Do you want more muscle mass? Unless you’re specifically focusing on fat loss, who doesn’t? The truth is, there’s no shortcut for putting in the hard work. Here are some concepts that apply for maximum results and goal-achieving success. Let's begin with 8 Tips for Maximizing Mass!
Tip # 1 - Are You Doing Enough Volume?
First, volume does not include your warm-up sets. You should count your working sets only. Rich usually did 15-20 total sets, including warm-ups. That puts his working sets to around 10-12. Of course, your volume total depends on several factors, such as age, experience, and available time. At the very least, do 10 tough sets per week per body part, which recent research seems to support. Studies suggest this is at the low end of the recommended weekly volume.(1)
Tip # 2 - Hit Each Body Part Twice A Week
Side by side with volume is frequency. You should aim to hit each body part twice a week. Rich advocated training six days a week, and the latest research seems to back that up. How you accomplish both volume and frequency depends, again, on several factors, especially available time. That will dictate whether you have time to do a three —or four-day split or a shorter full-body routine.
Tip # 3 - Vary Your Reps
Here’s another tip Rich was a big supporter of. Don’t just do 6-8 reps for every working set—vary your reps. Work your heaviest compound movements with reps in that range, but also work with more moderate weights and higher reps. Rich would often pick a weight and do all 5 sets using that weight, going for 20-30 reps each set. Or, he would spread his working sets across 8-15 reps.
Tip # 4 - Forget Your Ego!
It’s important to build a foundation of strength in your formative lifting years. You want to get as strong as possible. What you don’t want to do (unless you’re a strength athlete) is lift heavy just to lift heavy. Leave your ego at the door. Don’t show off and lift more weight than you can handle in good form. You know the guy who loads up a bar for squats using a ton of weight, but his spotter does all the work? Or the guy that loads up the leg press with every plate in the gym, then moves it about an inch? Don’t be that guy.
Tip # 5 - Compound Exercises First - But Don’t Forget Isolation Exercises
Sure, you can do just compound exercises. But you won’t be fully hitting each muscle if you do. Arms are a prime example. You might hear that you can train your arms just by doing heavy presses and rows. That may be, but you’ll train them far more effectively doing direct arm work like curls and extensions.
Tip # 6 - Work Hard
If you can easily keep going, don’t knock out your 12, 10, or 8 reps and stop just because you hit a number. A lot of lifters knock out their reps with little effort and call it a workout. Don’t make that mistake. Instead, make every rep of every set count.
Tip # 7 - Eat Enough Real Food
Eat plenty of real food before you think about supplements. If you’re training for mass, you need plenty of quality calories. Think 6-8 meals a day, at least.
Tip # 8 - Don’t Forget 5% Nutrition!
Piggybacking off Tip #7, a great way to help get those quality calories is with your choice of Real Carb + Protein, Real Carbs, Real Carbs Rice, and/or Shake Time. All these features are real food sources of quality protein and carbohydrates. Plus, you can put those extra carbs to work by adding Freak Show to your arsenal. Of course, to get the most from your workouts, make sure you’re using a 5% Nutrition pre-workout, creatine, All Day You May, and a muscle builder. Hey, you’re serious about your goals, right? Then stop by and stock up today!
References:
- Baz-Valle, E., Balsalobre-Fernández, C., Alix-Fages, C., & Santos-Concejero, J. (2022). A Systematic Review of The Effects of Different Resistance Training Volumes on Muscle Hypertrophy. Journal of human kinetics, 81, 199–210. https://doi.org/10.2478/hukin-2022-0017
