Building muscle might seem as simple as going to the gym and exercising, but unfortunately for many, myself included, the gains do not come as easily or as quickly as we would like.

This is not because we workout with any less intensity than those that do have muscle. If anything, we scrawnier folk probably workout harder and more often than those that have more muscle, simply because we do not see the gains and think we need to workout more. This is probably one of the main reasons for not seeing any real gains, because over working your body can be just as bad as not working out at all.

The reasons for little or no muscle gains can be as varying as the people themselves; testosterone levels, metabolism, over working the body and not giving yourself enough recovery time, wrong training routines for your particular body frame etc…  
But fortunately there are a number of important things that we can do that really make the difference between no gains and large gains, and the best thing is, it does not involve any supplements or drug. Simply adjusting the way in which you exercise and eat will change your reflection in the mirror very quickly.

1.    Large multi-joint compound exercises

Regardless of whether you are trying to lose body fat or are trying to gain muscle mass, you should focus the bulk of your training time on big multi-joint exercises, and treat targeted isolation exercises secondary to the rest. It is the large multi-joint exercises that should make up the majority of your workout if your goal is to get lean, build muscle, get ripped and become powerful and strong. You should think of these multi-joint exercises as the major movement patterns such as those below.

• Upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows)
• Upper body horizontal press (dips, push ups, bench press)
• upper body vertical pull (pullups, chinups, lat pulldowns)
• upper body vertical press (overhead barbell and dumbbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
• lower body squatting (bodyweight squats, back squats, overhead squats, front squats, etc)
• lower body deadlifting (sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts, regular deadlifts)
• lower body single leg (step-ups, lunges, jump lunges, etc)

This could also include abdominal and core exercises, but these are still second priority to the major upper and lower body multi-joint exercises. Your abs will get a solid workout anyway from most major multi-joint exercises.

Some of the single-joint exercises that you might frequently focus on to build muscle, such as tricep presses, bicep curls, calf presses, shoulder lateral raises, etc… should again be 2nd priority to the major multi-joint routine. You can add these to your main workout, but always remember that these should be treated as additions and should not be your main focus.

2.    Keep your workouts short and to the point

The goal should be high intensity workouts, 3-4 days a week, 45-60 minutes per training workout.
You probably don’t need to be told that you should workout at a high intensity rate, that’s something you know already, and have likely been doing since day one in the gym. But maybe it should be mentioned that you should not workout any longer than 60 minutes, as training too much beyond this point can start to trigger excess catabolism, where your body starts to use its own proteins (which are found in cells), as a substitute energy source. Basically if you workout too long, your body can start to burn tissue as fuel, and that can’t be a good thing. There are supplements around that can help counter excess catabolism and protect muscle tissue, but a more efficient 45-60 minute, high intensity workout is going to give you the greatest results.

If you tend to train longer than 60 minutes in any one session, you could try a super-set style of workout program, which will help to condense training time and greatly increase intensity. The super-set is a very simple concept… you simply do two exercises back-to-back, with no rest break in between.

You can make them any combinations you like, for example you could combine pullups with squats, or bench press with deadlifts. The choice is yours. Your super-sets could consist of a combination between upper body and lower body workouts, or two consecutive upper body workouts, or lower body workouts. To mix it up even further you could play around with varying sets and reps and heavier weights. Remember, your workout routines should be fun so mix it up until you find some combinations that you enjoy.

You will quickly find that you will experience significant muscle mass gains when you start adding super-sets to your workout program, and of course you can simply adjust your calorie intake to suit your goals, whether it be to lose body fat or to gain muscle. Super-sets are very effective at doing both.

3.    Eat quality whole foods

Once again, we can not escape how important nutrition is to your dieting or weight training. You should eat healthy whole foods and do your best to stay away from highly processed foods and even some of those over hyped supplements, bars and meal replacements. More often than not, a healthy, whole food diet will beat supplements hands down. Sure they have their place, but they could never be a substitute for real whole foods.

Whole foods such as eggs, meats, fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts, and dairy, provided it is raw whole dairy, offer the best quality protein, as well as extra nutrition you get from vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. The body absorbs these best when they come from whole foods. The more greener, organic and grass fed this whole food, the better. This is much better than processed bars, meal replacements and protein powders.

