A Full Body Workout Routine For Rapid Muscle Gains

If you've struggled to build muscle in the past, or you’re stuck at a plateau, or if you’re just looking for a good workout routine to build muscle as well as increase your strength, this full body workout routine could be just what you need.

A Simple Workout Routine

The uncomplicated plans are usually the ones that work best. If you stick to the big basic exercises you’ll work the most muscle in the least amount of time, and you’ll get the best hormonal response too. So you’ll build muscle faster with this approach than with any other type of program.

With this workout routine you’ll do three short workouts per week, alternating between two different ones. The two workouts have different emphases, and work together to produce the best overall results.

You’ll only do three exercises in each workout – a squat or deadlift together with an upper body push and an upper body pull. But you can add in a fourth later, when you've made a decent amount of progress. A lot of people find they can make good gains on a routine of this sort even when they have failed with everything else.

So your full body workout routine for rapid muscle size and strength gains will be as follows…

The Best Way To Gain Muscle: 10 Tips To Help You Build Muscle Fast

If you want to build muscle, the best way to do it is by lifting weights. However you need to know how to train in the most effective manner if you want to get the best results from your efforts. And although individual requirements do vary, there are some general principles you should adhere to if you want to gain muscle mass in the shortest possible time. So if you want to make some real progress in the gym here are my 10 tips to help you build muscle as fast as possible…

1. Use Compound Exercises

The big multi-joint exercises use the most total muscle when you perform them, and they also stimulate the highest levels of hormonal response. So therefore they will build muscle faster than anything else.

These include exercises such as squats, deadlifts, bench press, barbell row, overhead press, chin-ups and parallel bar dips.

When you've gained a decent amount of muscle size using these movements you can add in some isolation exercises in order to gain additional size in certain specific areas. But compound exercises should always remain the cornerstone of your routine.

The Best Cardio For Weight Loss: A HIIT Workout To Burn Fat Fast

If you want to get fit and healthy, as well as lose some weight, exercise is obviously a vital part of what it will take to achieve this. And both strength training and cardiovascular exercise are required. But if you think doing cardio means spending hours per week on a treadmill or elliptical trainer, I have some good news for you. There’s a type of cardio that is much more effective than jogging for both burning calories and improving fitness. The best cardio for weight loss is in fact a high intensity interval training (HIIT) workout.

What Is High Intensity Interval Training?

High intensity interval training, or HIIT, involves alternating between short bursts of maximum or near maximum effort and periods of active rest. For example you might sprint for 30 seconds and then walk for a minute. HIIT can be done with a wide variety of exercises, including bodyweight exercises or even weights, but sprinting is probably the best.

The Benefits Of HIIT

HIIT burns calories much faster than other forms of exercise. And just as importantly, you continue to burn calories for many hours after your workout. This effect is known as ‘afterburn’ or EPOC (excess post-exercise oxygen consumption), and it does not happen to any great extent with other less intense forms of exercise such as jogging.

Essentials Of A Healthy Balanced Diet

Having outlined the four pillars of health in my last post I thought I would expand on the first of the pillars, a healthy balanced diet, in this one.

A good healthy diet needs to supply all three macro-nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates and fats) as well as a wide range of micro-nutrients (vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients etc.) By supplying your body with the nutrients it needs you will ensure it is able to function properly and maintain good health well into old age.

What you don't need is processed, refined and sugary foods. These will do nothing to promote optimum health, but will instead rob you of your health, as well as contribute to weight gain. Your body will deteriorate due to the effects of ageing faster than it otherwise would and your quality of life will be greatly reduced, particularly in your later years. A little of this type of food, say once or twice per week, will not do you any harm; but for the most part you should avoid them.

Instead eat natural whole foods if you want to stay in the best of health for as long as possible. So lets take a look at each of the essential categories of a well balanced diet in turn...

How To Be Fit And Healthy For Life: The Four Pillars Of Health

As this is my very first post on my new blog I thought I'd make it a brief overview of what is required to get fit and healthy and stay that way for life. There are several factors involved in this of course, but four of them are particularly important. So I've called these the four pillars of health. And they are as follows...

1. Eat A Healthy Balanced Diet

What you eat is of first importance in regard to how healthy you will be and how long you can expect to live. If you eat a lot of refined, processed and sugary foods your health will suffer as a result of this.

Instead eat mostly natural whole foods, specifically meat, fish and eggs (your protein sources), whole grains, potatoes and sweet potatoes (carbohydrates), healthy fats (such as olive oil and coconut oil, but you'll also get these from oily fish, nuts, seeds, avocados etc.) plenty of vegetables, and some fruit, beans and dairy.