There is a combination to unlocking muscle growth in every person. In addition to eating an abundance of calories and protein, weight training is a must. If you use the right exercises, in the right ways, and combine it with healthy eating, the muscles will grow.

4 Exercises or Less

According to strength professional Dan John, one of the biggest problems is that most people do too many exercises. In order to stimulate muscle growth you need at most 4 exercises, trained hard. It is highly recommended that you pick some of the big exercises like squats, bench presses, deadlifts, pullups, and overhead presses. These exercises work the most muscles in every movement, and allow you to use the most weight. Stay away from any machines. You want to recruit more muscles, not isolate them.

Use Low Repetitions with a Heavy Weight

If you can do 12 to 20 repetitions with a weight, it's probably too light. If you don't put enough stress on the body to make it think it needs more muscle, it won't grow more muscle. Keep your repetitions in the three to eight range, and make sure you're using a relatively heavy weight. Always have at least one more repetition left when you finish a set, preferably two, but not more than three unless it is a warm-up set.

Lift for Higher Volume

Volume is in reference to the total pounds lifted in a workout. For example, if you did one set of seven reps at 100 pounds, that would be 700 pounds lifted. Do that for your whole workout, then increase that number the next time. You can do this one of two ways, lift more weight per set, or lift more sets per workout. An easy way to add volume to a workout is to add back off sets. Once you have done your top weight, drop 20 percent and do two to five sets of five repetitions to continue to work the muscle.

Keep it under 45 minutes

Once you have been working out for about 40 to 50 minutes, your body reacts with an increase in cortisol, and a decrease in testosterone, and growth hormone. This will negatively impact your attempts to gain muscle. Also, if you hit 45 minutes and can keep going, and you didn't have an easy day scheduled for recovery, then you weren't going hard enough. Rest up, and go at it harder next time.

Source:

Power to the People; Pavel Tsatsouline; 1999

Beyond Bodybuilding; Pavel Tsatsouline; 2005