If you want to build muscle mass, nothing is more important to the overall process than effectively planned out muscle building workout. If you don’t put in the time to piece together effective workouts  before you go to the gym, then your just setting yourself up for failure. In this article, I’m going to  teach you a proven workout structure that’s really pretty simple and will allow you to stimulate lean muscle growth without having to worry about over training your muscles in the process.

photo credit: jontunn

In order to have an effective growth stimulating workout, there are a few things that your workout needs to accomplish.  The best muscle building workouts incorporate a ton of compound exercises in a way that makes your muscles to move beyond their comfort zone each and every time you go to the gym. This relentless pounding from your serious workouts is what shoots the signals to your brain that it needs to start packing on more new muscle mass in order to get ready for the next time it sees that type of work.

Without over-training any of the muscle groups on your body, here’s how I like to structure my bodybuilding workouts for maximum muscle growth Start of with the clear understanding that you will not be training any of the muscles on your body more than 1 time each week. This will ensure that your body has enough time to rest, recover and rebuild in between workouts.

After that, you need to decide how many training sessions you can fit into your schedule each week. I try to fit in between  2 – 4 workouts each week, but it really just depends on how busy I am at work that week. If you’re serous about building muscle mass, then then you need to target a minimum of 2 workouts a week. If you’re not able to make it to the weight room more than a few times a week, then you’re body’s just not going to be able to pack on muscle mass regularly  .

Once you have a good idea of how many workouts you can fit in each week, you need to group your body parts so that you are focusing on different body parts in each workout. I like to split my workouts so that I’m training  my legs, back and triceps and my chest and biceps on a 3 workout a week schedule or quads, chest and biceps, back and shoulders, glutes and triceps on a 4 workout a week schedule.

Each of your workouts needs to be limited to no more than 60 minutes each. This is enough time to get into the gym and really stimulate some serious muscle growth in an effective way and then get out of there without taking up too much of your time in the process. In order to make this happen efficiently, you’ve got to limit the number of work sets in each of your workouts and you’ve got to make sure to stick to your rest intervals.

If you take this bodybuilding workout advice to heart and you implement what you’ve learned, then you should be able to build some serious muscle mass quickly, easily and naturally!

Are your muscle building workouts set up for forcing muscle bulk?  Even though most guys think they’ve designed effective bodybuilding workouts that will help them gain new muscle mass, most of the time they wind up implementing a long workout that requires them to stay in the gym for 2 -3 hours at at time.

The main focus of this article is to shed some light on how long your bodybuilder workouts should be in order to stimulate muscle growth. hopefully I can convince you that it’s possible to actually spend less time in the gym, gain more muscle size and strength and get you back to your life as fast as possible.

In order to build muscle tissue, then you need to provide stimulation to your muscles in the form of intense weight lifting workouts. That said, you can certainly get into the gym and pound your way through a seriously effective weight lifting workout in  a little under 60 minutes. Sure the boring and uninspired 180 – 240 minute bodybuilding workouts performed at a slow pace may be ok if you have no life outside of the gym and a sincere desire to make the muscle building process more difficult. There is a much more effective way to train for muscle size!

If you subscribe to the thought that more is better, you may be pleasantly surprised to discover that that’s just not the case when it comes to packing on muscle mass. If you want to make the most out of the time that you spend in the weight room by activating new muscle growth and utilizing your body’s natural muscle building hormones, you need to take a less is actually more approach to designing your muscle building training sessions.

I personally like to limit my bodybuilder workouts to under an hour of focused effort.  if I try to go much longer than 60 minutes it usually forces me to lose focus on my workout and ultimately leads to a less effective workout. I like to get into the weight rooms, get going with my workout and get back to my everyday life outside of the weight room as quickly as possible.

While some trainers and experts argue that 30 minutes is not enough time for a full bodybuilder workout, I disagree completely disagree. If you’re performing your muscle building workouts with the appropriate level of focus, the very same level that is required to stimulate muscle growth, then you won’t be able to get through much more than 20 – 30 minutes of dedicated muscle building effort.

