Muscle Building Workouts - Building Muscle Fast for the Ordinary Guy

It is amazing how beginners to muscle building expect to work out today and build muscle yesterday. Muscle building workouts done the right way can give you fast dramatically fast results, but do not expect miracles.

You've probably seen the new guy at the gym. After completing a set, he looks in the mirror to see if that muscle has just grown bigger. Well, it doesn't work that way.

In fact, muscles do not even grow while you're working out. Workouts simply provide stimulus, but growth happens when you are resting. Of course, none of it will work without proper nutrition and adequate hydration. But let's talk about muscle building workouts for now.

Contrary to what most inexperienced people believe, those machines at the gym are not what will help you build muscle. Building muscle fast requires the use of compound exercises with free weights. Or what is known as hardcore training.

What are compound exercises? Compound exercises are movements that utilize several groups of muscles at the same time. An example is the bench press, which though primarily targeting the pectoral (chest) muscles, also requires the use of shoulder and triceps muscles among others.

Free weights are just that; free weights. These are weights that are not supported or balanced by other mechanical means; you do the lifting as well as balancing. Think dumbbells and barbells.

As far as sets and reps go, the jury is still out there. Some experts say one set is all that's needed. Others say three or four. There is no right or wrong and the best thing is to find out what works for you. Dorian Yates (professional bodybuilder and former Mr. Olympia) used to do one set but, he admits, it took him many years to get to that point.

The next thing you should have is a training split. Since muscles grow while you are resting, it makes sense to work one group one day and a different group the next. That way the muscle groups that you trained yesterday will be resting while you train a different a different group today.

A training split can also combine two or more muscle groups, especially in this day and age of time constraints. For example, you can train back and shoulders today, legs tomorrow, skip one day and then train chest and arms. You have just finished training your whole body in three days and can rest for the week.

There are too many muscle building workouts than can be fit into one article. Any person interested in building muscle fast should be prepared to keep learning. Start reading bodybuilding magazines and books. Remember, this is a journey not a destination.