If you are just beginning to make weight training a regular part of your life, there are a few things that you should keep in mind to ensure that you get the best muscle building results.
Assuming that you are sold on the importance of correct form, you should remind yourself of some other rules of thumb in order to take advantage of all your efforts.
First, you should divide nearly all of your weight lifting exercise into sets of 8 to 12 repetitions, 15 at the absolute most.
From a psychological standpoint, if the number of repetitions is too high, it becomes increasingly more difficult to push yourself to reach that number.
Scientifically speaking, studies have illustrated that the secretion of your own body's growth hormone is at its most with repetitions in this range.
For optimum muscle building this is a key as well as the resulting pump, which is essentially the blood flowing to the cells of muscle tissue, feeds the muscle and helps with recovery and strengthening.
Throw in the fact that a manageable amount of repetitions will allow you to maintain your focus on form thus reducing the chance of injury.
Another key element to maximizing your muscle building success is progressive training.
What this entails is either increasing your repetitions from your previous session or adding a little more weight each subsequent visit to the gym.
If you are able to exceed 12-15 repetitions of a particular exercise, for example, it is time to add weight.
You won't likely be able to do this on every gym visit, but it is important to strive for this on a weekly or bi-weekly basis.
Memorizing or writing down the number of sets and repetitions per exercise is important to be able to keep track of progression.
An additional important piece of the muscle building puzzle has to do with changing around you exercises.
There is no need to do a complete overhaul to your routine every time you walk in the gym, but by changing the exercise that you do for a certain muscle group every so often you will stimulate muscle growth, and avoid boredom.
When your workout isn't varied it can become easy to not attack each exercise with the same level of vigor and concentration.
Finally, for the best and fastest results in muscle and strength building, you should focus pretty much on free weights.
Free weights tend to involve the entire muscle more than machine weights do.
The control and balance that you exert when using free weights also adds to the muscle building process.
That's not to say that machines don't serve a purpose -- they certainly do -- but if you are intent on building muscle, as a general rule free weights give you the biggest bang for your buck.
Apply these tips as a constant reminder so that you can stay on the proper exercise track.
You and your body will reap the benefits.