Here are 3 simple tips to building lean muscle. You guys in here probably know this stuff already but a few noob bodybuilders might find them helpful. 
Build Lean Ripped Muscle - 3 Key Tips
By John Worthington
Despite what the adverts in fitness magazines, building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even with hard work out schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.
It has been a struggle for me over the years to put on muscle mass and I would probably put myself in the hard gainers class, however with experimentation I have come across some key things that have helped me to succeed. In this article I will share 3 important tips.
1. Build your workout routines around multi-joint exercises that work large muscles groups at the same time. Devote at least 90% of you exercises to these even if your if your goal is fat loss or building muscle... big multi-joint exercises should comprise 90% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.
These may include
Upper Body Workouts
Bench Press - Dumbell Bench Press, Decline and Incline as Pushups
Horizontal rows - Seated cabel Rows, bent over barbell rows, One are dumbbell ows
Vertical pull - Pull ups, lat pull downs, pull ups,
Vertical press -Dumbell &Barbell presses,
Lower Body Work Outs
Squats - including front squats, back squats, one foot squats,
Deadlifting - including regular, sumo and Romanian deadlifts.
Single leg movements ( Leg lunges, Dumbell step-ups etc)
Abdominal and core exercises
These are important as a strong core protects the spine and guards against injury. However perform them as a secondary exercise. Much of the abdominal and core will be exercise indirectly through the large muscle group exercises. However additional exercise may include the Plank and crunches.
The other 10% of your exercises can focus on smaller muscle group exercises (isolation exercises) such as tricep extensions, bicep curls, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc. However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.
2. Schedule training for 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Do not over train as you could trigger excess catabolism. You need to train your body hard enough to trigger muscle growth whilst remaining anabolic.
Intensify training by trying a super set style work out exercise combining of opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that use different muscle groups, such as squats coupled with pull ups, or bench press coupled with dead lifts as a superset
These techniques coupled with varying the exercises done for each muscle group will be extremely effective in helping you achieve significant muscle mass.
3. Finally no fitness program is complete without discussing nutrition. It is very important to eat REAL foods highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.
Real foods such as chicken, eggs, dairy and vegetables contain quality of protein and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are more readily absorbed through the body then from processed meal replacements are bars.
Don't be fooled by all the hype in the muscle mags which only seem to work steroid filled bodybuilders. Forget about the over-hyped supplement some of the also contain chemicals that could be harmful such as Aspartame.. Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you've never seen before!
If it's a lean chiseled body your after, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs
Build Lean Ripped Muscle - 3 Key Tips
By John Worthington
Despite what the adverts in fitness magazines, building muscle is not the easiest thing to accomplish even with hard work out schedules and trying every type of workout and supplement.
It has been a struggle for me over the years to put on muscle mass and I would probably put myself in the hard gainers class, however with experimentation I have come across some key things that have helped me to succeed. In this article I will share 3 important tips.
1. Build your workout routines around multi-joint exercises that work large muscles groups at the same time. Devote at least 90% of you exercises to these even if your if your goal is fat loss or building muscle... big multi-joint exercises should comprise 90% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.
These may include
Upper Body Workouts
Bench Press - Dumbell Bench Press, Decline and Incline as Pushups
Horizontal rows - Seated cabel Rows, bent over barbell rows, One are dumbbell ows
Vertical pull - Pull ups, lat pull downs, pull ups,
Vertical press -Dumbell &Barbell presses,
Lower Body Work Outs
Squats - including front squats, back squats, one foot squats,
Deadlifting - including regular, sumo and Romanian deadlifts.
Single leg movements ( Leg lunges, Dumbell step-ups etc)
Abdominal and core exercises
These are important as a strong core protects the spine and guards against injury. However perform them as a secondary exercise. Much of the abdominal and core will be exercise indirectly through the large muscle group exercises. However additional exercise may include the Plank and crunches.
The other 10% of your exercises can focus on smaller muscle group exercises (isolation exercises) such as tricep extensions, bicep curls, calf presses, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, pec flyes, etc, etc. However, these exercises are only accessory exercises to do after the main focus has been the multi-joint drills.
2. Schedule training for 3-4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Do not over train as you could trigger excess catabolism. You need to train your body hard enough to trigger muscle growth whilst remaining anabolic.
Intensify training by trying a super set style work out exercise combining of opposing upper and lower body movement patterns that use different muscle groups, such as squats coupled with pull ups, or bench press coupled with dead lifts as a superset
These techniques coupled with varying the exercises done for each muscle group will be extremely effective in helping you achieve significant muscle mass.
3. Finally no fitness program is complete without discussing nutrition. It is very important to eat REAL foods highly processed over-hyped supplement powders and bars.
Real foods such as chicken, eggs, dairy and vegetables contain quality of protein and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants are more readily absorbed through the body then from processed meal replacements are bars.
Don't be fooled by all the hype in the muscle mags which only seem to work steroid filled bodybuilders. Forget about the over-hyped supplement some of the also contain chemicals that could be harmful such as Aspartame.. Instead, make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains and a leaner, ripped body like you've never seen before!
If it's a lean chiseled body your after, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs
