My experience with weightlifting is probably fairly typical of a guy my age. I started working out in high school, and followed routines from Arnold's Encyclopedia of Bodybuilding. I did this for a couple years and made a bit of progress, but nothing special. 



What I should have been doing was squats, deadlifts, bench presses, and overhead presses. I should have done these with low reps (around five), and my only concern should have been adding more weight to the bar. That is what I do now, and it works. In one year of doing this my squats went from 50kg for five to 120kg for five. My legs grew a lot. My bench went from about 60kg for five, to 95kg for five. My arms and chest grew a lot. These weights are nothing extraordinary and I am by no means a big guy. The weights are however, way better than before, as is my physique. If you can continually add weight to the bar, you will get bigger.  It really is that simple.

I wish that I had followed this kind of program in high school. The problem is that the internet is full of terrible information, and the world of bodybuilding and weight training is notoriously bad. Too many flashy routines published by supplement companies trying to sell their products. That coupled with a generation of people who have the attention span of goldfish, has created an environment where the majority of people in the gym are spinning their wheels, or at best making mediocre progress.

Confused yet?


Doing squats, deadlifts, and bench day in and day out is not exciting or cutting edge. This is why so many people can't stick with a program like this, and why even more people can't be bothered to try. It is a shame, and I personally regret wasting so much time jumping from one program to the next.

The key to this kind of training is to get absolutely hooked on adding weight to the bar, and absolutely forbidding yourself from browsing the latest muscle building trends floating around the internet. There are days when I add 1kg to a lift, and am absolutely thrilled. If you can get into this frame of mind, a simple program can become addictive. Make those numbers climb as often as you can. When they stop climbing, deload and have another run at it.

That's how you get big biceps.

If you're dying to do some curls, or triceps extensions just do them. But, do them after you do the main exercises. If they start to interfere with your progress on the main lifts, get rid of them. Adding weight to the main lifts is far more important than a few bicep curls will ever be. If you can deadlift 400lbs you will have big biceps.

Look into Starting Strength, or Stronglifts, or Bill Starr 5x5. These are all great programs to get strong and pack on the muscle. Keep in mind though, that these programs are meant to get you big, and are not great for people trying to lose fat fast. So if gaining tons of muscle is your goal, you should be doing one of these programs, or something similar to it.  I still recommend doing intermittent fasting when doing these kinds of programs.  Fasting will allow you to pack on muscle, without getting fat during the process.  Give it a shot, and let me know how it goes.  Get in touch on facebook at www.facebook.com/fittaiwan