest periods will allow you to replenish your ATP so that you can produce max effort lifts every time.
But if you’re doing a high rep workout with lower weight, your rest time should be short to get your heart rate going.
4 – Don’t Do The Same Thing Over And Over
We build up tolerance to a lot of things, lifting being one of them. As an example, if you drink coffee all the time, it will start taking more and more caffeine to give you that same jolt.
The same goes with training. If you do the same thing over and over, your body won’t get the same beating from it. Your body needs something different. Every week or two either do something different or make it more challenging somehow. Your body needs to take some beatings to improve.
5 – Lift Heavy Weight
First make sure you have the right form on your lifts. After that it’s fair game. Don’t be scared to load up your bar or use heavy dumbbells. It may feel weird at first, but staying in your comfort zone never helped anyone improve. You have to believe that you can do it!!!
There’s a few good reasons why women should be lifting weights as well. Don’t be afraid, you won’t turn into some hideous manly creature!
6 – Progressive Overload
We mentioned variation in tip #4 and this is the perfect solution. Progressive overload is a very important concept to use because it makes things harder gradually.
Keeping this principle in mind as you train will prevent stupid injuries and also help you meet your goals faster.
7 – Use Belts And Wraps
Using a lifting belt will help you handle more weight when doing a squat, front squat, and dead lift. Don’t use a belt unless you really need it though. If you use it consistently it will weaken your core muscles. It’s your core’s job to keep you stable as you lift. A belt should just be used to keep you safe when it gets really intense.
Wrist wraps can be used all the time. They’re really only beneficial when you’re lifting stuff over your head, for example, on the shoulder press, or jerk.
Bar grips can help you hold onto a bar if your grip strength is failing. Again, you don’t need to use this all the time, because that will just make your grip weaker.
8 – Eliminate Weakness
Rich Froning has won the Crossfit games for the last 3 years. He has a really simple answer for people who want to prepare for the ultimate fitness competition:
“No specialization… Eliminate weaknesses.”
It’s really that simple. People naturally have a tendency to stick with what they know. If you’re good at the squat then you’re more inclined to do it. Why? You’re in your comfort zone.
Get out of there! What are you not good at? Personally I’m weak at snatches, so I make an effort to work on that at least once every week.
9 – Protein Makes Me Look Mean!
In addition to training, diet is a huge part of gaining muscle and strength. Even more specifically, you have to concentrate on protein. Eat lean meats, fish, and eggs.
If you don’t feel like you’re getting enough protein in your diet try to find a good protein supplement.
10 – Go To Sleep
Sleep is when the body repairs its self and grows. Most authorities on sleep recommend no less than 6 hours a night and no more than 9. Find your sweet spot that helps you feel the best. Not everyone is the same.
If you want to get bigger and stronger, it’s as simple as following the 10 commandments of building muscle and strength. I hope you liked this article. If so, please take a second to share it on facebook. You may also be interested in how training in full range of motion can help you gain strength faster.
About Adam Pegg
