A body part worked properly – as in worked to complete muscular failure, with as many muscle fibers as physiologically possible recruited – will take 5 – 10 days to completely heal and grow. You also have to take into account that lifting in general puts a large strain on your central nervous system to recover.

For example, after an intense leg day, it’s very hard on your body to jump right into an intense arms day the very next day, because it’s still recovering from the leg day.

The bottom-line is, learn fast to make rest and sleep an important part of your overall workout. Rest is just as important as the actual workout itself. As a rule of thumb, it’s a good idea to spend as many days out of the gym, as you do in it.

On that note, if you’re feeling run down from your previous workout, feel free to take off a day from the gym to recover. Even a week off every once in a while is the good idea, to completely heal up all of your muscle fibers and your central nervous system..

In fact, research has shown that it’s possible to completely fatigue a muscle in only one set, granted that the set taxes the muscle completely. You need to engage as many muscle fibers as possible and take them to the point of ischemic rigor.

That is, rather then contract and relax, the muscle fibers freeze up, a microscopic version of rigor mortis. Any further contraction causes microscopic tearing. Muscle growth is just one adaptation to that kind of stress and naturally the kind most bodybuilders are interested in: growth.

That kind of intensity can usually be achieved by doing a drop or breakdown set. Drop, or breakdown sets are when you rep out the weight you’re using, lower the weight, rep out again, lower the weight and continue this pattern until you can’t complete another rep.

By pushing your normal energy level and pain threshold further, you can truly work your muscle to absolute failure. If you can get to this type of intensity, another set will give you very little, if any benefit.

Try to keep your lifting sessions under an hour or less, to get the maximum benefits. This will help boost gains, so get ready for some growth!

The following is a breakdown of recommended sets and reps, depending on what you’re after. It’s also a good idea to switch up your workouts every few months or so, to incorporate muscle confusion into your muscle building strategies, so switching between them is a great idea to keep your workouts fresh.

Muscle Gain: Generally, a moderate number of sets and reps per exercise lead to the quickest gains in pure size, which is what most of us are all after. Using lower reps builds strength and increases the size of proteins inside your muscle fibers, while higher reps increases the fluid inside the muscle itself.

For maximum size, you’ll need to take advantage of both adaptations. Generally speaking, between 3-6 sets of 6-12 reps per exercise tends to work best. A good pyramid to follow is: 12, 10, 8, 6. That is, 12 reps, followed by a set of 10, 8, 6 and then finally 4.

Fat Loss: Although their are many ways to design a fat-loss program, the volume in your lifting workouts can be altered to help achieve some additional weight loss.The number of sets and reps can be made high to burn lots of calories or low to maintain muscle mass while cutting calories from your diet.

Sets are usually kept lower then 4 or fewer per exercise. In fact, performing a circuit of several exercises in-a-row, for just one or two sets is highly recommended. That way, you can train the whole body in a fast, time-efficient fat burning workout that gets your heart and muscles pumping.

Strength Gain: Using heavier weight means lower reps, which equals strength. Think power lifters one rep maxing on the clean and press. By keeping your reps low, you can perform a large number of sets (which also increases size).

Although, with more extreme loads, you won’t be able to recover from multiple sets, so a lower number is more suitable. Try 3-5 sets of five reps or fewer per exercise.

All of these types of volume are great to use, and it’s a good idea to switch up your strategy every-so-often, to keep gaining the most muscle mass.

A common training mistake when lifting calves is bouncing at the bottom of a calf raise, instead, take two seconds to lower your heels and then pause in the fully stretched position for at least two seconds.

This offsets the tightness that results from walking, stretching your calves, resulting in loosing up and gaining more mass. Another mistake a lot of lifters get accustomed to doing is locking out their knees, which results in the calf muscle crossing the knee joint.

Failing to bend your knees on the way down prevents it from fully stretching, which is also vital in acquiring more size. From now on, keep a slight knee bend as you lower your heels into the bottom position, then explode upward, locking out your knees in the top position.

* Keeping A Training Log – Only by utilizing a bodybuilding diary can you objectively and accurately assess your progress, isolate trouble spots and devise actual solutions to your problems.

Be sure to list every workout — exercises, sets, reps and weight. Include other cogent facts such as personal bests in weight lifted or reps completed, as well as how you felt that day, your main meals and so on.

* Keep Track of your Bodyweight – Check your bodyweight once a week on the same scale and at the same time — ideally, in the morning before you eat — on the same day. During a mass building program, a realistic weight gain is 1-2 pounds per week.

