For example, pushing against an inmovable wall is a clear example of an isometric subject.

What isn’t so clear to many men who want to build muscle is how these exercises can help them build muscle. They think these exercises might be useful to gain strength, but not muscle mass.

Isometrics won’t build you huge mounds of muscle, but they will give your muscles a thick and rugged look. They will look as if they were carved in stone.

Think of Bruce Lee, for instance. He was a fan of isometrics, and if you take a look at his muscles, they seem almost like concrete, thick, defined, and with vascularity. Of course, this is due in part to Bruce Lee’s body fat levels.

Another group that performs isometrics on a regular basis are gymnasts. If you look at any routine on the rings, you will find that exercises like the iron cross are static in nature.

Then you also realize that these isometric exercises give the gymnast’s muscles a look that is very different from that which you see in your typical gym-goer. While the latter might have bulky, smooth, and round muscles, gymnasts tend to have taut, thick, and muscles with sharp lines; you can almost see the muscle fibers in some gymnasts, which is somewhat scary by the way!

Also think of armwrestlers, who are constantly doing isometric work. If you look at the arm of the world’s best armwrestler, John Brzenk, you will see that he does not have a bicep and forearm like your typical gym-goer. It may not be as big as some arms sported by bodybuilders, but Brzenk’s arms are built like granite. This is the result of long-term isometric training that cannot be obtained just by lifting weights.

As for the exercises themselves, the variations are endless. You can push against a wall, or against a door, do a pull-up and hold it for several seconds. You can also do a squat against a wall and hold it there for seconds or minutes. Anything where you have to stay in a static position will work.

You will find sooner or later that you become exhausted from doing isometric exercises. This is because you are using maximal strength, and your body is being pushed to extremes it is not used to. Thus, remember to always take a deep  breath in-between exercises and take a break if you feel the need to do so.

Eating too much: you do need to consume more than you burn in order to build muscle, but this can go horribly wrong if the aspiring musclehead eats everything in sight with the excuse that he is “bulking” up. Building muscle is not an excuse to engorge yourself with ice cream and cakes. If you do this, you will end up getting fatter rather than more muscular. You will attain a smooth look, and people will think you are a fattie, rather than a muscular stud. So make sure to eat more than usual, but don’t go too far in order to build muscle fast.

Eating too little: at the other extreme there are those who eat less than enough to build muscle. These people tend to be skinny or hyper-metabolic, and they can get away eating more than the normal person while consuming most of what they eat. Such people need to consume more food than usual if they want to build muscle. To increase their appetites, they can try doing more cardio sessions, or just being more active in general.

Others eat very little because they don’t want to gain fat while building muscle. Yes, there are ways to build muscle while keeping fat gain to a minimum, but the reality is that in any buking cycle, you are going to gain fat along with muscle. This is the law of nature. So don’t be afraid of gaining fat while building muscle, because then you can go on a cutting cycle for while, lose the fat, and then come back to a bulking cycle.

Eating too little carbs: people who eat low-carb while building muscle want to gain muscle while gaining very little fat. But as mentioned above, this is almost impossible to do. Thus, some people take it too far by consuming very little carbs while doing muscle-building workouts, and it is no wonder they feel lethargic, run-down, and having no energy to do proper weight-lifting workouts.

If you truly want to build muscle, you are going to have to reconsider your view of carbs as “evil” . Yes, if you are a sedentary person, and you eat lots of carbs, you are writing yourself a ticket to Obesityland, but if you do resistance exercises in order to build muscle, you need carbs.

Why do you think you feel so lethargic and tired? Your body is telling you that it needs carbs in ordert to lift heavy weights and to repair the muscle after a tough workout.

Remember that during a weightlifting session, your muscle’s glycogen stores are depleted, so you must take carbs after a workout in order to replenish these stores and for the muscles to heal fully.

Eating too little protein: some people tend to underestimate the importance of protein when it comes to muscle building. Let me tell you upfront, that protein is the single biggest determining factor in your quest to add muscle mass.

If you eat too little protein, your scrawny self will remain the same. Maybe you have trouble gulping down a lot of protein. If this is your problem try buying a protein powder, which is a concentrated source of protein. In other words, taking a few scoops of protein powder gives you the same amount of protein as eating tons of food.

