Don't get me wrong when I say that putting on weight by pumping heavy iron will not increase your muscle mass. First of all, you should know what it means by lifting heavy weights. If you think it is squatting 200 pounds, then what would you call those who lift 250 pounds or 600 pounds? The truth is that the definition of heavy weights differs from person to person.

If a person can lift 50 pounds for 10 reps and another only 2 reps, then it is heavy for the other person. Lifting heavy at the cost of bad techniques and wrong momentum (speed of concentric and eccentric motion) is not a proper way to train and would cause numerous injuries. Mistakenly, many bodybuilders and common gym goers apply the theory of lifting heavy to gain more muscle mass, and as a result they increase the weights that they lift periodically. But let me tell you that this will not help. It would rather leave your joints and muscles with injuries. As a bodybuilder and trainer, I have been training more than a hundred and fifty people who came to me for mass gain. Even they find it weird not to focus on increasing their capacity to lift weight.

So, if increasing weight will not help in increasing muscle mass, then what does?

I would answer this question through some points:

1. Maintaining the right technique: Yes, maintain the correct technique while you push or pull the weights by letting your trainer monitor you, or by yourself in the mirror. Focus on the particular muscle you are training. For example, if you are doing barbell curl, then your shoulder, back, arms and elbows should be straight and not move. You should get pump and stress only on that particular muscle and nowhere else.

2. Increase strictness and not weight: If you feel that now you can lift more than 10 reps with that weight, then it is time to make some change. You should start lifting weight with the ratio 1:2:2:1, meaning that when you curl the barbell to do biceps, stay for one second in the starting position then curl. Your curling timing should be for 2 seconds till you reach at top and then stay there for not more than one second, come back again and this also should take 2 seconds to come down and then don't stay down more than one second and then repeat. Then go for ratio 1:4:4:1. After completing this ratio only should you increase the lifting weight. This will ensure that you are giving actual stress of that weight to the muscle.

I have seen people increasing their lifting weight month after month, and after some time they have increase so much that they stay at the same weight for years. If there is an injury, then taking rest necessitates starting all over again with medium weights. Many stop increasing weights because they have reached their maximum limit. To go for further increase, they begin to depend upon steroids or increase unwanted amounts of certain supplements.

3. Don't take support without reason: There should be a reason behind every type of training. Don't just take support to increase lifting weight until you realize that you have stopped growing. I have seen so many people who lift so much that they can lift only once, before taking support for 9 reps, thinking that they will increase mass, but the only thing they increase is the risk of severe injuries. I am not saying that you should not take support, but there is a correct time procedure for it. Take last one or maximum two reps of help and let yourself grow with that weight.

4. Keep changing the type of training: Rather than just increasing the weight, go for supersets, drop sets, partial reps, one and half reps, high reps, supportive training or power lifting. 

5. The final, but most important, part: Increase your calories to about 500 calories more than your daily need. Make sure they are only from good sources and take sufficient rest, rather than unplanned breaks from your training regimen or type of training. To start, examine your diet and check whether you are consuming less calories than you should to increase muscle mass.

Also be mindful of your rest time or frequency of your training (frequency means training days per week). Never overtrain yourself, or train more than you recover. In my opinion, one should train for not more than four times per week and the duration should not be not more than one hour per session to gain muscle mass. I have experienced the best results by training three times per week and 45 minutes per session.

Have a massive workout!

Welstar Peter is a certified personal trainer and sports nutritionist with over seven years of experience in helping competitive bodybuilders, professional models and individuals in achieving their particular health and fitness goals through developing and administering exciting and effective training along with nutrition program . Please visit www.peterpersonaltrainer.com for further information.

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