The point I’m trying to make here is that there really is no totally ideal training time set in stone for everybody. Some people build muscle mass by training 1 day a week, while others need to hit it 4 – 7 times. You need to find out what works best for your body by incorporating a systematic approach to your bodybuilding workouts. The duration of your bodybuilder workout is a moving target just like all of the variables of your workouts.

Take the time to identify what works best for your bodybuilder workouts, then get to work implementing your training approach. With some focused effort and a solid well thought out plan, you should begin to pack on muscle size and strip away fat quicker than you ever though possible.

Are your bodybuilder workouts structured correctly for stimulating muscle growth?  While most guys are certain that they’ve pieced together effective weight lifting workouts that will help them build muscle mass, most of the time they wind up piecing together a marathon training session that forces them to stay in the gym for 1 – 2 hours at at time.

The main focus of this article is to lay out exactly how long your bodybuilder workout should be in order to force muscle growth. My goal is to convince you that it is realistic to actually spend less time in the gym, gain more muscle mass and get you back to your everyday life as painlessly as possible.

It’s a fact that if you want to gain muscle mass you’re going to want to blast your muscles hard and heavy in the form of heavy and intense free weights workouts. With all of that out of the way, you can definitely get into the gym and bang out an effective bodybuilding in under an hour.

While the standard yawn inspiring 60 – 180 minute free weight workouts performed at a snails pace may be ok if you’ve got no life outside of the gym and a sincere desire to make the muscle building process more difficult. With out a doubt, there is a much more efficient way to force lean muscle growth!

If you believe that more is better, you may be very surprised to realize that that’s not always the case when it comes to building more muscle mass. If you really want to make the most of your time in the gym by forcing more muscle growth while simultaneously taking advantage of your natural muscle building hormonal window of opportunity, you definitely should take a different approach to structuring your muscle building workouts.

I personally like to limit my free weights workouts to under an hour of all out effort.  I find that anything much longer than an hour forces me to lose my focus and ultimately leads to a much less effective workout. I like to get in to the gym, get through my free weights workout and get back to my life outside of the gym as fast as possible.

A lot of trainers argue that 30 minutes is not enough time for a “real” bodybuilder workout, I disagree. If you are performing your muscle building workouts with the right intensity level – the exact same level that is required to stimulate muscle growth, then you won’t be able to get through any more than 20 – 60 minutes of seriously intense bodybuilding effort.

The point of the matter is that there really is no completely “ideal workout time set in stone for everybody. Some people gain muscle mass by training 1 day a week, while others need to put in more workouts than that. Basically you just need to figure out what works well for you by incorporating a systematic approach to your body building workouts. The length of your free weight workout should be a constantly moving target just like each one of the variables of your workouts.

• The Intensity of Your Workouts
• The Length of Your Workouts
• How Often You Hit The Gym
• How Long You Rest Between Sets

All of these components will adjust depending upon your goals. During certain phases of your muscle building workouts, you may be pushing over even an hour of training, while at other times only putting in a few minutes for your weightlifting workouts.

Put in the time to figure out what approach give you the best result, then get to work implementing your training approach. With some dedicated  effort and a well thought out program, you should begin to build lean muscle mass and strip away fat faster than you ever thought possible.

While everybody wants to believe that there is some type of most effective bicep workout that’s guaranteed to help them gain muscle mass in their arms, the truth is that the idea of the single best bicep workout for everyone is a myth. Everybody has a body that responds differently and because of this, muscle growth occurs for everybody by different things.  Even though one particular bicep workout may make my arms explode with new muscle mass, that doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s guaranteed to help you build bigger biceps.  That said, there are a few biceps exercises that you should include in your arm routines if you really want to force your biceps to grow.

A massive pair of biceps is certainly impressive, but forcing your arms to grow can be a lot more complicated than most people realize.  While the common 5 sets of 5 reps of dumbbell curls is fine for beginners and even some intermediate trainers, you’ve got to learn how to take your arm workouts up a notch if you really want to build big arms.

