Here Are 10 Workout Tips For Men To Help You Build Muscle And Get The Body You Want

man with muscles working out

Are you ready to get muscular before the summer? Maybe lose some fat while building a beach-ready body?

The good news is, there’s still enough time before summer to build the body you want. It just takes a smart plan and consistent work in the gym.

Of course, adhering to wise nutrition tips is half the battle. But in this article, we’re revealing how to use the gym to sculpt the body you want.

So what does your workout plan need to look like?

Keep reading to discover our 10 best workout tips for men to help you build muscle and get the body you want. We’re focusing on working smart to make the most of your time in the gym.

1. Fuel Your Body

To push your body to the level necessary to build muscle, you have to fuel your body properly, both before and after your workout.

We recommend eating slow digesting carbs, such as brown rice, oatmeal or pasta one to two hours before working out. These fuel sources can provide energy throughout your workout while you’re throwing around massive weights.

Balance your slow-digesting carb with a fast-digesting carb right before you begin to exercise to give you a quick energy boost to start your workout strong. Fast digesting carbs include oranges, bananas, and apples for rapid nutrients and energy.

After your workout, it is wise to refuel your glycogen stores and provide your body with enough protein to stimulate protein synthesis and facilitate muscle growth. Generally, that means 20-30 grams of lean protein, such as chicken or fish, and 30-40 grams of healthy carbohydrates, like yogurt, fruit and brown rice. 

2. Use Free Weights Only

Tempting as they may be, machine weights will rarely help you build a strong muscle foundation. Most machines are effective for sculpting and toning once you have already built considerable muscle. 

But to really pack on muscle, free weights are the name of the game. Keep it simple and stick to barbells and dumbbells. Your future self will thank you.

The only exception to this rule is to do pull-ups, which help to add serious upper body muscle.

3. Do Compound Exercises

If you want to work smart and maximize your gym time for the best possible results, then do compound exercises at least 75% of your time. Compound exercises are movements that workout two or more muscle groups simultaneously. 

For example, a machine leg extension will primarily work out your quadriceps only. But squats with free weights will work out your quadriceps and your hamstrings. Along the same lines, the bench press works your shoulders, chest, and triceps.

4. Lift Heavy Weights for Growth

Pushing heavier weights for lower reps will induce more muscle growth than lower weight for higher reps. You need that extra load to exhaust your muscles which leads to muscle repair and growth.

Arnold Schwarzenegger encourages pushing as much weight as you can between six reps and 12 reps. If you can’t do six reps, you probably are using too much weight. If you can easily do more than 12 reps, you need to increase the weight.

5. Add More Weight over Time

Keep a written record of your workouts so you can track your weights, sets, and reps. If you want to make sure your muscles grow, have a goal of increasing the weight you push, preferably every two weeks. You will increase your strength and your muscular gains.

Of course, you should only increase weight after you completely master the form for each exercise. 

6. Train Your Whole Body Twice a Week

Probably the most common workout regimen is to train each muscle once throughout the week. This will help you maintain your muscle and perhaps even gain a little muscle for the vast majority of the population.

But this article is about gaining significant muscle. And to produce head-turning results, you will need to work out your entire body at least twice per week.

Rest is important too, so how do you fit in twice-a-week full body workouts while still allowing for rest time? Here’s a classic workout split we recommend.

  1. Monday: Upper Body
  2. Tuesday: Lower Body
  3. Wednesday: Off
  4. Thursday: Upper Body
  5. Friday: Lower Body
  6. Saturday: Off
  7. Sunday: Off

With this workout schedule, you’re getting in a lot of work over four days and giving your body three more days to rest, recuperate, and build muscle.

7. Don’t Do Reps Until Failure

In years past, the common wisdom was to complete as many reps until your muscles fail and you couldn’t do another rep.

But many experts now recommend stopping just before muscle failure and stopping a set one to two reps before failure.

Why? 

For one, you’ve got an entire workout to complete. If your muscles reach failure on your first set, you won’t have enough strength left over to properly train your other muscles throughout your workout.

Secondly, going to failure increases your recovery period. You want to push your muscles well past their comfort level, but stop just shy of failure so you can recover quicker and get back in the gym sooner.

Lastly, you will be so sore it will make it hard for you to walk and get into your clothes. Read more here about clothing style tips for bodybuilders.

8. Use the Correct Form

Be careful to use the proper form for each exercise. Maintain the correct form for every rep of every set.

Bad form will limit your results. If you’re going to commit to going to the gym and working out with maximum effort, you would hate to waste your efforts due to poor form.

Besides, throwing around weights with incorrect form is more likely to lead to injury than muscle gains. 

9. Change Your Workout Periodically

If you go more than two weeks without being able to increase the weight you are using, it likely means you are at a plateau. This simply means your strength is not increasing and your muscle gains are stagnant as a result.

Plateaus happen to everyone. The best way to overcome them is to switch up your routine. You can change the order of your movements or even change the exercises themselves. You can do supersets or change the number of sets and reps you are doing.

Be creative, have fun with your workouts and embrace the change. It will help kill the boredom of doing the same routine over and over. More importantly, changing up your workouts helps push you over the top and back on the road to strength and muscle gains.

10. Remember to Rest

Few things are as important to muscle growth as sleep. Make sure you get at least eight hours of sleep every night for maximum muscle repair and growth. The best workouts won’t matter much if you don’t allow the rest time for recuperation and muscle gains.

Rest also helps to guard against overtraining. We just talked about switching up your routine to bust through a plateau. If that doesn’t work, take a look at your rest habits. 

You may find that taking a week off from working out a stagnant muscle group may help them completely heal and then blast through your plateau.

Final Thoughts on Our Workout Tips for Men

One of the best workout tips for men is to commit yourself. You can achieve all the tips above only if you are completely committed to yourself and your goals. 

Write out your workout and your schedule and stick to it. Consistency is the name of the game here, and it will facilitate the muscle growth you can be proud of.

If you found this article helpful, please check out our 10 simple tips on how to look more attractive now.

Author: IzzyWeb