Eating too much protein: there are some iron addicts out there who go overboard with their protein consumption, sometimes taking 3-5 g/lb of body weight. Such amounts don’t do much for muscle building; in fact, you are only adding extra calories that will end up in your midsection rather than in your biceps. Let’s not talk about the stress you are putting on your digestive system, especially your kidneys. Instead, try to be more rational and keep your protein amount to 1-1.5 g/ lb of body weight.

These are some of the most common muscle building diet pitfalls. There are many more out there, but if you follow these tips, you will be well on your way to muscle-building success!

Never do your workouts for more than an hour or hour and a half. If you go any longer, you risk going into a catabolic state due to the release of stress hormones. It is better to keep your workouts intense and short. If you prolong your workouts for too long, your body will then require long amounts of time for recovery, and you won’t be able to hit the gym on a regular basis.

I know you have heard about Arnold’s marathonian weight-lifting routines, but let’s face it, Arnold took steroids, and if you are a natural trainer, you will probably die after taking up one of Arnold’s routines!

Another tip is to cut down on rest times so as to obtain both muscle mass and lose fat. If you reduce your rest times, your heart will be beating faster, thereby revving up your metabolism, and burning more fat. Consider this a “power-cardio” session where you do both cardio and resistance training together.

The key here is to for maximum work in the minimum amount of time. For instance, let’s say that it takes you to 30 minutes 5 sets of 5 reps of both squats and deadlifts. Next time try to do it in 25 minutes. Later on as you get stronger and have more endurance, do it in 20 minutes. You get the idea.

Now comes one of the most important and often overlooked tips: mindset. Try to reduce the amount of nervous activity in your life; this includes worrying, fidgeting, getting angry, and other things that excite you. To build muscle you need to be in a relaxed and positive state of mind. Make sure that you let go of all your daily worries before you go to the gym.

As for eating, eat something before doing a workout that will give you energy without burdening your digestive system. Don’t eat heavy meals because they will interefere with your workouts. Fruits are ideal because they give you energy without bloating your stomach.

During the workout, make sure to drink water at least, but preferably drink some energy drink that can supply your muscles with glycogen to keep up the intensity of the workout.

Of course, don’t forget to replenish right after a workout with protein, carbs, and fat. Protein will help to repair the structural damage done to your muscle during the workout, and the carbs and fat will provide the energy for this repair to occur.

If you take these tips to heart, you will see how you will be more efficient in your muscle-building endeavors.

Such people often make reference to long-distance runners in the Olympics, who tend to look skinny with their bones being clearly visible. The fear is that all the weight-lifting world will not overcome the detrimental effects of a cardio session.

But let’s face it: the fear of cardio while on a muscle-building phase is unfounded. Cardio can be actually help you to build muscle! There, I said it.

I hope you are still with me and have not fallen off your chair. You might be asking yourself how on earth cardio can help you to lose some muscle, when you look around you and see that all endurance/cardio athletes tend to be on the skinny side.

For starters, cardio can relax you and give you a motivational boost. After hard weight-lifting session, there is nothing like running for a few minutes at a moderate pace to feel refreshed and energetic. The idea here is to go at a moderate pace, not to kill yourself running. If you have done a hard session of squats on leg day, don’t expect to be able to run much afterwards. Just run for the sake of relaxation and your own well-being.

Cardio can also help you keep fat levels low while building muscle. When men build muscle, they tend to gain some fat along the way because caloric overconsumption is required for muscle gain. But cardio can help you to gain muscle while keeping fat gains at a minimum by burning some extra calories and revving up your metabolism.

Cardio can also increase your appetite, which will help you to build more muscle. Skinny guys with high metabolisms tend to have trouble eating large quantities of food, and that’s why they have such a hard time building muscle. But by doing cardio on a mass-gaining phase, those who have trouble eating a lot, which will feel quite ready to consume lots of calories that will in turn build them more muscle.

Try this if you want: after a hard session of resistance training, do some laps in the swimming pool. I don’t know what it is about swimming, but I often feel very hungry after doing it. If you do this correctly, you will be eating everything in your field of vision!

The final benefit of doing cardio while building muscle is often overlooked. Cardio can help you to maintain your conditioning, which will help you to lift heavier weights for a longer time.

