Maximize Muscle Growth

Here's a tip to maximize your muscle growth while lifting weights:

The first thing you need to realize is that every individual's muscles are different.  Some people have more fast-twitch muscle fibers, and others have more slow-twitch muscle fibers.  Fast-twitch muscle fibers are responsible for quick, violent, strength.  Slow-twitch are the endurance fibers, the kind you use while running a marathon.  Distribution of slow/fast twitch can also vary among an individual's muscle groups.  For example, you can have pectoral muscles that have more fast-twitch fibers, while your deltoids are mostly slow-twitch.

There is a method that works well for finding the ideal weight to lift to maximize muscle growth.

First -- Find your 1-rep maximum weight that you can lift. Make sure your form is clean and smooth. Lifting should take about 2 seconds, and lowering the weight should take 2 seconds.

Second -- Find 80% of that maximum.  This is going to be the weight you will train with for that exercise.

Third -- Lift the weights slowly and with good form, taking 2 to lift, and 2 seconds to lower the weight.  Do as many repetitions as you can until your muscles fail to lift the weight. Do 3 sets per muscle group MAX.

Once you can do more than 15 repetitions with that weight, repeat the process to find your new target weight to lift.

Your muscles should respond quite nicely and you should see your strength increase pretty rapidly.