Build Lean and Ripped Muscle With These 3 Important Tips

Building muscle is not the easiest task to accomplish, despite daily workouts and trying every type of workout and supplement known to man.

I struggled for years to gain any muscle mass, but over the years with my own experimentation have found a few key things that have helped me make significant muscle gains possible, even for hardgainers (like myself).

Start building lean muscle faster and easier with these 3 important tips.

1. 95% of the exercises you perform regularly in the gym should be big compound exercises.  It doesn't matter if your goal is to shed fat or build muscle... big compound exercises should comprise 95% of the exercises you do in your workouts if you want to get lean, ripped, and powerful.

The core of your major lifts should be comprised of the following exercises:

• upper body horizontal press (bench press, pushups, dips),
• upper body horizontal rows (1-arm dumbbell rows, seated cable rows, bent over barbell rows),
• upper body vertical pull (lat pulldowns, pullups, chinups),
• upper body vertical press (overhead dumbbell and barbell presses, barbell or kettlebell clean & presses)
• lower body squatting movements (front squats, back squats, overhead squats, bodyweight squats, etc)
• lower body deadlifting movements (regular deadlifts, sumo deadlifts, Romanian deadlifts)
• lower body single leg movements (lunges, step-ups, jump lunges, etc)
• abdominal and core exercises (these are important, but still are 2nd priority after all of the major upper body and lower body multi-joint movements... your abs and core will be worked from most major multi-joint exercises anyway)

Isolation lifts should make up the other 5% of your exercises, such as tricep pushdowns, bicep curls, calf raises, shoulder shrugs, shoulder lateral raises, chest flyes, etc.. These exercises should always follow your compound lifts at the end of your workout. This will ensure you have full strength for your heavy lifts.

2.  You should have intense workouts at least 4 days/week for 45-60 minutes per weight training workout. Train no longer than 60 minutes.Your body only releases growth hormone for the first 45 minutes or so and then your body goes into a catabolic state (catabolism=muscle breakdown). You want an intense workout for 45-60 minutes to put your body into a anabolic state (anabolic=muscle growth).

Super set exercises are great for increasing intensity during workouts.  My favorite combinations are upper and lower body movements, such as squats paired with pullups as a superset, or bench press paired with deadlifts as a superset.

Don't underestimate the effectiveness of these types of upper/lower body supersets done with heavy weights and a high intensity.  The first time in my life that I experienced significant muscle mass gains were when I started doing these types of workout combos regularly, but I was still mixing up my training schedule.

These exercises are staples of almost any effective workout program. Simply adjust calorie intake to whether your goal is to shed fat or build pure muscle.

3.  Eat clean with quality whole foods... REAL foods instead of highly processed meal replacements.

The quality of protein (and additional nutrition from vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants) are best assimilated by the body from real whole food such as eggs, meats, dairy (preferably raw), fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, etc..

Dedication and consistency to your diet and workout plan is a must for optimum results. Make these tips in this article part of your lifestyle, and you'll see muscle gains like you've never seen before!

If you want to get a lean chiseled body, check out these tips to Get Ripped Abs the right way.