Here are a few bicep training tips that have helped me to pack on over 3 inches to my arms over the years.  Each of these arm workout tips is tried and true in the trenches and I guarantee that they will help you build bigger arms.  Read through each of these tips and start implementing them one by one – before you know it your arm workouts will be forcing your body to build some serious muscle mass and everyone will be keeping their eyes on your arms!

1.) My first tip for an effective bicep workout may seem like it’s completely unrelated to the process of training your biceps, but it’s important to your success.  If you’re serious about forcing your arms to grow, then you need to make sure that you’re performing heavy dead-lifts to failure One time each week. I’m not sure why this works but, I think it has something to do with the amount of testosterone and growth hormone that are released in your body when you perform heavy squats to failure. But rest assured it’s very effective for increasing the size of the muscles in your arms. In the past I’ve experienced an increase in the size of my biceps and triceps by 1.5″ – 2″ inches by really focusing in on my heavy squatting…while not even training by biceps at all!

2.) Also make sure that your bicep workouts are designed around the most effective growth inducing free weights exercises. If you don’t piece together your arm workouts around the right exercises, your arms simply will not grow – basic stuff.  Stick with the bicep exercises that allow you to train “hard and heavy” through a complete range of motion.

The Most Effective Bicep Exercises

1. Barbell Curl
2. EZ Bar Curl
3. Alternating Dumbbell Curl
4. Hammer Curl
5. Dumbbell Incline Curl
6. Cable Curls
7. Preacher Curl
8. Dumbbell Preacher Curl

90% of my personal bicep workouts start with either ez bar curls or barbell curls.  These basic bicep exercises allow me to train my arms hard with heavy weights.  If you consistently pound your biceps with heavy weights, they’ll have no choice but to respond by getting bigger and stronger!

3.) Perform each set of your bicep workout in the 6 – 8 repetition range.   6 -8 reps is in the accepted “muscle building” rep range, but closer to the lower side.  Focusing your arm workouts in this repetition range will allow you to stimulate as much muscle growth as possible by pounding your biceps with heavy weights. Whenever I perform bicep workouts built around this rep range, I almost always see dramatic results.

4.) Design your bicep workout so that you perform only 2 – 6 sets of 2 exercises max. This will force you to keep your workout to as reasonable amount of time while making sure that your biceps get the work they need to lay down new muscle mass. Also make sure to rest for 1.5 – 3 minutes between sets so that your muscles are totally recovered for the next set.

5.) Hit the gym to blast through your bicep workout only 1 time each week.  If you insist on training your arms more frequently than this you’re going to have a really hard time packing on any muscle mass in your arms. Sure you can get away with it for awhile, but eventually you’re going to hit a wall and actually start losing strength and size in your arms. Instead of taking the volume approach to your bicep workouts, focus on making each workout as efficient as possible – this is the key to stimulating muscle growth. Get in to the gym, get through your workout then get out of the gym as quickly as possible so that you can focus on feeding your body the nutrients that it needs to pack on muscle mass.

Take these simple bicep workout tips and run with them…Your arms will start to grow quickly. I know that this advice seems too basic to work, but it’s extremely effective for building big biceps quickly.

Almost everyone seems to be looking on the web for the top bicep workout to help them increase the size of their arms in less time.  We all know that there are a lot of really good biceps routines on the web, I really feel that it’s important to prioritize your biceps training appropriately.  While it’s critical that you learn how to train your arms effectively, you really shouldn’t spend too much of your time in the gym training a small muscle group like your arms. If you focus too much on training your biceps, the rest of your muscle groups will suffer, and even your biceps will be affected negatively by too much attention.   If you keep over training your biceps and ignoring the rest of the muscles on your body, then your arms will begin to respond by actually getting smaller!

photo credit: Life of Sport

In comparison to some of the bigger muscle groups on your body, the muscles in your upper body are tiny. Even though there is no other muscle group on your body that will grab attention quite like a a muscular pair of biceps, one of the biggest downfalls of most guys is that they devote too much time to working on their arms and too little time training the bigger muscle groups on their bodies.

