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There are a number of steps involved in a successful muscle building program. To be successful all must be given equal amounts of attention. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link right? The difficult aspect of this is that one variable in muscle building is addition by subtraction. That’s a hard concept for most serious lifters to get their mind around. I am talking about the overlooked key to muscle building, rest and not over training. If you’re serious enough about lifting to do it regularly in the first place, then you don’t have to be told to hit the gym, lift hard, eat right and get rest. You already know these things, and you try and do them as best as possible. But here’s where most people make the big mistake.

Does it not make sense that, if you are doing everything “right”, that every chest work out you have, you lift exactly the same as before OR MORE? That is the point of muscle building, right, to get stronger and bigger. Does that happen? Probably not. Most people write it off to having an off day, or “being tired”. Well duh. Then it’s obvious that you didn’t allow yourself enough recovery time or you haven’t gotten the proper amount or quality of rest. People justify this lack of progress in each workout as “doing something is better than doing nothing”. WRONG.

The entire concept of muscle building is to build the muscle. Not wear it out. Sessions in the gym that do not make your muscles bigger and stronger are making them weaker and smaller! That’s over training! A perfect illustration of this is boxers. After they have trained and peaked for a fight they take an extended period of time off. One fight doesn’t make them that tired. It’s a matter of not over training their body.

If you use being tired, whether it’s from a day at work or a lousy night’s sleep, as a reason for not being able to match previous workouts, then again, you miss the point of muscle building. It requires a maximum effort to exhaust the muscle, so that it can recover and grow. Without the ability to exhaust the muscle because of a lack of energy means no growth. Why again are you in the gym?

So ask yourself going in how do I really feel? Don’t fall victim to the age old bane of mediocrity. Remember “time spent doesn’t equal progress”. Real maximum effort does.

Steve R. Robbins is a life long fitness enthusiast. He has the distinction of being in the select group who can say they ran a marathon and bench pressed twice their weight on the same day. At the age of 50. He is a regular contributer to www.MuscleandHealth.org

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