Must-Read: Gaining Muscle Mass

Here’s the thing about creating a sculpture. The most important thing about the project aren’t the tools to sculpt, and isn’t the idea that you have, but instead it’s the actual bit of rock that you have to chisel through. Without the rock, or marble, or whatever it is you’re sculpting, you wouldn’t be able to ever have anything. The same goes for sculpting your body. In order to become chiseled, first you need something to chisel. Which means you have to have enough body mass to cut through.

In which case, today we’re heading over to Men’s Fitness in order to check out the various rules for how to gain weight. Among their steps is this, the vital first one:

RULE 1: Go Big or Go Home

Heading to the gym to lift just for the sake of lifting won?t get you anywhere faster. You?ve got to go with the exercises and movement patterns that give you more bang for your buck. ?Far too many guys spend time working on isolation exercises searching for hypertrophy,? says Colorado-based certified trainer and fitness writer, Jeremey DuVall. You want to program your workouts with moves like the deadlift, squat and overhead press. ?Bigger exercises require more muscle recruitment and make for a more efficient workout,” he adds. John Annillo, CSCS of Training for Warriors agrees, ?Your body works as a unit, so drop the isolation exercises and train it like one. The more muscles (or joints) that are working during any given exercise the better.? Trainer, fitness writer/model Parker Cote also believes “big moves” are especially important for beginners saying, “it’s the best way to expedite the mass gain process.”

So head on over to the link above and check out the other rules for how to gain that muscle mass that you need in order to get bigger, stronger, faster, etc.