If you’re serious about building bigger biceps, then you need to prioritize your training in the following order (or at least somewhat close to this). First off target the larger muscle groups on your body and work your way down the list.

First train your…

• Legs – (quads/glutes)
• Chest – (pecs)
• Back – (lats)
• Shoulders – (delts)
• Triceps
• Biceps
• Calves

You’ll need to expend an bunch of energy hitting the bigger muscle groups hard and heavy.  If you do this, what you’ll find is that your smaller muscles (like your arms), will begin to get bigger incidentally without direct training due to the amount of muscle building hormones released by your body when you work your way through heavy sets for the bigger muscle groups on your body. So by focusing on the bigger muscle groups first and making them the focus in your training program, you will begin to realize an increase in the strength and size of your biceps.

Also keep in mind that when you perform many of the pulling type exercises that are the focus of your back training, you will be utilizing and in turn training your arms (usually with a much heavier weight than you usually would), so make sure to space your bicep and back workouts a minimum of a day apart.

Now that you’ve got your muscle building program designed properly and everything is in balance.  Then you’ll want to move forward and start working in a few basic bicep workouts.  Don’t make the mistake that nearly every guy in the gym makes and work your biceps non stop – it’s counterproductive to your goal of building bigger biceps and it will wear down your arms after too long.

In order to build bigger biceps, you need to pair down your bicep workouts to 1 arm workout per week.  That’s all the work your biceps really need to grow.  If you hit your biceps hard and heavy any more than this, they will lose size – so try not to do it!

Now that you understand how to properly prioritize your workouts and how often you need to be hitting your biceps, here’s a simple bicep workout that will help you pack on some size on your biceps quickly without taking up too much of your time in the gym.

Start out with a few minutes of light intensity aerobics.  I prefer 5 – 10 minutes of light jogging. Followed by a full body flex routine. A lot of guys only stretch out the muscle groups that they train each day – I really like to stretch out the all of the muscle groups each day so that I’m able to prevent any type of tightening up or injury.  After you get your stretching and warm up in, it’s time to jump into the weight lifting warm up sets below.

Quick Bicep Workout

First Warm Up Set:

Exercise: DB Curl – 1 set x 10 repetitions

select a training weight that allows you to move the weight quickly through a full range of motion.  I typically begin with 20 lb dumbbells.

Warm Up Set #2:

Exercise: Alternating DB Curl – 1 set x 8 reps

Again choose a weight that allows you to move the Dumbbells fairly quickly through a full range of motion, but make sure that it is heavier than what you started with. I like to jump up to 45 lb dumbbells here.

Rest for 1.5 minutes

Warm-Up Set #3:

Bicep Exercise: Alternating Dumbbell Curl – 1 set of 6 repetitions

*Perform this warm-up set with a weight that you can move though the full range of motion easily and under control, but this time begin to up crank up the intensity a bit. the goal is to complete 6 reps with a weight that is getting closer to your training weight, but light enough so that it doesn’t make your biceps tired before the workout even begins. I typically move up to 45 lb dumbbells for this set.

Now rest for 2 minutes

Keep in mind the goal of the warm up sets in this bicep workout is to simply get the blood pumping through your arms and to warm up your tendons and ligaments.  That’s the only goal of the warm-up sets. Make sure that you do not make your biceps too tired during the warm up sets by either using weights that are too heavy or by shortening the rest intervals. If you do this your biceps workout will suffer and as a result you will not be able to generate as much muscle growth as you otherwise would!

Now it’s time to jump into the actual training sets for the arm workout.

Exercise #1: DB Curl

After completing your bicep workout warm-up…

• Perform 2 sets x 6-8 reps

**Make sure to use a weight that you can control for at least 6 quality repetitions, but heavy enough that you can’t possibly perform more than 8!

