If you want to increase muscle mass, you can’t do half-hearted workouts that lack effort, or spend your time in the gym chatting with chums. Muscle gains come from placing certain principles into motion that produce end results. Intensity is a concentrated force and nothing builds muscle faster than high intensity workouts. However, if all that energy is directed towards a set goal, much of it will be wasted and results will wain. Although there are varying outlooks when it comes to accomplishing high intensity exercises such as working until muscular failure or putting everything into a maximum one rep surge, the fact is that performing exercises at a high intensity level builds muscle mass rapidly. Here are several principles behind high intensity workouts which you can use to create and define your weight training program for more effective results.

Realistic Goals

Even before you pound out your first set of reps, you should have a clear cut training program that is based on realistic goals. If you don’t have any goals then there is a tendency to work through your fitness program in a sloppy, sluggish and uncommitted style that won’t get results. On the other hand, if your goals are unrealistic then you may start off with a bang, but will gradually decrease your efforts and maybe even quit your exercise program altogether as you realize that you aren’t going to meet your lofty goals. Therefore, you should set goals that are challenging, yet reachable, so that you see progress that will motivate you to continue onwards. Take your time. As the saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Well, neither is a ripped physique built in a day.

You Have To Believe

There have been plenty of studies that prove that what you think about yourself has a tremendous impact on how you actually turn out. Positive thoughts and beliefs play a critical role in what we can or cannot accomplish. That power is even more evident in the gym. Your mindset and what you believe deep down is what will eventually manifest in your physique. If you don’t believe you can look like Arnold Schwarzenegger then you won’t…bottom line. Arnold has said that when he first started out that he envisioned his biceps looking like mountains. With that vision in mind, he hit the gym day after day until his biceps bulged like two Mt. Everest peaks. Although genetics plays a role in how your overall physical form will look, it is your mind that tells you that you can have an eye-catching physique and gives you the motivation to achieve it. If you don’t believe that then you are at a serious advantage and you won’t put the power necessary to accomplish what you envision into your high intensity exercise program.

Work Hard and Smart

What you believe or think isn’t going to make a dent in your physical form if you don’t put actions to your beliefs. Building a ripped form requires hard work, plain and simple, but it also requires that you work smart, thus the reason for performing high intensity exercise coupled with correct technique. You can fill your weight training program with a variety of exercises, but if you don’t use proper form and hit them hard, your desired results will elude you. Therefore, it is crucial that you develop a good work ethic that will get maximum results from your high intensity weight training program. You should seek to work your muscles to failure on some exercises in order to stimulate them to new muscle growth and use high volume on others to keep from overtraining so that, when used together, the most rewards can be reaped. However, you can’t just power through your high intensity workouts. You also have to train smart or you will overtrain and perhaps cause injury to your muscles or central nervous system. If your CNS is compromised and not allowed to recover fully before the next intense workout, your efforts will suffer in drive and intensity.

Focus on the Task at Hand

No matter what goals you set, how clear your vision is for a buff physique, or how hard you train, if you don’t apply focus on every aspect of each exercise, you won’t get the desired results. You can’t be thinking about work, a spat with your girlfriend, or the coming weekend with friends while exercising because doing so will decrease your workout performance and lead to bad form, neither of which will produce good results. Focusing on the task at hand ties all the other workout principles together and makes your desires your reality. When you focus on your goal, focus on the vision you’re striving for and focus on putting everything you’ve got into the workout for bigger muscle gains. The idea is to funnel as much energy as possible into converting what you expect into reality.

Conclusion

These principles behind high intensity exercises work regardless of what you’re trying to achieve. We’ve mainly discussed bodybuilding in this article. However, the same formula for success will work if you prefer to pursue strength training or to acquire better skills in a sport. Applying the principles of setting goals, envisioning what you want to transpire, working hard, and focusing on the task at hand will reap wonderful rewards that will cause you to look, feel, and perform better.