Muscle Building Workout Routine

A workout routine is never much of a popular concept, but it's still crucial to our health and image. If you're currently lacking a fitness regimen, then it's time to take that first step.

There are many aspects to fitness, working out and staying in shape. One workout routine I would like to address is the muscle building process. This is such a debatable subject.

I have read countless bodybuilding and weight lifting websites, and often they encourage different routines and practices. Most of them agree, however, that if you are looking to increase muscle size, then the use of free weights is preferred over machines.

This is basically due to the fact that using free weights forces your body to work more. When you resort to a machine, it stabilizes the exercise for you. This way you only have to lift, press or curl the weight. Now with a free weight workout routine it's different.

Let's say you're doing the bench press. This is a wonderful compound exercise that's ideal for building the chest, triceps and shoulders. When you lift the bar, you also have to stabilize it, and make sure it stays level. This ensures that both arms are doing equal amounts of work. Furthermore, the free weights are forcing your body to use other muscles as well, while the machines do not.

So what about that great muscle building workout routine? I believe the key is not going overboard and trying to lift too much weight too quickly . Far too many weight lifters jump in the game and pack on too many plates to begin with, putting themselves at risk of over training and injuries. They may be able to lift the heavy weight for one repetition, but they will benefit more by lifting smaller weights.

A good workout routine that actually produces results requires multiple reps and sets. You need to be able to lift the weight for at least eight reps. If you're trying to build mass, then exhaust the muscles with three or four sets of eight reps.

The key to continually adding muscle mass is to keep your body guessing. Your muscles will get used to the same old routine. It's wise to change it every so often so that your body has to keep adapting to the different stresses placed on it. Changing your routine will also prevent you from getting bored and keep your exercise regimen fresh and interesting.

There are lots of ways to change your workout routine. These include increasing the amount of weight used, changing the number of reps and sets, changing the exercises, changing the tempo of each rep and changing the order in which the exercises are carried out.

Related Articles

Building Bigger Biceps

Building biceps should only be done as part of a larger fitness routine that will combine many different activities to insure that you make yourself healthier and do not put yourself at risk.