How to Build Muscle with Hardcore, Underground Workouts

By Craig Ballantyne

Hardcore workouts are the ultimate muscle gaining secret. You won't build muscle with fluff workouts and sissy cable exercises. You need to move the iron.

If you want to build muscle, specifically bigger triceps, which is better for you?

Heavy military presses or light weight triceps pressdowns?

Presses, of course. Same reason you need to do back squats, heavy leg presses, and deadlifts, rather than leg curls or extensions.

Building muscle requires moving weight, and not doing high reps with cable machines. You need to get underground, and hardcore, and return to the basics that worked in the past. Forget about 6-day per week isolation workouts. If you can train 6-days per week, you're not training hard enough to build muscle.

And forget about the muscle pump. Just focus on moving the iron. A pump doesn't cause growth. A pump is just blood being forced into the muscles, but that doesn't mean growth is forced on the muscles. It takes basic movements used with heavy weight to force growth. And then you need to rest, recover, and eat to support the muscle growth.

I've trained with Jay Ferruggia and the workouts are intense. Sure, doing 4 sets of biceps and triceps is hard, but its not intense like sets of deadlifts or 6 rep sets of squats. Military presses for 6 reps is more intense than triceps pressdowns, and as a result, you get more muscle growth in less time.



For your back, stick to chinups, pullups, and dumbell rows. For your chest, dumbell presses and incline presses. Take lots of rest between sets so you can move more weight. Train hard, train safe, and grow. You'll build muscle with a basic approach. That's all you need, and lots of food. Those are your muscle gaining secrets.

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Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men's Health and Oxygen magazines. His trademarked home gym fat loss workouts have helped thousands of men and women with weight loss and fat burning in less than 45 minutes three times per week. Bodyweight exercise workouts help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment. Craig's bodyweight workouts for fat loss help you lose fat without any equipment at all.