8 Rules for Ultimate Muscle Mass

1) Master recovery, master growth. Eat the right foods during a mass cycle. Without the proper food, you won’t be able to lift heavy enough to make gains and you won’t recover quickly or as completely. Plenty of protein and complex carbohydrates along with the right supplements can help you speed your gains.

2) Get Psyched. Be aggressive and don’t be afraid to make a little noise. On my way to the gym, I psych myself up. I think about the weight I want to handle and during training, I make a lot of noise.

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3) Observe proper form. Powerlifters aren’t concerned with muscle stimulation; they just want to complete the lift. I see a lot of people training just to complete a set, trying to gain mass but forgetting their form. That won’t help

4) Don’t count reps. You should know generally how many reps you’re going for because of the relationship between weight and reps. I usually pyramid up in weight to a six rep set. But if I feel I can do more, I will. Never lock yourself into a number you’ve written in a journal somewhere and artificially stop a set at that number.

5) Train with focus and intensity. Free weights will always be the best way to add mass, but what’s more important is the way you work your muscle during each set. You should train intensely, regardless of whether you’re using machines, cables, barbells or dumbbells. My sessions rarely last longer than 45-60 minutes because I can maintain a high level of intensity for about that long. Don’t kid yourself into thinking you can go two hours full bore.

6) Vary your tactics. I usually stick to one program for about six weeks. There’s no single program that will work forever. It’s the combination of programs over time that adds the most quality muscle.

7) Don’t lighten up. A lot of guys like to use lighter weights and higher reps around contest time, but I don’t agree with that approach. I say you should always train as heavy as possible. That keeps your muscle density up for a competition. In my off season, I rarely go to absolute failure, and precontest I add more intensity techniques and shorter rest periods. That’s it.

Get advanced. Advanced techniques can help you get the most out of these mass building exercises. Drop sets and forced reps are my personal favorites, but I also like to use supersets or one and a half schemes. Using the bench press as an example with this technique, you complete one rep through the full range of motion, followed by a partial rep through the bottom half. This constitutes one rep in a one and a half rep scheme, so it’s really a combination of full range and partial movements in a given set.