Have you ever found out that you run out of breath while lifting weights? This is due to poor conditioning. But if you do cardio, your conditioning will improve, and you will be able to lift for a longer time without running out of air.

As a final word of caution, don’t overdo cardio either while building muscle. Although cardio is good for building muscle, if you do too much of it, you can actually ruin your muscle-gaining efforts.

A good rule of thumb is to perform 20 minutes of cardio 2-3 times a week while on a bulking phase, and regulate according to one’s energy levels and progress.

Squat: by some this is considered to be the “king” of all exercises, and for good reason. Squats are a whole-body, compound movement that target the biggest muscles in your body: your leg muscles.

Heavy squats can release hefty amounts of testosterone and growth hormone into your body that will obviously help you to build more muscle.

In fact, squats are so good at building muscle that in the old days of bodybuilding, there used to be a bulking program made up of only 20-rep “breathing” squats. The idea here was to perform squats for 20 reps to the breaking point without taking any breaks between the reps; you could only “breathe” in-between each rep to keep going.

Deadlifts: another exercise considered to be the “king” (or queen?) of all exercises. The deadlift, like the squat, is a whole-body movement that forces you to use a lot of muscles in coordination to perform the lift correctly. Deadlifts, however, do not place a huge burden on the quads but rather on the hamstrings, biceps, lats, and specially the lower back.

Kettlebell instructor and exper strength coach Pavel Tsatsouline has said that most people should perform deadlifts instead of squats, because most individuals don’t know how to perform the latter properly, while they do know how to deadlifts properly.

If you want to see the full power of deadlifts, I recommend you search for pictures of Franco Columbu’s back. Franco had some of the biggest lats in bodybuilding. Arnold even called him the “bat” once. According to Franco, he developed his back to such an extreme extent byperforming heavy deadlifts.

So, if you haven’t added deadlifts to your muscle-building arsenal, what are you waiting for?

Pull-ups: for those of you who do not have weights lying around, this will be a great exercise for you. Pull-ups are considered to be the “king” of all upper body exercises; yes, even the “holy” bench press cannot compete with the power of pull-ups.

Why are pull-ups so powerful? Pull-ups force you to contract your entire upper body, specially the lats, which are the biggest muscles in your upper body. Your forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, pecs, abs, and your entire back will be tested with this exercise.

Go back to your high school PE class, if you want. I still remember how many of my classmates could do tons of push-ups but when it came to pull-ups, most guys could only perform one or two.

This is because pull-ups are a tough exercise. If you are still doubting their effectiveness, you should check out what gymnasts do on the horizontal bars.

Gymnasts have been performing pull-ups since they were little, and look at their amazing V-shaped backs and strong arms!

Fruits and veggies: you might be surprised by this one, since fruits and veggies do not contain a lot of protein. But the purpose of fruits and veggies is not to help you build muscle directly, but rather to keep your body in good health, so that it can repair muscle more effectively.

Fruits and veggies contain antioxidants, phytochemicals, fiber, and other substances that slow down the aging process, keep your digestive system functional and clean, and provide you with innumerable benefits that would take  pages to list.

Also, a specific type of vegetable, crucifeous vegetables, reduce estrogen levels in the body, thereby increasing the level of free testosterone in your body that will help you to build more muscle.

Thus, never understimate the anabolic power of salad or a piece of fruit: there’s more to it than meets the eye!

Meats: meats have been a staple of bodybuilding since its inception. There are usually two kinds of meats: “white” meat which tends to be low in saturated fat such as chicken or turkey, and “red” meat such as steak or beef which tends to be high in saturated fat.

Nowadays, many bodybuilders opt for the low-fat options such as chicken and turkey because they are afraid of gaining fat while building muscle, and they are also concerned about the possible health risks of eating foods with high levels of saturated fat.

But there’s nothing better sometimes than eating a good piece of T-bone with your buddies. Red meat may be higher in saturated fat, but it also tends to have a lot of high quality protein along with creatine. Bodybuilders of the Golden Era ate red meat in good amounts, including Arnold.

The ideal would be to combine both white and red meat, while keeping the latter to moderate amounts that way you won’t be putting your health at risk while obtaining high-quality animal protein.

