However, for most people, this is too much in the beginning. When starting out, plan on working your lower body much less than every other day.

4. Lifting Schedule

As a general rule, lifting weights every other day is best in order to optimize muscular growth and strength. However, there are some guys who love lifting weights and want to be in the gym every day.

If you want to lift weights as much as possible, you need to rotate the muscle groups that are used in each exercise. It is almost impossible to work the upper or lower body several days in a row. If you want to lift weights more often, rotate between working the upper body and the lower body.

In addition, you can increase the number of cardio sessions that you have each week. Some guys wrongly assume that cardio is a waste of time. However, you need to train your body so that you can push yourself harder in the gym.

Several cardio sessions per week can actually help optimize your muscle gains. Not only will they improve endurance, but they will also improve your overall quality of life.

5. Building Strength versus Muscle

Some new lifters wrongly assume that working out to build strength and muscle are the same things. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Before starting any lifting program, you need to define your goals and then build a plan around those goals.

If you want to build muscle, there are three mechanisms of hypertrophy.

• Muscular Damage
• Mechanical Tension
• Metabolic Stress

In order to optimize muscle growth, you need to hit as many of these mechanisms as possible. This is why weight lifters will typically rotate their workouts.

If you are just wanting to increase your strength levels without adding any size, you should concentrate on increasing mechanical tension. This refers to making the body adapt to higher weight over time.