Gym owners, trainers, and bodybuilding magazines, will continue to convince people that machines are the same if not better than free weights to build up muscle, claiming that muscles react to any type of resistance regardless. Don’t be a sucker for machines.

The Facts:

Machines oftentimes force you into unnatural body motions creating damage to your muscles.

Most machines have nothing to do with using the most important movements to build up muscle.

Machines have limited opportunity to vary your routine and they isolate your muscles. Free weights on the other hand, stimulate more muscles as you are forcing your body to stabilize the weight.

When using free weights, even the smallest change you make between lifts and workouts can help with muscle gain. Many people who do the machines, do the same routines, with the same amount of weight since they started lifting and wonder why they are not making progress. A routine should be changed after just three weeks. Why is this one important rule so difficult for people to understand? (more…)

Do not think for a minute that doing bicep curls and having huge biceps is key to eliminating that huge waist.

Do not think for a minute that working your chest muscles forever will pack on the muscle gain you want.

Do not think that crunching and crunching, involving very little muscle mass will melt off the fat around your middle.

Do not think for a minute that lifting too much weight in bad form or lifting too little weight on machines will help you with your muscle gain goals.

None of the above will do any good. Believe what you want to believe about machines at the gym…..they are in no way as effective in gaining muscle mass as the following movements.

Fast Fact: A certain number of men find themselves obsessed with going to the gym, even giving up jobs or relationships. They may never be happy with how they look no matter how huge they get. They experiment with dangerous supplements. If this sounds like someone you know, they may be suffering from the male equivalent of anorexia called muscle dysmorphia.

6 key movements for maximum muscle gain:

Squats

Squats use just about every muscle in your lower body in one movement the most challenged muscles being the quadriceps. The exercise also works the gluteals and hamstrings. The lower you go, the more the muscles are engaged.

Deadlift

This movement also uses almost all of your lower body muscles with the emphasis on the gluteal and hamstring muscles. It also works your abdominal muscles and trapezius as you pull your shoulder blades together.

Lunge

This movement again uses the same muscles as the squat and deadlift, however it also stretches the hip flexors which increase the flexibility of your muscles and keeps them strong. Push It can be a push up, bench press, or shoulder press. All of these exercises use your chest muscles along with the front shoulders. All use the triceps to straighten the arms.

Pull

Lat pull-down, rowing exercises, pull-ups, are all a form of pull movements. The two major upper back muscle groups used are the “lats”, shoulder joint muscles and the “traps”, shoulder blade muscles. In these exercises, your biceps and forearms are also used.

Twist

Works the external and internal obliques. Some lower back muscles along with the most important six-pack muscle also assist in the bending and twisting. No machines in the gym can come close to mimicking the above exercises with the exception of the back extension (dead lift) and pulling machines. Bottom line: skip them; most machines found in the gym prevent you from doing the most useful muscle gain movements. Movements that our bodies were designed to do.

The 5 Worst Things you Can Do If You Want To Build Muscle & Get A World Class Body

If you want to build up muscle and have a rock hard body, then you will need to work out regularly. Below are six great tips on how to build up muscle in your body quickly.

First, do each set to complete exhaustion. The last repetition should be so difficult that it is not physically possible for you to do another until you have had a small break.

Increase the amount of protein you take in each day. Protein is the building block for your body to repair muscles and build muscle. If you do not eat a lot of protein, your muscle mass will not increase.
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