Any more than that and the increase may be in the form of fat. By recording your bodyweight consistently, you’ll get an accurate read on whether you’re hitting your goals.

* Know your Routine – Always plan your workout in advance so you’re mentally prepared for the training session. Knowing which muscle group (or groups) you’ll hit, the exercises you’ll use, and the set and rep ranges you’ll employ will put you on the fast track to muscle growth.

* If you’re interested in keeping track of your progress, it’d be a great idea to register an account on Swole Fitness. We offer you progress photo uploads, the ability to keep your own training blog and profile, as well as additional features throughout the site. Check it out now!

Make sure to check them all out and maybe even throw a few of the strategies together. Enjoy!

Go High and Low:
When you train high/low, you either alternate high-rep (12-20) sets of an exercise with low-rep (four to eight) sets of the same exercise, or you do all high-rep sets of one exercise followed by all low-rep sets of the next, switching back and forth throughout your workout. Use this technique occasionally to alter your rep pattern.

Take a Stand:
Some exercises can be performed standing or seated, and both methods |Have advantages, yet most trainers choose the seated versions. Jay Cutler, for one, likes to do shoulder presses standing to receive additional core work and incorporate momentum to cheat a few final reps.

Do Strong Man Cardio:
Add a farmer’s walk to your cardio regimen. Hold moderate to heavy dumbbells at your sides with your abs pulled and take long strides, walking until you can no longer grip the dumbbells.

Rest 90 seconds each time you fail and then go again, striding for 10-20 minutes total. This gives you the calorie burning of cardio while increasing your grip and core strength, which is important for lifting big weights.

Make and Break Personal Bests:
Consistently beating your previous bests is the best way to increase not just strength, but also size, and keeping a workout logbook allows you to focus on precise strength goals each time you enter the gym. Throughout his Olympia reign, Dorian Yates logged his workouts, to help him keep progressing.

Hit up your Traps:
Your trapezius is a relatively large muscle, so treat it accordingly. It gets work during compound exercises, like deadlifts, upright rows and shoulder presses, so it may not require a plethora of isolation lifts, but, even if you do just four sets of dumbbell shrugs, always think of it as a trapezius workout, deserving your full focus and maximum intensity, instead of as merely a few sets you throw in after delts.

Stretch Till It Hurts:
It is believed that static stretches of 60-90 seconds performed in a deep (and moderately painful) position soon after training a bodypart will boost flexibility and recovery, and may also lead directly to greater muscle size via fascia expansion.

Incorporate Rest-Pause:
Rest-pause is a neglected technique for pushing your sets beyond failure. When you can’t get another rep, set the weight down or hold it in a resting position just long enough to regain a limited amount of strength (about 10-25 seconds).

Then bang out another two to four reps until you reach failure again. Repeat this pattern a second time, getting one or two additional reps. This will help bust through any plateaus you may be experiencing and may even ignite some new muscle gains.

* Use proper form – To develop precise technique, do every rep with good form. Beginners, strive to keep the rep target inside your strength capabilities. Find the right groove for each exercise. Don’t train to failure when you’re just starting out.

* Develop the mind-muscle connection – Research confirms that tuning in to the mind-muscle connection can optimize your results in the gym. Visualize your target muscle growing as you complete every rep.

Remember, it’s not the amount of weight on the bar that’s important; it’s the effect of that weight on the muscle that leads to increases in the size and power you’re after.

This has a lot to do with how your thinking and what you’re focused on. Instead of focusing on your day, or the blonde next to you, strive to get into a muscle-building mindset to help increase gains.

* Start Basic – Most workouts for your major body parts should start with basic, multi-joint exercises that allow you to lift more weight overall, such as the bench press for chest, overhead press for delts, barbell row for back and squat for legs.

This will allow you to lift heavier on these exercises, while you’re still fresh and have enough energy to better stimulate muscle growth.

* Get the Tunes Cranking – Listening to your favorite music while you train can make a world of difference in your strength, research continues to confirm.

Use a portable MP3 player and make sure your play list is stacked with plenty of music that gets you pumped up for your workout. Heavy metal works wonders for those intense back days. You can check out our workout playlists for some ideas on some new music.

* Utilize Forced Reps – Forced reps are a way to extend a set and maintain intensity beyond failure. When you reach initial failure in a set, have your training partner give you just enough assistance to help you through 2-3 more reps.