Eggs: eggs have sometimes been called the “perfect” food. This has been debated by others because some health authorities are concerned that the high levels of cholesterol in eggs might lead to health problems down the road. Other health authorities, however, question whether there is a link between dietary cholesterol and the cholesterol produced by the body.

Regardless of the debate, eggs are a time-tested muscle-building food. According to the Iron Guru, Vince Gironda, eggs are the best food for building muscle, pure and simple. In far, he went as far as to say that eating tons of raw eggs was like taking steroids!

One can certainly take issue with such a statement, but there’s no doubt that eggs contain some of the highest-quality proteins out there, and that if taken in moderation, you can build muscle by eating eggs without dangerously increasing your cholesterol levels.

It is your choice, of course, whether you just want to eat the egg whites or eat the entire egg. Many professional bodybuilders just take the egg whites in order to keep calories and cholesterol down, but some modern strength coaches, like Charles Poliquin, argue that by discarding the yolk, we are throwing out something of great nutritional value.

At the end of the day, just remember that eggs are here to stay as a bodybuilding food: there’s no way around them!

Dairy (milk, cheese, sour cream): this is by far my favorite food group of them all. Long before the introduction of steroids to the sports world in general, strongmen of the past used to drink milk in gallons in order to “bulk” up, or build muscle.

Arnold was also very fond of milk. Just go to any regular supplement store and take a look at the protein powders. You will see that many of them say “whey” protein, “casein”, and other such names. Well, all of these proteins have been obtained from milk!

Dairy is great precisely because of this: it contains whey, which is a fast-releasing protein, and casein, a slow-releasing protein. In other words, if you drink milk after a workout, amino acids are going to be released into the bloodstream immediately, and for hours to come as the casein begins to be broken down by your stomach acid. Thus, your body will be in an anabolic state for many hours without having to eat very much in-between meals.

Dairy is also great because apart from providing the best types of proteins out there, it also provides your body with much-neeed carbohydrates and fat. For this very reason, an authority on body recomposition like Lyle McDonald has been recommending that people take milk as a post-workout drink!

To conclude, these foods are some of the best sources of protein you can get, and should therefore always be taken into account when planning a muscle-building diet.

If you are concerned about some of the health risks involved with these foods, always remember to consult your doctor first, and to eat everything in moderation.

When it comes to muscle building, that incomplete “thing” tends to be the diet made up of foods that are not taken in pill form.

For starters, we should all know by now that no supplement can overcome a horrible diet. If you are not eating enough, specially enough protein, to build muscle then no matter how many supplements you take, you will not gain any muscle mass. Always keep in mind that most, if not all of your muscle, will come from eating foods, not supplements. The latter are just there to cover any weaknesses in your diet.

As such, one of the biggest weaknesses in most muscle building diets is a lack of essential fatty acids, specially of the omega 3 variety. These types of fat are usually found in fish such as salmon and tuna, and in other non-animal foods like flax seeds and avocados.

The problem nowadays is that a lot of the fish on the supermarket shelves is contaminated with mercury, so a lot of wannabe muscleheads avoid eating any type of fish.

This is a problem not only for those who want to build muscle, but for the entire population at large. In the Western world, most individuals tend to consume way more Omega 6 fats than Omega 3 fats. The results are often disastrous: an increase inflammation, soreness, and other unwanted side effects, etc.

If you want to build muscle, then you are going to the gym to lift heavy weights. But you will find out that over time, your joints will get sore from lifting heavy poundages.

What a lot of weighlifters don’t understand is that such soreness can be alleviated through a proper intake of omega 3 fats, which help to reduce inflammation in the body.

Apart from a reduction in inflammation, omega 3 fats have the following benefits:

• Lowers cholesterol.
• Less acne and tendinitis.
• Decreased body fat
• More lean mass
• Improved mood.
• Many, many more…

Omega 3 fats are the apex of good nutrition. There is just no way around them: remember that these are essential fats, so your body needs these fats in order to survive!

Now you know that omega 3 fats are the best nutrient for your muscle building efforts, since they will help you to lift heavier poundages with less pain, and will hep to keep your body in an anabolic state.

If you are scared of eating fish due to the high levels of mercury contained in them, you can opt to take the best muscle building supplement in the world: fish oil!

