If you, like me, have a goal of increasing your body mass, then your focus is on a combination of a high calorie-high protein diet, and an isolated strength training regimen. “If you want to build your body, you’re going to have to train like a body builder” …without using ‘hitting failure’ as any type of indicator!

Optimizing hypertrophy (the increase of cell volume) is the shiny key to achieving your results. Here’s why your efforts may not be working:

1. The plan doesn’t have enough volume. How many sets do you perform before moving on to the next exercise? (Answer: 8-10 sets) Within hypertrophy program, 3 or 4 sets will not cut it–and keep rest intervals on the lower end.
2. The program uses too many exercises. To achieve your goal, total body exercises defeat the point. Standard isolation training methods (used in body building) are best to slap size on.
3. You’re lifting too heavy. When size training, working with heavy weights can actually act as a blocker to sarcoplasm hypertrophy (increased volume of muscle tissue cells). Keep weights light, and use a system like GVT (German Volume Training) at 8×8–you’ll notice that with the rate of exertion the body and muscles go through, the light weights begin to feel heavy!

Keep in mind that training too heavy can actually exhaust the central nervous system–which is bad news if you want any size gains at all.