Power Mass Training for Building Muscle Mass

Many people believe you need to train with a variety of weights and reps in order to maximize your muscle building progress. I believe that you can find the appropriate rep number for your muscles and it is best to stick with that range most of the time.

However, in weight lifting, the mental aspect of bodybuilding is also extremely important. And some people will get more out of their workout when their training includes some variety and they are always feeling fresh and challenged. After all, it doesn't matter that your weight training routine is perfect if you get bored with it and stop training.

With the power mass bodybuilding weight lifting program, it is very important to keep a training log. You need to keep track of you weight lifting exercises, weights and reps you perform at each workout. Your goal during this weightlifting program will be to increase either the weight you use or the number of reps you perform - every workout, or at least every other workout, for the length of the program.

If you're a newsletter subscriber (if not, I suggest you become one - see below for a free ebook), you know that I stress the importance of recuperation. If you overtrain, you won't get stronger, or bigger, and your training progress will cease.

Since overtraining varies from person to person, it's extremely important to keep track of everything in your weight lifting program so that you can make appropriate and systematic changes so you reach your muscle building goals.

Some people can work each muscle group two times a week and make great progress, while others do best with one workout per week. And this changes as you go from a beginner weight lifter, to an advanced one.

As you get stronger, you need more time to recover from the stresses you place on your body in your weightlifting workouts. When you start out, you may be able to work each muscle group three times per week. Eventually, in order to keep making progress, you might be able to work each muscle group only once per week.

The idea of a power mass weight lifting routine is to focus on a compound exercise for each muscle group. Such weight lifting exercises include the following:

* Bench Press

* Squat

* One Arm Dumbbell Row

* Deadlift

* Dumbbell Upright Row

* Dip

Then you follow the compound weight training exercises with isolation movements such as flyes for chest, lateral raises for shoulders or machine pullovers for the back.

In this power mass weight lifting routine, you perform the compound exercises first, for low reps, and then perform the isolation movements for higher reps.

For the compound movements, make sure to warm up properly. Your rep scheme should include these sets. For example, you might do five sets of the following rep scheme - 15, 8, 6, 4, 3. The first two sets of this weightlifting program should be light, and only used to warm the muscle and prepare yourself mentally for the final three sets, which are much heavier.

On the isolation movements, keep the reps in the 8 - 12 range for a couple of sets.

Keep in mind that a weight training program is the best way to build muscle mass but it's also the best way to lose fat, completely change the shape of your body, and keep the fat off. Weight lifting is much more effective for fat loss than aerobics or dieting alone.

Gregg Gillies

Gregg Gillies is the founder of http://www.buildleanmuscle.com. He has contributed articles to Ironman Magazine and is a regular contributor to Body Talk Magazine. He has written two books, available at his site. You can also get a free copy of his new ebook, Fast Mass at Build Muscle with Fast Mass