Most fish oils out there (either in capsule or liquid form) have no mercury in them, and they act as concentrated sources of omega 3 fats. In other words, taking 5 small fish oil capsules is the equivalent of taking 50 or more tuna cans!

If you haven’t included fish oil as your primary muscle building supplement, then you are missing out on the most beneficial nutrient on this planet.

The first and most important principle of a good muscle building workout is progressive tension overload. This is how most strongmen and muscle men of the last century have built their muscle: lift more weight over time!

Every week try to add a few pounds to your best lift. Over time, you will become stronger, and by lifting heavier weights, you will build more muscle, pure and simple.

But what about the ‘pump’, you ask? What about high reps and exhausting a single muscle to death?

This is where a lot of muscleheads go wrong: they begin to build the house from the roof rather than from the base. The pump, high repetitions, getting the ‘feel’ for the muscle are all important but only after you have built a foundation of solid muscle mass.

To build such muscle mass, you need to follow what used to be called ‘power-bodybuilding.’ In other words, a mixture of powerlifting and bodybuilding exercises, which is the ideal way to build both muscle mass and strength at the same time.

The idea of power-bodybuilding is that you begin by lifting heavy weights with low reps (3-5), using the basic compound exercises: squat, deadlift, bench, and press. These exercises will build muscle all over your body, instead of building muscle in isolated body parts.

Once you have built up a strength foundation with these foundational exercises, you can use isolation exercises in high reps to get the desired ‘pump’. Since you have built a foundation of strength with compound exercises, now you are going to be able to lift heavier weights when using isolation exercises, thus building bigger muscles.

But remember to always keep your focus on the basic powerlifting exercises. Bodybuilding legends like Reg Park, who was Arnold’s hero and mentor by the way, swore by the power of these basic compound exercises. If you take a look at the physiques of Reg Park and Franco Columbu, advocates of power-bodybuilding, you will notice that they looked different from other bodybuilders who only used isolation exercises: they looked rugged and dense, similar to the statues of Hercules.

Thus, always keep a weekly journal of the poundages you are lifting in the basic exercises, and make sure that each week you increase the poundages in order to build muscle.

Most men want to gain muscle overnight, but they do not realize that there is not magic pill to achieve this. The reality is that building muscle takes time and dedication, but with the if you follow these tips, you can significantly cut down the time it takes to build muscle.

The most important aspect of muscle building is diet.

The primary aspect of your diet is protein intake. Ideally, you should strive to eat 1-1.5g/lb of body weight. So if you weigh 200 lbs, you should eat 200-300 grams of protein daily.

Protein is the most important nutrient in your muscle building diet because protein is the nutrient that will repair and build your muscles. It is a structural nutrient in that it helps to build and maintain your body structure.

But you also have to pay attention to the energetic nutrients: fat and carbohydrates. With regards to fat intake, you should make sure that you cover your EFAs (essential fatty acids), or omega 3,6 and 9. You can buy EFA supplements at any decent supplement store, along with fish oil to make sure that you cover your omega 3 requirements. The benefits of omega 3 fats cannot be explained in this short article, but if you do not have a proper intake of omega 3s, your muscle building efforts will be hindered.

As for non-essential fats, you should also eat them but in moderation, specially saturated fat. Saturated fat is not as “evil” as we think, and specially when you are building muscle, it will help to give you energy and recover. This is why old-time bodybuilders used to drink milk and eat steak, because the saturated fat content in these foods helped them to recover from their workouts.

Now we turn to the subject of carbohydrates. Lately, carbohydrates have been demonized by blind followers of the Atkins diet and other low-carb diets. Yes, it is true that low-carb diets can work for fat loss, but when it comes to muscle building, you need more carbs than usualy.

Why? Carbohydrates will give you the energy to hoist heavy weights, which will help you to build your muscles. They will also give you the energy to recover from tough workouts, and they will actually help you in turning on the anabolic switch.

If you are afraid of getting fat from carb consumption, you can use something called “carb timing.” Throughout the day, you eat protein and fat, and you only consume carbs before, during, and post-workout. By doing this, your carbs end up going to replenish the glycogen in your muscles, instead of ending up in your midsection!

