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Build muscle fast to transform your body

Follow these seven gym commandments and build muscle fast – while also burning stubborn body fat – to transform your physique and build a bigger, stronger and leaner body, says New Body Plan editor Joe Warner

Build muscle fast with a proven plan

Walk into the gym without knowing exactly what you want to achieve from your session and you are destined to wander around, do a few lazy dumbbell curls, then call it a day.

So having – and then sticking to – a detailed, progressive and challenging training plan, such as New Body Plan, is absolutely essential to you making massive changes to how you look, feel and perform. The perfect plan for their goals has already helped thousands of ordinary guys get extraordinary fat-loss results. Now it’s your turn!

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Add muscle size with a full range of motion

You should perform moves through their full range of motion (ROM). For example, in a dumbbell biceps curl, you should raise the weights all the way up to shoulder-height then straighten your arm at the bottom by flexing your triceps so your biceps moves through its entire movement range. The greater the ROM your muscles work through, the greater the number of muscle fibres recruited.

Focus on form to build muscle fast

Before you even think about picking up a dumbbell or loading up a barbell you need to know how to perform the exercises that make up your workout. This is crucial to prevent injury. And it ensures that every single rep of every single lift hits the target muscle or muscle groups effectively. The result? You build muscle fast to to make the rapid progress you want. Compromise on form and you’ll compromise on results.

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Select the right weight to build muscle size and strength

How do you know how to choose the right weight for an exercise? The last couple of reps of the first few sets should feel hard, and the final reps of the final sets should be very challenging.

If you finish all the reps and feel like you could have done another five then the weight is too light. If you can only perform half the target number of reps before your muscles fail then the weight is too heavy.

Selecting your starting weight for each exercise may require a little trial and error. It’s best to start light if in doubt, then increase the weight in subsequent sets, instead of starting too heavy and not being able to finish the set.

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Get bigger muscles with slow and controlled reps

Tempo, or the time in seconds that you lift and lower a weight for each rep, is one of the seven key weight-training variables that make up a workout, and thinking about tempo is crucial if you want to build muscle and burn fat.

Why? Because it determines how much tension your muscles must manage, which is one of the biggest factors in promoting lean muscle mass growth. It is therefore essential you think about tempo when you lift and keep each rep as controlled as possible, without ever jerking the weight around. The smoother you can perform each rep, the more tension you place on your muscles the better – and faster – your results.

Build muscle fast with a strong mind-to-muscle connecton

The mind-to-muscle connection is one of the biggest factors behind muscle growth. All it means is that when you are performing each rep you need to really focus on the muscles that are working to move the weight and really squeeze it at the top of the move and fully stretch it at the bottom.

Actually looking at the muscle, either directly or in a mirror, is a great way to focus your mind on connecting to the muscle to make it work as hard as possible. Simply slinging a weight around won’t give you the results you want.

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Add serious muscle size by lifting with intent

Start every session with the mentality that this is going to be the best workout you’ve ever had. Attacking each set with a sense of intent, purpose and positivity goes a long way in pushing your outside of your comfort zone. That’s where you need to be if you want to transform your body.

Shut out thoughts about problems at work, an argument with your partner or pal, or the want-away striker who’s departure will spell relegation this season. Instead stick on your headphones, turn up the volume and lift like your life depends on it!

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