How to Increase Your Bench Press and Build Your Upper Body Muscle Mass Fast

By Ricardo d Argence

Most people know that in order to build up muscle in the upper body one of the best exercises to do is the bench press. A frequent question bodybuilders ask each other is how much you can bench press. Let us examine what it takes to build muscle and how to achieve a bigger bench press. This can be done in a few very effective ways that will make a noticeable difference fast.

Grow your triceps. As much as two thirds of the complete muscle mass on your arms is made up of the tricep muscle. The best exercises to build muscle mass on your triceps are using barbells and dumbells: close grip bench-presses and skull crushers. Isolation exercises are not as good as they isolate the muscle completely. They will definitely help add weight to your bench press.

Train your triceps separately. Most of the time, bodybuilding routines advise that you train the chest in the same training session as the triceps. If you train them separately, you can focus on the triceps, train them intensely, and build up muscle growth faster. Try this over a spell of a few weeks, and then see how many more kilograms you are able to bench press.

Variety. Have you been doing that same old workout routine for months now? When your muscles have done the same workout a few times, they have already been able to adjust to it and so the need to grow bigger is not there. Keep changing your routine, it can involve little changes such as changing the grip width or even reversing the order of your routine or they can be bigger changes such as doing super sets or compound sets and more.

Do not over do it. Most of the time more is better, but in regards to muscle building that is not the truth at all. If you over do it and over train your chest, then you will find it difficult to recover and to grow further. Instead, focus on intensity, technique, and not quantity. A short vigorous workout is much more effective than a long one.

Rest well. Your muscles will not grow at the gym! In fact, they will grow while you are resting. If you do not give them adequate time for growing, then you just will not grow. To avoid overtraining, a general rule to follow is to limit yourself to 6-9 sets every session for each muscle group.

Take a break from training. If you reach a training plateau, then think about taking a total break. Let your body completely recover from all the strains, come back to your exercises a week or so later, and be even more motivated.

Check your diet. Are you consuming around 6 meals a day with at least 1 gram of protein for each pound of bodyweight that you have? If you are not then it is quite possible that you are restricting your gains by not adopting fully a muscle building diet. In each meal try to get the proportions of them to be 50% carbohydrate, 30% protein and the rest can be made up of fats.

Concentrate on your technique. Are you pressing correctly? Bad technique can take away the focus from the chest muscles and can put you at elevated risk of injury. Make sure you are not lifting your feet up off the ground and that your hands are not grasping the bar too close together. These are the two most commonly made errors.

By following this guide, you will be giving yourself a good advantage to building muscle mass on your chest rapidly, and showing off to other bodybuilders on how much you can bench press! - 29951

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