Never train through injuries. If an injury does not clear up quickly by itself, see a training-orientated injury specialist. Investigate the probable trigger of the injury (incorrect training), correct it, and do not let it happen again. And when you get an injury, investigate non-intrusive and non-drug therapies.
Those who hoist the biggest poundages do not necessarily have the biggest muscles. It is not just sheer poundage that matters. Individual leverages, type of training used, lifting support gear (in powerlifting), muscle composition factors, neurological efficiency, and lifting technique, among other elements, account for differences in muscular development among individuals of similar strength levels. But for every individual—keeping all other factors constant—if bigger weights are built up to, then bigger muscles will be developed.
Focus on the big basic lifts and their variations. Do this for most of your training time. Do not try to build yourself up using tools of detail. Leg extensions do not build big thighs, and pecdeck work does not build big chests.
You cannot get very powerful in the big and key basic exercises without getting impressive throughout your body.
For appearance-first bodybuilders, only when you are already big and strong (but without having gotten fat) should you even consider concerning yourself with attaining outstanding definition, and the finishing touches of perfect balance and symmetry. Build the substance before you concern yourself with the detail. Perfectly proportioned and well cut up “bags of bones” do not look impressive. If you concern yourself too soon with detail work, as is nearly always the case with bodybuilders, you will never be able to apply the effort, focus and recuperative ability needed to get big in the first place. What is by far the biggest deficiency in a typical sampling of gym trainees? Plain muscle and strength. Despite this most trainees arrange their training so that the last things they will ever develop are lots of muscle and strength.
If you want to add two inches to your arms, for example, bank on having to add thirty or more pounds of muscle to your whole body. You cannot do that by focusing your attention on your arms. Get your body growing as a unit, concentrating largely on leg and back work. About two thirds of your body’s total muscle mass is in your legs, buttocks and back. The shoulders, chest, abdominals and arms only make up about a third of your muscle mass, so do not go giving those areas in total any more than one third of your total weight-training attention.
