The Home Muscle Building Textbook

If you think you need to get to a gym in order to build a decent amount of muscle on your frame... you're mistaken! The following is a textbook guide to muscle building at home:

#1 - Train for Hypertrophy

If your goal is to build muscle, then you should be training to build muscle. So many people get side tracked with flashy workout programs and end up focusing on building strength only, or performing intense cardio workouts that will never help them build any muscle mass.

The ideal repetition range for pure hypertrophy is 8 - 12 repetitions. This means that you must choose a challenging weight. Perform 3-4 sets of the movement. If you feel your last 12-rep set was too easy, then it's time to increase the weight in your next workout.

#2 - Train to Muscular Failure

If there is no reason for your body to grow, it will not grow. Changes are made when their is a necessity for change. You must force your body to grow. This is why you must push your body to muscular failure. The maximum recruitment of muscle fibers comes in at the last, hard repetition.

Remember, you do NOT have to hit muscular failure on all your sets. If you are performing 4 sets, then you should hit failure, or close to failure, on your last set. Many people think this means to keep performing repetitions until you can go no further. This is not what it means. If you were able to perform 20 repetitions on your last set, then the weight you used was not challenging enough.

#3 - Keep your Workouts Short

Catabolic hormones are released into the body at the 45 minute mark. These hormones eat away at your hard earned muscle. The best thing to do is to keep your workouts under 45 minutes. Don't think you need to spend 2 hours in the gym per day in order to see maximal muscle growth.

In addition, when you're pushing your body to failure for hypertrophy, you're going to be tired in about 20 minutes. My ideal muscle building routine should only last 20 minutes. This is doable if you're using challenging weights in the proper repetition range.

#4 - Use Compound and Isolation Exercises

Compound exercises are crucial when it comes to muscle building. You should build your workouts around the basics - bench, squat, deadlift, row, and press. However, you should also include isolation exercises. Bicep curls and tricep extensions serve as complementary movements to your big lifts.

#5 - Eat Enough Protein

Use the following formula to determine how much protein you need daily:

Lean Mass Weight (Kg) x 2.75 = Daily Protein Requirement

Remember, this is in kilograms. In addition, we're measuring lean mass. So, if you're 170 lbs at 10% bodyfat, your lean mass is 153lbs, or 69.5 kg. Your daily protein requirement therefore is 191-192 grams.

This level of protein intake may seem daunting, but it really is not that difficult once you start looking into just how much protein is in foods. A really quick way to boost your protein intake is to consume 3-5 small, high protein snacks such as cottage cheese, beef jerky, mixed nuts, or pumpkin seeds per day.

If you're looking for a solid muscle-building workout you can perform at home with only a set of dumbbells, then check out the Superior Dumbbell Workout. Click here for more information.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Parth_Shah

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7474996