Bringing a pen and a piece of paper to the gym will separate those
who make modest gains from those who make outstanding gains. The
simple reason for this is that a pen and a piece of paper will allow
you to keep a detailed record of each and every workout you perform.
Why is recording your workouts so critical to your success?
It's because the entire basis for building muscle is progression.
When you go to the gym, you break down your muscle fibers by
stressing them with weights. This is referred to as "muscle
overload". When you leave the gym, your body will use the nutrients
that you consume to repair the damages that have been done. However,
as a natural evolutionary response, the muscles will be repaired
larger and stronger in order to protect the body against a possible
future "attack".
Therefore, in order to make continual gains in muscle size and
strength, you must put 100% of your focus on improving upon your
previous workouts by progressing in either:
a) The amount of weight lifted.
b) The number of reps performed.
If you are able to progress in either weight or reps from week to
week, your body will be given continual incentive to grow larger and
stronger. If you fail to improve, your muscle size and strength will
stay the same.
Think about it, if you were squatting 200 pounds today, and were
still squatting that same weight 3 months from now, do you think you
would have experienced any size or strength gains in that time
period?
Of course not!
Your body will only become larger and stronger when it is presented
with a workload beyond that capacity.
If you want "building muscle in a nutshell", that was it.
Train for strength, and size will always follow.
I am continually baffled by the guys in the gym who come in week in
and week out, aimlessly tossing the same weights around and never
writing anything down. It's no surprise that their physiques always
look exactly the same year round.
If you want to build muscle mass as quickly as you possibly can,
always bring a pen and a piece of paper to the gym for every single
workout and keep a detailed record of the exercises you performed,
the weight you used and the number of reps completed.
The next time you go to the gym, sit down before your workout and
review what you accomplished in the previous week. Your goal should
now be to improve slightly upon those numbers by either performing an
extra rep or 2 for each exercise, or by increasing the weight on the
bar by 5 pounds.
If you can successfully accomplish this from week to week, you will
be well on your way to success. The entire goal in the gym is to
always get better.
While the specifics of building muscle are important to understand
and implement (things like exercise selection, rep ranges and workout
structure), the truth is that regardless of what style of training
you're currently using, the ultimate deciding factor between success
and failure is progression.
You can sit around all day obsessing over specific principles, but
the bottom line is that if you aren't getting stronger every week,
you absolutely will NOT be getting any bigger.
Examine your training approach closely.
If you haven't been paying laser-like attention to the amount of
weight you've been using, the number of reps you've been performing,
and then striving with every ounce of your energy to improve upon
those numbers each week, you are completely ignoring the very
foundation of the muscle growth process.
If you want to see the best gains in muscle mass and strength that
you possibly can, a pen and a piece of paper is the most powerful
tool you could possibly have in your arsenal!
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