by Victor Roffel

Created on: October 31, 2009

There's something about seeing new muscle mass on your body that intoxicates you. Anybody who has taken up a dumbbell with the intention to build muscle long enough will experience this. In fact, one might say that this is the very reason why people actually train in the pursuit of muscle.

Still, many people fail to achieve a satisfactory amount of muscle even over long periods of time; I'm talking about years and years of training 'wrongly' here. Believe me, I've seen it done. Someone who has been 'training' for over 10 years and weigh in 150lbs at a height of 5'9. And no, he doesn't just want to weigh 150lbs. He had the intention to grow as much muscle mass as possible in his frame.

So what exactly did this people do wrong? To be honest, I have no clue. There are too many variables in training which are impossible to list them all out in an article. What I can do is to list out several factors that I believe will slab pounds of muscle on you as fast as your body allows you to.

Training intensity

Probably the most common mistake people make is not to train with intensity. Intensity can mean many things; the amount of weight used relative to your 1RM, short rest periods or simply that intangible factor which most people seem to lack. To take a look at what true intensity looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiH8BAK92Yk

The video above can summarize training intensity all in one: The weight used was heavy, the set was done to failure and that intangible factor was there. Check out Matt Kroczaleski's other videos to see how he does it.

Strength

In one of my previous articles, I wrote about how strength gains aid in building muscle. Same thing applies here. Increase your strength and you will see your muscle grow. When your muscle is exposed to greater loads, there is more damage to the muscle fibers and hence, more muscle growth when recovery kicks in.

Start training using big compound movements with the intention of increasing your 1RM on that particular exercise. You will be surprised at how much muscle growth you will gain when your strength increases.

Eating

Eating is underrated no doubt. If you don't give the proper nutrients and calories it needs, you won't grow. If you have got your training right and set in order but still don't grow, it's most probably that you aren't eating enough.

Some people advise to eat as much as possible without caring about fat gain. In bodybuilding terms this is called bulking. Then there are some people who advocate eating just above your caloric maintenance to control fat gain. You have to be very precise if you choose to do so.

If you want to grow big fast, you are going to have to eat big.

Consistency

That's right, consistency. Simple, effective but a huge amount of people don't adhere to it. By being consistent with smart training and nutrition, you will grow some serious muscles over years. Don't get me wrong though, you will still see fast muscle gains if you stick with a good training program over a period of 6months.

In the end, all you have to do is to lift big, eat big and stick with it consistently.

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