For Hypertrophy (Muscle gain) If you want to achieve hypertrophy, then simply do as much work as possible during your

workouts, and then support it with good nutrition, and make sure you are able to gradually do more and more work on each successive workout. 1) The work must be of sufficient intensity probably above about 70 or 75 percent of maximum 2) You must be able to recover from your workouts. Inadequate nutrition and rest (just to name two factors) will hamper your bodys attempts to repair itself. To trigger muscle hypertrophy one has to reach a certain compromise of fatigue and tension, the fatigue/tension threshold. The higher the tension (weight) and the longer time the muscle spends under it (reps) - the better are your chances of making it big.

Training guidelines: Heavy/High intensity: perform low reps, 4-6 per set, to allow for heavy weights (lifting at a moderate to slow speed); High Volume: perform many, 10-20 on average, sets per bodypart with 30-90sec rest periods in between; Never to failure: terminate all the sets a couple of reps before failure to avoid premature fatigue which would force the reduction in weights or/and sets - when you can no longer perform 4-6 reps in good form, finish your training session; Frequent: train each bodypart 2-4 times per week.

High Tension Exercises On the way up, grip the deck hard with your fingertips so that your fingertips turn white. In one-arm push-ups, fire the gripping muscles of your free hand at the sticking point. Make fists and grip the deck with your toes to strengthen your pistols. Apply maximum pressure to the deck with your foot and palm. Push straight though the platform, imagining that you are stomping down. Maximally tense your whole body before pushing up, before the resistance is upon you. Tense your abs, keep them short and flat, brace it as you would for a punch. Tense your glutes - imagine pinching a coin with your cheeks. Tense your lats and keep your shoulders down and back", don't shrug them or let them move forward and push from your armpit, rather than your shoulder. Imagine you are screwing your arms into your shoulder sockets from inside out - you should feel tension from your armpits spiraling toward your fists. Zipping up Pull up your kneecaps by tensing your quads, then pull your quad up even higher into your groin. Do the same with the rest of your thigh muscles: the inner, the outer, and the hamstrings. It is as if you have grabbed your leg with both hands just above the knee, squeezed, and slowly pulled all the thigh muscles up into the groin. Imagine that you are pulling your thigh up into the hip socket as well. Flex your glutes by pinching a coin with your cheeks. Shorten the muscles surrounding your waistthe abs, the obliques, the muscles around your ribs remembering to keep them flat. Just zip all your torso muscles from your ribs down to your pelvis. Breathe shallow as your respiratory muscles get constricted; do not hold your breath. For the pushups: Flex the pecs and lats so they pull your shoulders down, away from your ears. Shorten your armpit muscles even further so they pull your shoulders into your body. Pull your rigid arms into the shoulder sockets; retract them. screw your shoulders into their sockets from inside out. Make the biceps and the triceps retreat into the deltoids. Gather up your forearm muscles by your elbows, pull up your fore arm bones into the elbows. Don't yield to the gravity, actively pull yourself down while staying braced and tight. In the pushup, pull with your lats and other back muscles; dont forget the inside-out corkscrew on the way down. In the squat, pull with your hip flexors, the muscles on the tops of your thighs whose job it is to jackknife your body. Your zipped-up muscles should feel like stretched rubber bands. Combining dynamic exercise with high-tension stops at sticking points enables one to greatly increase the difficulty of strength exercise without adding weight.

Power Breathing Inhale through your nose and move your breath and energy down, pack your lower abdomen full of energy, force the air down into the groin. Let your shoulders deflate, tense your armpits to push your shoulders down away from your ears - reach down as low as possible with your fingertips. Keep your neck tall and your spine straight - imagine your head is tied to a string stretching your neck up. The exhalationor rather a very minor blast or airis supposed to be a side effect of compression, not your intent! The sounds kiai, wha, hut, sst, pftare not the goal to strive for; making these sounds without trying is an indicator of proper compression. Do not focus on where the air flows or does not flow; focus on the compression of the contents of your stomach. Hold your breath as you are lowering and lifting the weight, but no longer than a couple of seconds, exhaling near the end of a rep, or right after it. You can breathe shallow while staying tight for long exertions. You can take a few breaths between your reps, but do not hyperventilate. In exercises which allow a safe relaxed pause on the bottom, for example situps or curls, you may exhale and inhale again before reversing the movement. One breathing cycle for each half rep instead of a full rep. Dont take in too much or too little air, never exhale or inhale all the way, inhale 75-100% of your max lung capacity before loading your muscles. Contract your sphincter beforehand and keep your pelvic diaphragm pulled up whenever you have pressure in your abdomen from exertion. Pull up your pelvic diaphragm -contract your rectal sphincter, and strain or bear down - push down with your diaphragm while keeping your stomach tight. Pretend that you are straining to have a bowel movement while maintaining the lock. Keep your face impassive - dont try too hard the first time; just observe your body. Let your abdomen and obliques slightly expand but dont let your stomach bulge; brace your abs for a punchflat and strong. When exerting yourself, always start tensing in your lower abdomen, containing the pressure with a tight midsection not letting your stomach bulge out. Imagine that your leg or arm is a long, thin balloonWhen you are at the bottom of the exercise, Blow it up and it will straighten out.