As for the workouts themselves, you cannot get away from lifting heavy weights. A lot of men want to do high reps, saying this will give them “definition”, but if you want pure, raw, powerful muscle, you have to lift heavy weights at low reps. There is no better way.

When you lift heavy weights, stick to the fundamental lifts: squat, deadlifts, bench, overhead press, and other compound movements. These exercises will release great amounts of testosterone and growth hormone that will help you to build more muscle.

If you don’t believe me, you should take a look at powerlifters when they go on a fat loss diet. Yes, I know you think powerlifters are mostly fat, but if you have ever seen a powerlifter after going on a cutting diet, you will notice that he has more muscle than most bodybuilders out there.

Not only that, you will notice that a powerlifter’s muscle has a thickness and density that cannot be obtained from high-rep, isolation exercises. Take a look at Franco Columbu, for instance, Arnold’s weight lifting partner during the Golden Era of bodybuilding. Franco relied mostly on lifting heavy weights by using powerlifting and strongman exercises, and his muscle was thicker and fuller than most bodybuilders of his era. Of course, he was probably the strongest bodybuilder of his era, even stronger than Arnold!

Of course, this does not mean that you can’t engage in high-rep, isolation exercises, but consider the latter as “sculpting” exercises that put the finishing touches on your muscle.

First build raw, pure muscle mass through heavy powerlifting exercises, and then sculpt and refine that new muscle with high-rep, isolatione exercises.

Talk to most people about dieting, and they mention words like “sacrifice”, “pain”, “self-control”, “strict”, and other words that are synonymous with deprivation.

But dieting should not be all doom and gloom. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Some dieters think that they need to be strict 24/7, that they can never eat cheat foods, or that they can never miss a workout. Dieting is already stressful on its own, so if you add perfectionism to the mix, you will end up going back to the habits that got you fat in the first place.

As a result, we should carefully consider the issue of diet flexibility. Don’t get me wrong: by flexible I don’t mean that you can eat whatever you want! Don’t start eating dozens of donuts, honey buns, and other junk foods, while singing hymns to the joys of flexible dieting! Also, don’t just say “I am bulking, so I can eat whatever I want”. To build muscle, you need to eat more calories than you burn, but if you go overboard, you will be putting on pounds of lard, not muscle.

Dieting is still dieting. Elements of self-control and sacrifice are always present when dieting, even if you are intent on muscle building. But these periods of temperance should be followed by periods of flexibility, where you take a break from your diet, and celebrate the pleasure of eating food.

Flexibility in dieting can be implemented in many ways. For example, you could have a cheat meal once a week. In fact, you could have an entire cheat day if you so desire, where you eat more liberally and take a break from exercising.

I recommend, however, that you don’t go overboard on cheat days. Be more open in your food choices than during your regular days, but don’t eat everything that you see, because this might take you back to bad eating habits.

The purpose of cheat days is not to eat huge quantities of junk food, but rather to take a psychological break from the grind of dieting. By doing this, you will recover your energy, and you will continue your diet with more passion and zest than before.

If you don’t have a cheat day, however, you risk losing all the motivation that you had at the beginning of your diet. Day after day of dieting, hunger, and self-control can take a big toll on the human mind.

In fact, some scientists and philosophers have suggested that willpower is like a battery: if you use it all up, and don’t recharge, you won’t be able to fight temptation.

So it is necessary to have days where you give your willpower a break. When you do this, you are not being weak, but rather you are allowing yourself to recover your strength from the hard work you did over the last six days.

Apart from cheat days, you can also have cheat weeks. As with cheat days, be careful that you don’t engorge yourself during cheat weeks, or you will undo your previous efforts.

But if you do them properly, cheat weeks can be of immense help to your muscle building aspirations. You will be restoring your mental strength, your metabolism, and you will probably feel more energetic than before when you were dieting. With this renewed enthusiasm, you can tackle another cycle of exercising and dieting for muscle building.

In summary, always remember to alternate periods of rigid dieting with flexible dieting. Don’t be dieting strictly all the time without taking any breaks, because sooner or later you will take a break, and you won’t like it!

The human mind and body were not made for 24/7, 365 days a year dieting. Give yourself the break you deserve, and you will see greater success with your muscle building efforts.