Video of the standing bicep curl. Don’t rock your body. Nice even reps. NO swinging the weight around. Moderate weight so that you can do 8 to 15 reps. Do 2 to 3 sets. Don’t overdue it because the bicep is a small muscle which also gets used during other compound movements. Slowing down will actually make this exercise or just about any exercise harder.

As a hardgainer if you expect to gain a significant amount of muscle weight you will often have to put on a bit of fat in order to make progress. In large part overeating will make up for bad genetics. That is, you may not have the best muscle building genetics in the world but if you give the body enough food and nutrients it’ll be gaining weight and muscle size regardless of what else you do. Heck, even obese people gain muscle without exercise. If you aren’t gaining weight then you need to slam down more calories. Calories will make you gain mass, this is fundamental to weight gain. Period. If you eat enough calories your stubborn arms can’t help but grow. Eating is actually just as if not more anabolic then training.

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If you have previously attempted weight gain for women or men with no success, ask yourself if you were paying enough attention to diet and nutrition. You could have been pushing yourself in the gym but if you neglected this component of the weight gain program you will not see the desired results you were expecting. When you push yourself hard in the gym your muscle demand the nutrients for recovery and muscle growth, moreso then a sedantary person. So if you are not eating enough protein and consuming high calorie foods, all the hours in the gym will go to waste.

At the start of the article I mentioned the fact that you should expect to gain a bit of fat when gaining weight. This is not a problem at all. In addition to gaining some fat, you will also be gaining muscle, so the ratio of muscle to fat will make the fat you have gained barely noticeable. But if you wish to minimize how much fat you put on then you need to realize that there are good calories and bad calories. Avoid the bad calories in your diet – it’s better for your health and will enable to maximize muscle gains whilst minimize fat gains. When on a weight gain diet you don’t want to be stuffing yourself with junk food just so you can put on a few weight. If you wish to minimize the fat you put on in your quest for gaining weight and building a better physique, then you need to be sensible in the kitchen and when dining out and make sure you eat the right foods. Most of the microwave dinners and other junk you see in the supermarket isles will not cut it. Get creative in the kitchen and cook your own tasty healthful meals which are packed with protein, complex carbs and some healthy fats.

The speed in which you execute a certain movement refers to term tempo or rep speed. The tempo being used can determine the after effect the lift has on the muscle group. The movement can be of two things when you lift a weight. It can be mere work that tires out the muscle or it can be a means of stimulating more muscle mass. The main difference between these two movements is the rep speed. For now, we’ll concentrate our interest in the dangers of what tempo you use during your workouts.

When you are simply just working out and not training for muscle growth is when your main interest is satisfying your ego of lifting a heavy weight, or even finishing a particular number of repetitions for a given set. This type of training is dangerous as poor form while working out can cause a lot of injuries to your muscle tissue and connective joints. Poor form during exercise includes, swinging, jerking the weight around, using body momentum to get the weight up any way you can.
And last but not least, let’s get down to the training aspect of applying rep speed to your exercises. You might not think it, but it’s important to know how you apply rep speed to your exercises as it can determine whether or not you meet your goals that you are seeking out. If you want to train for power and strength, then you want to generally apply an explosive type of rep speed. Let’s take the bench press for example. When you are in position to go down with the weight, you want to go down with the weight in a controlled and slow manner. And then once you touch your chest, push the weight back up in a explosive manner.

To be more specific, we can use a time ratio for your workouts. For the example I have just set, you can use the ratio 3:0:1. The first number 3 represents the number of seconds it takes for you to go down. The number 0 represents the number of seconds when you touch your chest. And the last number represents the number of seconds it takes for you to push the weight back up. As you can see, applying the right tempo for your exercises is very important when going about achieving your goals.

So let’s say you want to apply a ratio that promotes size while bench pressing. You can use the ratio 2:0:2, or even 2:0:3. The concept of it is the slower you go while repping out, the more muscle fibers you’ll contract which will result in more damage to the fast twitch muscle fibers. At the same time, you have to pay attention to how much weight you’re using. That general way of thinking or saying does not always result in muscle mass, as you still need to apply a certain stimulus to your muscle when trying to gain muscle mass. As training for power also results in muscle size. Finding the fine line of gaining muscle size and strength is not something you can figure out on the first workout. It will take a lot of trial and error as you find out soon within your training.

The workout principles I will give you in this article will be mostly for maintenance and possibly some slight improvements in strength depending on how much endurance training you do.

Notice how I said principles, I am not going to give direct workout plans here no matter how much people love to have everything laid out for them because I do not feel that they will realize the true benefit. Everyone needs to put in some mental energy into planning the training as well as doing it. If you’re not interested in investing some time to planning or learning and feeling what’s best for you then you should just forget it. Go back to the couch and be the potato (or rather vegetable) that you are.


First, you are not to be competitive with your resistance training. This means that you should not bring your bodybuilder buddy along and try to keep up with his poundage’s, It just won’t happen! If you were to bring your bodybuilder friend along than try and do 2-3 times as many reps as him while ignoring the weight quantity used.

Second, keep your rest between sets to a minimum. This means 2 min. rest maximum. Don’t kid yourself, I hear guys all the time boast how they only take 30 sec. rest between sets yet I see them talking and chatting and taking there sweet ol’ time. If you think you are taking 30 sec. rest than you will not be able to talk to anyone! The rest periods will fly by, so be true.

Third, form, form, and more form. Stick to exercises that utilize multiple muscle groups at first, and then go into exercises that will focus on muscle gorups you want to develop the most. Above all, remember to keep in superior form while performing your resistance exercises. You pound yourself enough with 10 plus hours a week training endurance, no need to chance an injury through stupidity. Some signs of bad form are swinging to get the weight up, over arching the back, swaying the body forcefully, being unbalanced, and tiring muscles other than the ones that are supposed to be in use.


Fourth, a good way to save time and get in proper training is through a circuit training routine. Start with a general warm-up and stretch. Place the proper weights that you will need within reach. Plan out about ten exercises training the entire body with similar body parts spaced apart. Begin the circuit with your first exercise and go until your last without stopping. Rest for a couple of minutes then complete another circuit. Do not go over 40 min. and be sure to warm down and stretch afterward.

Lastly, vary your workouts over a three week period. Start with the first week at a somewhat stimulating level. Then increase the intensity on the second week, while on the third week drop the intensity to below the first week. Start the fourth week at a level a little above the first and repeat the cycle. Always make sure that you have at least one week easy per month to ensure that you are not overtraining which can lead to injury.

Deciding on the amount of repetitions that you do depends upon what you are trying to accomplish.

Do you want to gain muscle mass?

If you want to gain muscle mass you should be doing 6-10 repetitions at 70-80% of your maximum weight. Find out what your maximum weight is by doing a given exercise at your one repetition maximum. Your one rep maximum weight can be determined by doing an exercise with the maximum weight that you can handle safely for one repetition. Take this one rep maximum weight and multiply the amount by 70-80% to get your workout weight. If you are just beginning a weight training program start out with light weights and work yourself up to heavier weights. You don’t want to get really sore by lifting more than you are safely able to. Take 60-90 seconds between exercises in each set.

Do you want to have more endurance? Are you lifting weights for your general health and muscle tone?

If you are lifting weights for general health, muscle tone and endurance you should be doing 8 to 15 reps for an exercise. This increases the ability of the muscle to perform longer.