• Rest for 2 minutes between sets

Bicep Exercise #2: – Dumbbell Incline Curls

• Perform 2 sets x 6-8 reps

Again make sure to use a training weight that allows you to complete the exercise with decent form, but a weight that’s heavy enough that you can’t perform more than 8.  that’s exactly how to get your biceps to grow.  If you train with a weight that’s too light, your biceps will not grow and if you train with a weight that’s too heavy you’re eventually going to hurt yourself.

When it comes to building bigger biceps, that’s really all there is to it.  Learn how to put your workouts in the right order to target the bigger muscle groups on your body first, and then move on to 1 solid bicep workout each week.  As long as your muscle building diet is set up right and you make it a habit to get enough sleep each night, you will build muscle mass quickly and your biceps will get bigger!

Arvada, Colorado USA
My Fitness Body Transformation Log – Days 53 – 60 Weight Lifting Workouts
Objective: To Burn Fat Gain Muscle Mass And Transform My Body In 12 Weeks

Today I’m going to summarize the Muscle Mass Advantage weight lifting workouts that I implemented during the past week (week 9 of my fitness body transformation). So far I really haven’t been too impressed with the progress that I’ve made up to this point, but something changed this week!  I can’t put my finger on it, but I feel like I made some serious progress towards my goals.  Later this evening, I’ll post my body transformation progress report through the end of week 9, so I’ll know for sure whether I my feelings are substantiated.

Last week my body felt great every single day, so I decided to crank up the intensity and frequency of my aerobics workouts, while still trying got keep my weight lifting workouts running smoothly by performing 2 separate 20 minutes cardio workouts Monday – Friday. It was a bit challenging just forcing myself to jump on the treadmill so often (especially towards the end of the week!), but I really feel that the “2 a days” helped my shed more body fat than I had the week before.

Moving into “crunch time” it’s going to take every thing I’ve got just to drop the last few % of body fat. I’ve already decided that regardless of my 12 week accomplishments, I’m going to extend my fitness  body transformation weight lifting workouts and all until I get my body fat % down around 6% – I really want killer six pack abs! At that point I’m going to increase the amount of calories I’m eating, adjust my weight training workouts and up my protein intake in order to hopefully stimulate some more muscle growth – I think I can get everything to balance out for a lean and extremely muscular body!

Week 9 Weight Lifting Workouts

Monday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Chest & Back

Chest Warm-Up:
Incline Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 2 minutes)
Incline Press: 3 sets x 6 reps
Dumbbell Bench Press: 2 sets x 6 reps

Back Warm-Up:
Dumbbell Rows: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Dumbbell Rows: 3 sets x 6 reps
Lat Pulldowns: 2 sets x 6 reps

Tuesday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Biceps & Triceps

Bicep Warm-Up:
Dumbbell Curl: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Dumbbell Curl: 3 sets x 6 reps
EZ Bar Curl: 2 sets x 6 reps

Triceps Warm-Up:
Skull Crushers: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Skull Crushers: 3 sets x 6 reps
Pushdowns: 2 sets x 6 reps

Thursday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Shoulders & Traps

Shoulder Warm-Up:
Shoulder Press: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Shoulder Press: 3 sets x 6 reps
DB Shoulder Press: 2 sets x 6 reps

Traps Warm-Up:
Upright Rows: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Upright Rows: 3 sets x 6 reps
High Cable Pulls: 2 sets x 6 reps

Friday’s Weight Lifting Workout – Legs

Quad Warm-Up:
Squat: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Squat: 3 sets x 6 reps
Leg Press Press: 2 sets x 6 reps

Hamstrings Warm-Up:
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 1 x 10, 1 x 8, 1x 6
Work Sets: (rest interval 1.5 minutes)
Stiff Leg Deadlift: 3 sets x 6 reps
Leg Curls: 2 sets x 6 reps

That’s all for the week 9 weight lifting workouts…Enjoy!

Your Friend And Trainer,

Nick