So what is the correct rep range for you to stay in to gain the most effective and optimal muscle building results? Now I’m sure most of you have heard that working with lower reps and heavier weight builds bulk while utilizing higher reps with lighter weight will result in getting you ripped. Well I can tell you that only half of this is the truth. The other fictional half I will leave for later and you will learn as you continue to read on what the truth of the other half really comes down to in another article.

So which is true? If you sided with the lower reps and heavier weight, then you are 100% correct. But you must follow the specific rep range formula, not just any lower reps and heavy weight is going to do the trick. So what you need to do is utilize heavy weight with lower reps performing them between a 5-7 rep range. This is without a doubt the most effective means for stimulating muscle growth. So utilizing a rep range between 5-7 means that for every set that is performed, you need to have weight that’s heavy enough where you cannot possibly pass over 7 repetitions, but light enough to get to full 5 repetitions while keeping absolute perfect form while performing each set to absolute failure each and every time. You need to always keep a focused mind and perform each set to a 110% effort and intensity!

Be sure to check out my brand new up coming book “The Truth to Xtreme Muscle Building” coming soon to a PC near you!

So how to perform a warm up correctly, well a good warm up consist of about 5 minutes of a good steady pace cardiovascular activity such as a rowing machine, jogging, recumbent bike, or elliptical. Any of those activities will suite you just fine and I’m sure you’re already wondering what is the reason for doing five minutes of a cardio activity. Well the reason for engaging in a cardiovascular activity is to increase the core temperature of the body. In doing this, you will stimulate your heart and lungs and lubricate your joints as well because there will be an increase of secretion of synovial fluid. As you’re warming up your core doing your 5 minutes of cardio, I want you to get your mind mentally prepared for the weights you will battle that lies ahead of you. It’s highly important to have a 100% focused mind on anything your trying to accomplish because it will only greatly benefit you and contributes to give that 110% effort which is one of the main keys that is needed to put forth that intensity that plays a vital role in the success of your workout. So once your 5 minutes is complete, the next component of your warm up will be the final section of this process.

So now that your core is all warmed up and you have your heart rate up, your blood is flowing, the oxygen to your lungs is pumping. Now you’re all already to begin your five warm up sets. You may be thinking to yourself, that’s ridiculous and way to many sets of a warm up and that’s the whole workout in itself. If you’re one of those people who believe this, you’re wrong. Like I’ve been saying, a proper warm up is very important and very crucial to do, so do not not skip out on this because you will only be loosing the benefit for yourself.

Your 5 warm up sets are very easy compared to your actual workout. These 5 warm up sets are utilized with only 50% and 60% of the weight that you would perform during your actual workout. Now if I were going to perform a flat bench press for the first exercise in my routine, then the flat bench press would be the exercise I perform to begin my 5 warm up sets. Now how to start out your 5 sets for a warm up is rather simple. First I will tell you that for any warm up or your actual workout, the first exercise must be a compound lift! For an example: lets say I’m going to flat bench press 200lbs for the first exercise in my actual workout, then to start out my five warm up sets, I would subtract 50% away from 200 which leaves me with 100. So 100lbs would be the warm up set I would perform. The math for this equation is very simple so don’t be intimidated.

Free Weights vs. Machines

When this subject arrives it is plain and simple for me to tell you, stick with free weights. The main reason this being is because compound free weight movements allows you too handle and stimulate maximum amount muscle fibers for the individual that is lifting. When you engage in compound free weight movements such as a flat dumbbell bench press, you have no alternative choice but to follow through with balancing the weight you will battle against resistance utilizing all of your unused stabilizer muscles.

What’s going on exactly here is that you are not given a self guided path of predetermine motion what so ever, all the pressure and responsibility to balance and follow through with the complete repetition of the exercise is securely placed upon the entire muscle region. Now the problem I have with self guided machines is exactly what I just said. Machines are self guided with a predetermine chosen path. This is the problem that lingers and will always remain with the machine movements. The main problem with this is if it gives you a chosen path to follow, your muscle fibers are not nearly being recruited enough to get the full potential benefit from the exercise being performed. This is why virtually every time we step up to a machine, we are able to handle much more weight then our normal muscle capacity rather then with free weight movements because of the simple fact that machines are easier.

Circuit Training

When it comes to circuit training there are a few simple things you should know. There are dozens and dozens of different circuit training routines that are available for you to perform. Some are similar while others are completely different utilizing totally different forms of exercise that most individuals have never seen or heard of.

However, there are different levels of intensity prior to your level of fitness. While an average person may perform an easy routine consisting of a series of lower intense exercises an athlete individual who’s performance is higher then normal, will revolve his or her routine around a higher intense series of exercises.

If you have read my article about the myth of the higher rep range you will know that lower weight and higher reps will not get you ripped following a normal weight lifting routine! However, they do play a role only when involving the higher rep range, lower weight method into a back to back series of exercises that are usually performed with a variety of different body movements involving them at the same time.

Now a lot of the movements in circuit training are whole body core movements. Very different from what your normally use to. Engaging in exercises such as these with mostly a non stop back to back routine is going to get you seriously sweating, destroying, and melting that unwanted body fat while also getting a muscle toning workout.

Some circuit training routines have a several second period of rest time in between them after completing a couple different exercises while the more highly intense routines have no rest time. One perspective you must know is that circuit training will never bulk you up, so if you’re goal is the bodybuilder look then wait for the circuit training, this is not for you, yet!

However, if getting a great solid muscle toned, ripped body without the bulky look, if this is your goal, which mainly is the vast majority of society today, then circuit training is an absolute when in search to reach this criteria.

I’ll be having a series of circuit training videos coming out soon for your benefit! So keep an eye out!