By prolonging the set past the normal point of failure, you optimize the stress placed on the muscle fibers and therefore overload the targeted muscles. Attempt forced reps during only your last set of a particular exercise, since they’ll completely burn you out. Research confirms that forced reps lead to greater GH levels and enhance fat loss.

This adjustment allows you to handle very heavy weights without having to use a lot of energy lifting the bar off the floor. It also helps spare the extra stress placed on your lower back, which is a big plus.

Lift the bar off the rack with an overhand grip, about shoulder width apart and stand upright holding it with your arms fully extended. Raise your shoulders as high as you can, as if you are trying to touch them to your ears.

Remember not to use any pulling action with your arms, whatsoever. Keep them straight. Hold yourself in the peak position for a moment and then lower the bar under strict control back to the start­ing position. You’ve com­pleted your first rep on the road to huge trap development.

The down side is that you’ve got several hun­dred more reps to do before your massive size shows, so get yourself back in the gym and keep training hard!

Stretching of any kind (getting into a static stretched position and holding it, or moving fluidly in and out of position, also called dynamic stretching), using a foam roller, and getting massages will all help keep your flexibility, prevent injury and improve recovery between workouts.

It’s also a good idea to get loose before your workout, as well as wind down with a few stretches of the body part you’ve been lifting hard that day.

2. Get Your Food Frequently

You should be allotting enough time to devour 5 – 6 small to mid-size meals a day. As long as you’re eating clean, quality meals—especially protein and carbs—you will have the calories to build muscle, as well as the metabolism boost you get from eating so often, to lose fat.

3. Start to Get Some Extra Grub

Start out by reading the usual food labels you usually eat everyday, to see how many calories you have been getting. Then add 500-750 to that number and begin to eat that many calories per day.

In addition, strive to take in right around one gram of protein per body weight, each day. For example, the average 200 pound male would need upwards of 200 grams of protein a day. Weighting on the upside of that number is always best.

4. Drink Protein Shakes Regularly

By surrounding your workouts with nutrition, starting with a high carbohydrate and protein meal about an hour before, you’ll provide your body with vital muscle building nutrients to help provide energy during your actual workout.

You can also put together a protein shake that has a ratio of about two grams of carbs for every one gram of protein, and drink that throughout your workout. Keep in mind that after your workout is a solid time to take another shake. Surprisingly, whole foods aren’t best right after a workout, because they take far too long to digest.

5. Lay off on the Cardio Sessions

Up to 2 days a week of light jogging on the treadmill is a fairly ideal workout for cardio, but make sure to keep it right around 30 minutes per session. To burn fat while sparing muscle, it’s in your best interest to perform intervals—for example, running all-out for a minute, then backing off and doing a light jog for two minutes, continuing this trend for a full 30 minute session, for 3 days a week.

6. Skip a Few Sets

Most lifters who are just starting out tend to overwork their muscles by completely too many sets overall. Aim to do no more then 20 sets per muscle group a workout, even closer to 12 is even better. Your reps should be between 6 and 12 for each set, for the most muscle growth.

Most workouts lasting more then an hour aren’t ideal, try to keep it around 45 minutes per workout. Since you’ll be holding off on high volume, plan to use heavier weights and move through each rep with a consistent speed to stimulate more growth.

Your sets should last between 40 – 60 seconds, to tense the muscles long enough, and work them efficiently to shock them into growing.

7. Switch It Up Entirely

Every 4 to 6 weeks, you’ll need to switch up some part of your routine, whether it’s simply the number of reps you do per set, the exercises you perform, the amount of rest you get between each set or any other training variable. Keeping a workout journal will help you keep track of your changes and record your progress.

8. Try a Full-Body or Split Workout Regimen

By either training the whole body in a single workout, or concentrating only on the upper body for one sessions and the lower body in another, you’ll get the best results, especially just starting out.

Although there are different advantages to both setups, each of them are more efficient then trying to isolate one muscle group in a single session. Focus on lifts that involve the most muscles at one time, such as dead lifts, presses, squats, rows, and pull-ups, for the biggest mass gains

9. Train Your Entire Body

By involving more muscles, either in one training session or one exercise, you’ll release a higher amount of hormones, which will help stimulate muscle growth all day. When you hit each muscle group with roughly the same volume, this will guarantee balanced training, allowing you to grow and progress quickly, preserving flexibility as well as avoiding injuries.

10. Rest, Recover and Relax

Although the ideal amount of sleep is seven to eight hours per night, we sometimes have prior engagements. Feel free to not be so strict a few times a week, but when you do, make sure to schedule in some time to make up for it as soon as you can.

