I received this in an email from Ben Pakulski who is an IFBB pro. I have been incorporatating alot of his training principles and it is really making a difference. I have really been able to put on some quality mass following his principles and philosophy which you can probably notice if you look at some of my earlier pictures compared to now. Before every rep and set these 10 rules are in the back of mind.

The bottom line I take from this is that it is NOT how MUCH you lift but HOW you lift that separates the big dogs from the puppies.

THE 10 UNIVERSAL RULES FOR BUILDING MUSCLE!

By Ben Pakulski

1) A muscle is WEAKEST at its EXTREMES of the range. SO, learn to isolate these points of the strength curve and make it stronger. As a result you will become proportionally stronger in the mid-range and GROWTH WILL OCCUR!

2) Always try to work a muscle through its complete CONTROLLABLE Range of Motion (ROM), although that may not be possible within ONE exercise. It is always possible within a given workout!

3) Muscles DO NOT recognize weight! Muscle recognize TENSION! Increase tension, increase growth!

4) Focus on training DISADVANTAGES, not advantages. Training disadvantages = bigger muscles. Every workout you should be learn how to make every exercise HARDER by manipulating body position, slowing the movement down, maintaining tension in both directions… BEFORE you even think about adding weight. Often times, adding weight just leads to your body seeking out training advantages, in other words, cheating.

5) ALWAYS INITIATE with the working muscle! (if you're training your delts, the first movement MUST come from the delt, not somewhere else or momentum!)

6) CONTROL through the entire range is a must. A negative (eccentric) rep should be under such conscious control that you can change direction at ANY point of that ROM, and start coming back up (concentric). Control is the CURRENCY of muscle growth. If you can’t control the muscle, you can’t challenge it.

7) Larger muscle require more stimulus to reach exhaustion. But also take longer to recover between workouts. Smaller muscle groups can recover faster so can be trained more frequently.

8) KNOW which muscle are PRIMARILY fast twitch and which are PRIMARILY slow -twitch! This will ALWAYS affect the number of reps, sets, loads and rest periods.

9) Work a variety of rep ranges within each workout. Different rep ranges allow you to vary your TUT (time under tension), and ensure you're working all types of muscle fibers.

10) SQUEEZE IT LIKE IT OWES YOU MONEY!! (my personal favorite! ;)) Another way to say this is to “Contract AGAINST the resistance.” You can fatigue a muscle simply be contracting the life out of it and often times more weight only stresses your joints than your muscles.