Why is it that so many people who have followed various muscle building programs have failed to make the muscle mass gains they desire? Well put simply, it’s usually because they’ve followed a muscle program that is completely unsuitable for building muscle. If this sounds like you and you’re not seeing regular muscle growth and improvements in the mirror then you are doing something wrong.

However, many muscle building programs can be completely inappropriate to an individual’s needs. The result of this can be anything from little or no muscle gains or even injury through over training.

Having studied and reviewed many muscle programs over the years, here are my top 5 tips to finding a muscle building program that will suit your needs:

Workout Time

A muscle building workout routine should be short, intense and hard work. Some workout programs have you doing 1 or even 2 hours in the gym. That’s only useful if you want to burn away fat AND muscle and take you down the road to a serious injury. Spending a long time in the gym does not equate to bigger muscles! Your workout program should last no more than 45 minutes.

Variety of Workouts

Workout routines must be changed every 8 to 12 weeks. You body is very clever and remembers the exercises you did last week, which is why they get easier over time. By changing your routine you are literally shocking your muscles into further growth.

Rest is Part of Your Muscle Program

You need plenty of rest for your body to recover from your workouts and for your muscle growth. Muscles grow when you sleep, eat and rest and NOT when you train. The best muscle building programs will include rest days and will have you training the same muscle groups more than twice a week.

Use Strict Form when Working Out

Exercise with proper form. It is very important that you don’t just stack on the weights and throw them around! Proper form and execution of exercises is vital to your muscle building success and to prevent injury. Look out for muscle programs that show you how to perform exercises correctly.

Diet is Very Important!

Diet is the single most important factor that you must get right. If you are eating correctly but not working out to your full potential then you can still expect to make some reasonable muscle gains. Any muscle building diet must be personalized to your size and weight. The best muscle building programs will provide you with a great selection of diet plans that include meals for all calorie levels (e.g. 2000 to 6000 calories a day). The best meal plans even cater for vegetarians.

So that’s 5 very simple but very important tips to get you on the right track to muscle building success. Make sure you find answer to all these points when you are looking at muscle building programs.

Check Out: The #1 Loose Weight Build Muscle Program

Firstly… It can be done. Remember this one thing, it’s in your genetics and your biology the ability for your muscles to grow, and your excess fatty tissues to burn away under the correct conditions. So if you’ve been feeling a little discouraged up until now, or you’ve experienced some setbacks… don’t worry. It’s normal. But always remember: With a good plan, you CAN do this.

Goal Setting and MotivationGetting the motivation to start, and stick to a training program is often the toughest part of the journey. There’ll be times when you just don’t want to work out, when you just don’t feel so good. It’s true. This is going to happen so let’s not deny it. So how do we deal with it when it comes up?There are a few different methods of staying motivated, so I’ll just give you what I think are the best ones. And I promise, we’ll get to the exercise and diet stuff in a minute. It’s just SO important that we set a few goals and have some realistic expectations to begin with.The best way to get motivated is to break up the big goals into smaller ones. So let’s get an example. Say you want to loose about 20kg (yeah, I’m an Aussie so I’m using the metric system… sorry if you use lbs, I’ve been trying to translate it for years!), and you want to gain some good muscle tone.It’s fairly reasonable to assume that you can loose weight at a speed of about 1-2 kg per week. This figure is not set in stone, and it can surely go up and down, but this is a safe figure to stick with, otherwise the weight loss may be just water. It’s likely that if you’re loosing weight faster than this you could easily “yo-yo” back up to a heavier weight. So stick to a reasonable pace, and you’ll get there in a few months.So set some short term goals… here’s some of mine:Read the Loose Weight Build Muscle Review here
Loose 10kg in the next 4 months (this should be a fairly easy goal for me)
Work Out Lifting Weights 3 times a week
Work Out Doing 20-30 minutes of High Intensity Interval Training 2 times a week (This is to stimulate my metabolism even further and help me to burn weight faster)
Eat at least 5 nutrient and water rich meals a day.
Consume high quality protein to help me build and maintain muscle mass

Here are some high protein muscle supplements available now:

Pro-Matrix Natural Whey Protein CONCENTRATE 3 KG

AU $54.00 (0 Bid) End Date: Monday Aug-02-2010 11:25:20 EST Buy It Now for only: AU $70.86 Bid now | Buy it now | Add to watch list

3KG Intense Nutrition 100% WPI (Whey Protein Isolate)

AU $89.95 End Date: Thursday Aug-05-2010 12:35:21 EST Buy It Now for only: AU $89.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

2KG Intense Nutrition 100% WPI (Whey Protein Isolate)

AU $64.95 End Date: Thursday Aug-05-2010 12:32:32 EST Buy It Now for only: AU $64.95 Buy it now | Add to watch list

Set your own goals, and make sure they’re achievable. Break down the big goal over a reasonable period of time so you’re able to take it on in smaller chunks. And if you have a setback, remember, that’s all it is, a setback, get back to it the next day and remember: It’s just a matter of time!