This post is the first of a series that focuses on simple body building techniques to gain muscle fast. If you are an advanced bodybuilder you won't find anything earth shattering here, but then this series is geared more toward the beginners and intermediate levels.

In fact what I'd like to get across is that too many people force an advanced routine on themselves when a beginning to intermediate bodybuilding techniques would promote more growth. Hey the pros have trained intensly for many years to grow muscle and refine their muscularity. They have built up unreal recovery ability and tolerances to pumping iron. Thats why they workout like they do and thats why Joe Average should not.

So here are two basic body building techniques to get started with or get back to what ever your case may be:

1. Train with maximum intensity. Keep you reps around 8, no more than 10. Use as much weight as you can so you burn out at 8 reps. Then perform one more with a spotter or do an isometric repitition (pushing on an immovable or nearly immovable object). So if you are performing bench presses, after you burn out, push out another rep even if you can’t lift the weight completely. If its isometric rep, push for 10-15 seconds with everything you can muster.
2. Workout your whole body each session. Full body workouts maximize hormonal (growth hormone and testosterone) activity further increasing muscle gains. Barbell squats or machine squats that stress many large muscle groups at once make this body building technique work best.

These techniques are simple but powerful. Most people working out in the gym do too much and end up training for endurance when they really want muscle growth. So slow it down, ratchet up the intensity and gain muscle fast. You should be able to decrease your number of sets using these techniques, and you should, at least until you are more familiar with how it affects your recovery time.