Growing your muscle mass means training hard and giving your body the appropriate amount rest. Resting is just as important for building muscle mass as lifting weights. Even though it seems counter intuitive, it is much better to over-rest and undertrain than to overtrain and under-rest. So keep that in mind as we discuss different workout routines for muscle mass.

Perhaps the most effective workout routines are compound exercises. Compound exercises are designed to place an extreme amount of stress on your body and require many different muscles to perform them. For example, box jumps are a type of compound exercise. They are not set to isolate just one muscle, but require your full body to perform them. The dead lift is another good example of a compound exercise. Not only do you work your lower back, but you also work your legs and different muscles in your upper body.

It’s easy to see why compound exercises are effective — since they use many muscles, you stimulate more muscle growth in each of those muscles. If you look at any bodybuilder that focuses on muscle mass, you will find that they utilize compound exercises.

For an idea of the results you can get with compound exercises, just watch the movie 300. All of those actors were trained with full body compound exercises. We are talking about exercises like flipping tires, using a kettle ball and so on.

Regardless of what workout routine you start, if you are new to strength training, it is far more important to start with a low intensity workouts and build your way up than to try to jump in at high intensity. By starting with low intensity, you can focus more on the proper form and executing sound reps, without worrying about injury or failure.

In any case, it is important to check with a doctor before starting any workout routine designed for muscle mass. It’s also important to realize that you should not carry on your workout sessions for longer than an hour. As you increase your intensity, you should need no more than 30 minutes per session.

Finally, the name of the game for muscle mass growth is progression. As you progress in your weight lifting, fell free to modify your routines in your workout. As your body evolves, so too will your workout routine.