I will go out on a limb here and make an assumption that many people who either find it difficult to pack on the muscle or find it hard to lose the excess stomach fat, will have a heap of over hyped supplements in their cupboards. Yes? Sure some of them are really helpful and do make a difference, but the majority are not.

My advice, give whole foods another try. Rather than spend the money on five different supplements a week, start seeking out the whole, organic and grass fed food. You will notice a huge difference.

So in conclusion, change what exercises you focus on in the gym and spend the bulk of your training time on large multi-joint exercises, which will get you lean and ripped.
Cut back the time you are in the gym, and lift the intensity by adding different super-set combinations to your training program. This will fire up the muscle gains in no time flat.
Last but not least, cut back on all the over hyped meal replacements, protein bars, and supplements. Instead seek out raw, whole, grass fed food and start giving your body what it actually wants.

If you are interested in finding out more about the multi-joint exercises listed above, as well as many other fat burning and muscle building strategies, check out these Ab and Muscle Training Secrets.

Also, grab a free copy of Training and Nutrition: Inside Secrets for a Lean Body by Mike Geary, for 27 specific metabolism-boosting and muscle building secrets.

Tired of the Old 3 Sets of 10-12? Well, So is Your Body! Break Through Your Plateau by Training Drastically Different… a Look at Training Variables.

by Mike Geary, Certified Nutrition Specialist, Certified Personal Trainer

Everyone will inadvertently hit a frustrating plateau in their training at one time or another.  You’re cruising along for a while, gaining strength, losing fat, looking better, and then all of the sudden it hits. Suddenly, you find yourself even weaker than before on your lifts, or you find that you’ve gained back a couple of pounds.  It happens to everyone.

Most of the time, these plateaus occur because people rarely change their training variables over time. Many people stick to the same types of exercises for the same basic sets and reps and rest periods with the same boring cardio routine.  Well, I hope to open your mind and bring some creativity to your workouts with this article!

There are many ways that you can strategically modify your training variables to assure that you maximize your fat loss and/or muscle building response to exercise. Most people only think about changing their sets and reps performed, if they even think about changing their routine at all.

However, other variables that can dramatically affect your results are changing the order of exercises (sequence), exercise grouping (super-setting, circuit training, tri-sets, etc.), exercise type (multi-joint or single joint, free-weight or machine based), the number of exercises per workout, the amount of resistance, the base of stability (standing, seated, on stability ball, one-legged, etc.), the volume of work (sets x reps x distance moved), rest periods between sets, repetition speed, range of motion, exercise angle (inclined, flat, declined, bent over, upright, etc), training duration per workout, and training frequency per week.

Sounds like a lot of different training aspects to consider in order to get the best results from your workouts, doesn’t it?  Well, that’s where a knowledgeable personal trainer can make sense of all of this for you to make sure that your training doesn’t get stale.  Below are a few examples to get your mind working to come up with more creative and result producing workouts.

Most people stick to workouts where they do something along the lines of 3 sets of 10-12 reps per exercise, with 2-3 minutes rest between sets.  Booooorrrrring!!!!  Here are a few examples of different methods to spice up your routine.

• Try 10 sets of 3 with a medium weight, resting only 20 seconds between sets.
• Try using a heavier weight and complete 6 sets of 6 reps, doing a 3 minute treadmill sprint between each weight lifting set.
• Try using a near maximum weight and do 10 sets of 1 rep, with 30 seconds rest between sets.
• Try using a lighter than normal weight and do 1 set of 50 reps for each exercise
• Try a workout based on only one full body exercise, such as barbell clean & presses or dumbbell squat & presses, and do nothing but that exercise for an intense 20 minutes.
• Try a circuit of 12 different exercises covering the entire body without any rest between exercises.
• Try that same 12 exercise circuit on your subsequent workout, but do the entire circuit in the reverse order.
• Try your usual exercises at a faster repetition speed on one workout and then at a super-slow speed on your next workout.
• Try completing five 30 minute workouts one week, followed by three 1-hr workouts the next week.
• Try doing drop sets of all of your exercises, where you drop the weight between each set and keep doing repetitions without any rest until complete muscular fatigue (usually about 5-6 sets in a row).

Want more ideas? There are many more ways to continue to change your training variables. This was just a taste of your possibilities.  In order to see how to incorporate various strategies into effective routines, give the programs in my internationally best-selling ebook The Truth about Six Pack Abs a try.