By training no more then 4 times a week, you also allow your body the rest and recovery time it desperately needs. As for your work schedule, do whatever you can to avoid excess stress and anxiety. Chronic nervousness elevates cortisol, a hormone that makes your body store fat and burn muscle, which is definitely not an ideal side effect.

A largely universal question everyone seems to ask is: How can I get bigger arms? Well, we get a lot of emails asking for this type of thing on a daily basis, asking if we can suggest a routine to build up arm muscles and strength ASAP, so here’s a routine that’ll have you hunting down bigger shirts in no time flat.

First off we need to start with a little bit of truth here; it’s a proven fact that more than 90% of real, dedicated gym rats are over training. If you’re one of those guys who are spending hours working out hard every day, then chances are, you’re overtraining, and treating the gym more as a hobby then anything else.

If that’s the case, nothing’s going to alter the shape of your muscles until you’ve given your body a break. So, take a deep breath and prepare yourself: for the next two weeks, stay out of the gym. That’s right, two full weeks. If you’re serious about adding on new size, you’re going to need to get your muscles fully recovered.

That means no strength training at all for that time. Take this time to get lean and nail all of your meals. It’ll be worth it once you see the drastic changes you can make, when your muscles are fully recovered.

Ok, so on with the arm busting routine, which is designed to add the most muscle mass to your triceps, biceps and forearms, all within three workouts after your two-weeks off.

Biceps – Sitting Curls: While you’re seated on a bench, have your barbell resting in your lap. When you’re ready, with a shoulder width underhand grip, lift and curl upwards as far as your chin.

Because you’re sitting, you’ll be able to lift more weight than you would in standing, so make sure your weights are heavy enough that you can’t do more than 8 reps.

Now, do a set of 8 reps, then rest for thirty seconds. Increase the weight you’re lifting by 10% and go at it again, doing as many reps as possible, to increase your intensity. Do your best to go past your normal threshold for pain and grind out a few extra reps.

Triceps – Close Grip Bench Presses: This exercise is specifically designed to trigger new growth in your triceps and the most important part of it is the heaviness of the weights, not the range of movement.

For that reason, you should limit yourself to the top third of your personal range of motion. You’ll find it much easier to use a power rack or Smith apparatus to perform this exercise.

Start by gripping the bar with your hands evenly spaced and six inches apart. Contract your triceps and lift the weights off the rack to until your arm is fully extended. Again, use enough weight to ensure that you can’t do more than 8 reps.

Like the first routine, your range of motion is restricted in this position so you can achieve a lift of around 50% more weight than you would in other stances. This will ultimately boost strength and muscle gains.

Do one set of eight reps then rest for thirty seconds before increasing the weight by 10%. Now perform as many reps as you possibly can to rep out completely. Again, go past your normal threshold for pain and grind out as many reps as you can.

Forearms – Two Exercises

Sitting Wrist Curls: This move is performed in the same sitting position as the bicep curls above. Grab a seat on a bench and take an underhand grip on your barbell while resting your wrists on your knees. Your hands should be extended beyond your knees. Now permit the weight of your bar to force your wrist down towards the floor. Using your forearm muscles, lift the weight back up.

Do one set of eight reps, then rest for thirty seconds before increasing the weight by 10% and again, now do as many reps as you can till you’ve completely exhausted your forearms.

Behind-the-Back Wrist Curls: For this exercise, hold the barbell behind your back keeping the palm of your hand facing backwards. This is easiest if you have a buddy pass you your weights or have them on a rack behind you.

With the bar hanging downward and your wrist relaxed, using your forearms muscles, bring the weight up by bending your wrists. You may think you can’t do much weight for this one but trust me; you can, so go for the heaviest weight you can manage.

The range of movement/motion isn’t as important as the heaviness of the weights, which will promote the muscle growth.

As with the other exercises, do one set of 8 reps then rest for thirty seconds before increasing your weights by 10%. Now do as many reps as you can manage again until your forearms feel like their on first and you can’t possibly do another curl.

Every time you do these four exercises, try to increase the weight by 15 to 25%. You’re only going to see progress if you add to the weight often because this is what powers new muscle growth and development: heaviness.

Do the above routine three times, over the next twelve days, but don’t do any other arm exercises/training while you’re doing this routine. Feel free to still train your other muscle groups and you can still perform low intensity cardio during this time.

If it’s done right though, no matter how big your arms are, they’re going to be bigger after twelve days! Guaranteed!