1.) Start Explosive. Doing something explosive at the beginning of your workout will fire the Central Nervous System, which can allow you to lift stronger and more intensely. Plus… Look at Olympic lifters, they’re JACKED!
2.) Train with intensity. Nobody builds muscle training in a lazy way, turn it up and crush your workouts. You should be exhausted after training.
3.) Lift as heavy as possible for at least one lift per training session. Adding in some HEAVY lifting will always build more strength and muscle gains.
4.) Train at least 3-4 times per week. Training frequency is extremely important to build muscle, shoot to strength train 4 times per week
5.) Use higher volume of training, in some way. Whether your first lift is 8×2, 4×8, or 6×6 – make sure you’re lifting at a high enough volume to grow.
6.) Pre workout nutrition. Getting in proper workout nutrition can be huge for growth; my recommendation is that everyone gets some protein with amino acids in it prior to training. This helps recovery and stops muscle breakdown. If you’re lean and really want to grow, add some carbs.
7.) Drink more water. Water hydrates the muscle and boosts performance.
8.) Take Creatine. Most studied supplement in the industry and proven to work, take 5g daily whenever you’d like.
9.) Don’t fear carbs. Carbs help boost energy, performance, recovery and muscle growth. We need them to train hard and build muscle, period.
10.) Carry heavy shit. Builds grip, core, and trap strength – all essentials for increasing your big lifts.
11.) Protein at each meal. When protein synthesis is occurring in your body on a daily basis, you recover better. Recovery = Growth.
12.) Utilize healthy fats. These healthy fats can help our digestion/absorption of carbs and protein, plus can optimize gut health and hormonal balances.
13.) Sleep! Recovery = Growth!
14.) Keep training sessions to 45-60 min of lifting, 90 minutes at max. After this time period testosterone levels can drop and cortisol can rise, not very optimal for muscle gains.
15.) Quit boosin’ so much! Alcohol can do many things but a simple fact is the body cant focus on building muscle or burning fat if alcohol is present. Keep it to one night per week at most.
16.) Use Himalayan Sea Salt. This salt is top notch for keeping PH, electrolyte, and hydration levels at higher levels, plus it even increases the workout pump and has been shown to help the body absorb nutrients (specifically carbs) better.
17.) Optimize Hormones. Without good functioning hormones, your body cannot recover properly. Once again, Recovery = Growth.
18.) Sleep MORE! Do I need to say it… Recovery = Growth!
19.) Have passion, create drive and STAY motivated every single day.
20.) Have a long term plan and goal, be willing to invest time. Building muscle is a slow process; it takes longer then burning fat or strength. So plan on investing some time into this.
21.) Progressively overload, in some way weekly. The body adapts to progression, so each week get 1% better – could be an extra rep, added weight, less breaks, etc.
22.) Hit the big lifts, each week. The big lifts have always been a staple in every single program for every single goal, don’t ignore that fact.
23.) Utilize bodyweight exercise to create more volume. After you hit those big lifts, utilize things like chin ups and push-ups to create more volume in your workouts without burning out the body.
24.) Never under recover. Don’t lose sight of how powerful recovery can be for your goals, I’ve said it enough in this post…
25.) EAT! Don’t eat like a fat ass, eat like a bad ass. Yeah you need to eat a lot to gain good size but if you eat junk, your muscles and joints will not function optimally – meaning you will not gain muscle optimally!
26.) Do your mobility and tissue work! If you’re not moving well & tissue isn’t recovering well, then you cannot train as hard as you need to in order to pack on muscle.
27.) Realize the exercises that cause you pain and then change them. You can’t train, if you’re in pain 😉
28.) Use Dumbbells more then Barbells. Besides hitting the big lifts, your assistant and higher volume work should be done with DB’s to save your elbows and shoulders from damage.
29.) Learn how to breathe right. Utilizing crocodile breathing drills and PRI breathing techniques during your warm up can allow your hips to work better, your core to work better and overall builds more muscle and strength.
30.) Learn to “Feel” the muscle. Arnold wasn’t lying about the Mind-Muscle connection, feeling the muscle while you train can create more of a pump – AKA brings more hydration and blood flow to the muscle, which leads to… GAINZ SON!
31.) Pull and Push heavy weight. Dragging or pushing a sled should be the foundation of your conditioning, builds muscle and strips body fat without risking muscle loss.
32.) Always CRUSH the handle. Whatever you’re doing, crush it. Creating tension on the bar fires more muscles and builds more full body tension.
33.) Use your glutes and/or your core, on ALL lifts. Any time you’re lifting a weight while standing up you should be firing the glutes and on all those lifts, and seated lifts, you should be firing your core. Creates more stability in the low back and a neutral spine. A safe spine is a strong spine.
34.) Pick up heavy things. In other words Deadlift. Why? Because buff people deadlift, that’s why.
35.) Squat. See #34.
36.) Cut down your rest periods. This allows more tension and blood flow to stay in the muscle and keeps growth hormones higher.
37.) Listen to your body. If you’re hurting or need a break, take it. Recovery = Growth.
38.) Chase the pump. After you’ve hit your big lift, chase the pump. This is key for hydrating the muscle, which is a great way for it to grow.
39.) Eat Superfoods. Why? Because they’re good for you and you cannot build muscle if you’re not healthy.
40.) Stay on a schedule. Going to bed and waking up at the same time 90% of the week will ensure optimal hormonal/consistent balance, which is key for performance.
41.).) Get messages. Muscle is tissue, if your tissue quality sucks then it has a hard time repairing. When it repairs, it gets bigger and stronger – AKA GAINZ SON!
42.) Make training fun! This is something to many forget to do. If you can’t enjoy your training, you wont have ambition to grow.
43.) Optimize your insulin. Consuming things like fish oil, cinnamon, ALA, and other nutrients that improve insulin can help us absorb nutrients properly for growth and recovery.
44.) Train at Vigor Ground, we have a team full of bad asses dedicated to getting you results.
45.) Get a coach. If #44 isn’t an option, find an online coach […I do that!] or someone who can help guide you to your goal with action steps to take along the way.
46.) Be consistent. This may be last, but it is #1 when it comes to building muscle, or any result for that matter. Without consistently training, recovering, managing stress, and eating properly we cannot accomplish any goal. This goes for life in general because ALL success comes from consistent efforts towards a specific goal.
