How many people are discouraged with all the overbearing muscle building programs out there? Isn’t it frustrating to want to gain some solid muscle mass, only to find that you need extensive gym equipment just to perform these strenuous muscle building programs? Perhaps the plan calls for squats, and you have damaged knees. Why don’t we look at some BETTER options in muscle building programs!

First of all, the method with which you do your resistance training isn’t NEARLY as important as you’ve been led to believe.

There is a large percentage of trainers who feel that free weights are the only way to build muscle. Not necessarily. Although free weights HAVE contributed there share of big dudes, they are NOT some MAGICAL tool that is any better than body weight or gym equipment! Quite frankly, a very large handful of people got pretty big from the Nautilus equipment created by Arthur Jones. Don’t get hung up on machines vs free weights vs body weight. You’re muscles WILL see gains as long as you are PUSHING them.

Combining certain muscle groups together, or separating one from another, isn’t really that important, either.

You can do a 2 days split, a 3 days split, or train your entire body in one workout if you like. A lot of how you split up muscle groups between workouts depends upon how many days per week you can devote to training and how long each workout session will last. The only additional benefit to a total-body workout done in a single day is that you ONLY have to do it ONCE a week. Workouts broken down into 3 or 4 days a week, on the other hand, will not take nearly as long as the one-day workout. I prefer the 2 day split and like to train 4 times per week. This is just my preference. Make sure and pick a split routine that makes sense for your schedule.

Low Reps Make Sense, As Do Higher Reps

Many people ask if low reps are best for building muscle or higher reps. The best way to put it is, if your looking to gain SIZE as fast as possible, it’s HIGH REPS! This is the fastest way to increase the volume of a muscle. On the other hand, if the “Hollywood look” is your goal, along with overall strength, then you want less reps. So for large dense muscles it pays to do high reps for a while followed by low reps for a while.

“Is it better to workout first thing in the morning?” Only if you’re a MORNING person!

The nice thing about training in the morning is that you get it out the way. On the other hand, morning exercise CAN increase the potential for injury if you do not warm up first. Honestly, the time’s NOT that important. I am of the belief that getting up before 5:30AM is only acceptable if I am going on vacation or a road trip, but many people swear by early morning workouts.

Anyway, I really hope this has shed some light on some common misconceptions regarding muscle building programs. The bottom line is that you truly CAN see outstanding muscle gains with muscle building programs to fit your lifestyle!

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