Ok? here we go.

In order to add muscle tissue you must force the body to add it. Your body won't just add a pound of muscle just because you followed a 3-set workout that you read about in Muscle + Fitness. You need to give the body a reason to make improvements ? in this case add muscle tissue.

You have to provide what I call a "stimulus". This can be done in many ways and I'll address a few in just a moment. Basically, you need to force the body to add muscle by subjecting it to levels of stress it is not used to. Some methods are more obvious than others but all can work. Here are a few examples of how this can be done effectively.

First, the basic and common methods:

Now for the more advanced methods:

These are just a few examples of methods of increasing intensity to ensure progress. The key point to remember is that whatever you do it must be progressive in order for it to elicit a physical change. This is even more critical for those looking to add muscle size.

Although this article is geared towards individuals who are interested in gaining muscle size, the principles can also be used for individuals who want to build strength, increase metabolism, or tighten and tone muscles.

Here are some general recommendations for different goals?

If your goal is to tighten and tone muscles:

• Focus on increasing reps, decreasing rest, and changing exercises frequently

• Train each muscle group twice per week

• Perform fewer sets of many different exercises (1-2 sets per exercise)

If your goal is to increase strength and power:

• Focus on increasing weight

• Train each muscle group once every 7-10 days

• Perform multiple sets of each exercise (2-5 sets per exercise)

If your goal is to increase muscle size:

• Focus on shocking muscles by changing variables frequently (exercises, set and rep schemes, rest time, etc)

• Train each muscle group on a variable schedule (experiment by training a muscle group 3 times a week and then once every ten days)

• Perform multiple sets for a while and the perform single sets for a week or two

Some final reminders:

The recommendations above are general and of course would need to be adapted and adjusted for your personal goals and experience. For those of you who are advanced and may be thinking there's no way you can build strength by training once every 10 days I challenge you to try it for at least 4 weeks, or those of you who think that you need to stick to the same basic movements like bench to build size I challenge you to try shocking the muscles by changing the exercises you perform each week for 4 weeks, and those of you with little experience I hope that you'll throw away the fitness magazines and learn what really works.

There are some great books on these subjects and for those of you who are serious about strength training I personally recommend you check out the books "APEX" and "No Turning Back" by Brian Johnston. You can find them online at www.iart.com

If you have any questions about the techniques described in this article please feel free to contact me. You can email me at jesse@achieve-fitness.com

I wish you the best!

About The Author

Jesse Cannone is a certified personal trainer, nutritionist, and best-selling fitness author. Sign up to receive his free email course, Muscle Building Tips which is full of powerful tips and techniques for maximizing strength and size. http://www.seriousstrengthtraining.com

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