Muscle Building Weightlifting Workouts

In order to build pounds of muscle, your weightlifting workouts need to be consistent and intense. It's also important to take regular five-to-ten-day layoffs every six to eight weeks.

Taking this regular time off from your weightlifting workouts helps to prevent overtraining, which can kill your muscle gains.

When it comes to overtraining, leave the marathon weight training routines to the drug-using genetic freaks. Only they can gain muscle on the 15-to-20-sets-per-bodypart routines. You need some common sense to make regular muscle building gains.

Don't be afraid to miss a workout from time to time. You won't shrivel up and you'll probably increase your progress. The important thing is to understand the difference between talking yourself out of weightlifting workouts and taking some time off when your body needs it to recover and build muscle from your previous workouts.

Don't succumb to the attitude that more is better - more sets, more workouts, more reps, etc. You'll burnout and stay small. This is not the way to gain muscle mass.

Consider the following weightlifting workouts, working out three times per week.

Day 1

Chest, Back, Shoulders and Calves

Dips 2 x 15
Decline Bench Presses 3 x 8
Cable or Dumbbell Flyes 2 x 15
Curl Grip Lat Pulldowns 3 x 10
One Arm Dumbbell Rows 2 x 8
Dumbbell or Machine Pullovers 2 x 15
Seated Calf Raises 3 x 20

Day 2

Legs and Arms

Squats 2 x 15
Leg Curls 1 x 15
Leg Extensions 1 x 15
Incline Dumbbell Curls 2 x 10
Spider Curls 1 x 10
Incline Hammer Curls 1 x 10
Tricep Pressdowns 2 x 10
Close Grip Bench Press 1 x 10
Overhead Extensions 1 x 10
Weighted Crunches 2 x 15

TIME OUT: Brand New! Grab your FREE Copy of the new Ebook FAST MASS! Includes muscle building programs, weightlifting workouts, weight training program, mass building nutrition tips, and more. Get Fast Mass Your Name: Your E-mail Address: Don't worry -- your e-mail address is totally secure. I promise to use it only to send you Fast Mass Tips.

Break in to these weightlifting workouts. For the first few weeks, try working out 3 times per week on nonconsecutive days, performing 2 working sets of each exercise, doing 12 - 15 reps per set. Don't train to failure. After about a month, you can start training to failure on some sets. After another month, begin training to failure on all working sets and consider only weight training two times per week to accomodate the higher level of intensity and strengh that you've developed.

Keep in mind that weight training programs are 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.

There are plenty of weightlifting workouts, weight training information, nutrition, supplementation and goal setting information available to you on this site. Check out a bunch of our weightlifting articles