This is a guest post from Dan Trink, founder of Trink Fitness and the Director of Training for Peak Performance in New York City.

You’re doing almost everything you can to build more muscle. You understand sets and reps. You’ve discovered the value of big, compound movements such as the squat, deadlift, overhead press and chin up. You’re even getting the hang of putting together a decent body part split.

And, you’ve probably made progress. Strength has been gained. Muscles have been built. Mila Kunis is now stalking you on Facebook.

But those gains won’t last forever. If you want to stay ahead of the pack and bust through a current (or impending) plateau, you are going to need to bring in the big artillery. The things that others either don’t know about or don’t pay attention to in order to drive the biggest muscle gains possible.

I used to walk into the gym with the information I am about to give you written in code and locked inside a briefcase that was hand-cuffed to my wrist. But then I realized that, even if people knew these “secrets”, they probably weren’t gutsy enough to actually use them in training as they required some thinking, some planning, an unusually high level of dedication and some serious pain tolerance.

Most people want to walk into the gym and walk on the treadmill for 40 minutes while reading the latest Kimye news in Us Weekly. If you are one of those people, these techniques are not for you.

Now that you’ve been warned, here are my 3 mass building secrets.

Increase Volume to Build More Muscle

This is actually two secrets in one. If you are fairly new to training or need to increase size pretty much everywhere, throughout the course of each training phase (4 to 6 week period) you should increase volume (total work being done) on a week-to-week basis. Add in an extra set. Put in a couple of extra reps. Add an additional exercise. You need to increase the training stimulus in order to force adaptation. Simply repeating the same workout over and over will not produce change.

I am oversimplifying this a bit. This should not be a haphazard plan but a thought process that allows you to increase total volume in order to produce a greater training effect. But it doesn’t have to be rocket science either. Take your basic plan. After you’ve completed week 1, add 1 set to each of your primary exercises for week 2. In week 3, add two reps to each set of your secondary exercises. In week 4, add an additional two reps to each of your primary exercises. An example make look something like this:

* Red = Primary Exercise

* Blue = Secondary Exercise

There are many different ways to vary your volume including linear, non-linear and undulating. There is a learning curve to all this but do your research, figure it all out, use it and become that baddest mo-fo in your gym.

If you are not a beginner and are looking to bring up a specific body part, I would recommend dramatically increasing volume for that body part while reducing volume everywhere else. This is truly the key to specialization phases. So, if have smaller legs than Justin Bieber at the tail end of a hunger strike, blast legs 3 times per week and put the upper body on maintenance for a month. I promise, your chest will still be there when you are ready to get back to it.

Utilize Time Under Tension

A set of 8 reps can last 20 seconds, 30 seconds or 50 seconds depending on the speed at which you lift or lower the bar. This makes a big difference in the resulting muscle mass gained from that set. Most sets I see performed in the gym are too short to maximize muscle mass gain. You want to shoot for sets ranging anywhere from 25 to 50 seconds. And the best way to insure that your set lasts as long as it should is by utilizing specific lifting tempos.

The way tempo is most often discussed is with a 4 digit number such as 4010.

• The first number is the eccentric or lowering phase of the movement (for example, in the close grip bench press the time you take, in this case 4 seconds, to lower the bar to your chest).
• The second number is any pause in the bottom position (in this example, no pause).
• The third number is the amount of time it takes to lift (concentric phase) the bar (1 second here).
• The final number is any pause at the top of the movement.

Remember: The first number is always the lowering phase of the lift, regardless if lowering the bar (or yourself) is the first thing you do. In a chin up or lat pulldown, for example, your first motion is to lift yourself to the bar (or pull the bar to yourself), however the first number in the tempo prescription still represents the lowering phase of the movement. Lowering first, pause at the bottom second, lifting third, pause at the top fourth for all lifts.

In our example, each rep lasts 5 seconds. You perform 8 to 10 reps at this speed and you’ll hit that 40 to 50 second sweet spot. Fair warning: lifting in this manner requires you to lighten the load, sometimes significantly. But, if your goal is to get bigger, this is a worthwhile sacrifice. So, along with your umbrella and that Kelly Clarkson CD you keeping asking the front desk girl to play on repeat during your workout, leave your ego at the door and focus more on tempo of lift rather than load used.

Rest Periods

This may be the worst kept secret of the bunch. Every training program in every fitness mag prescribes rest periods. The problem here isn’t knowledge, it’s compliance. In general, most gym-goers just aren’t as on top of their rest periods as they should be. They are too busy staring at the hot girl in the tight yoga pants banging out reps on the hip abduction machine rather than staring at the clock. While I understand, this choice is not going to help you develop the diesel muscles that will impress said hot girl, convince her to go out with you and lead to the two of you making sweet, sweet love.

Muscle gains are facilitated by incomplete rest and metabolic distress. Therefore keep your rest periods anywhere from 45 seconds to 75 seconds in between sets. If you are not used to it, these rest periods seem to fly by and may require you to lighten weights used. Again, that is fine in this type of training phase, your goal here is to prioritize getting bigger over getting stronger.

Putting It All Together

Are these the only factors required to put slabs of Grade A, Prime beef on your frame? No. But utilizing these techniques that few trainees take advantage of will certainly put you ahead of the pack.

I do realize that you’re probably more interested in having biceps the size of a Buick than trying to figure out specific training programs on your own. Once again, I’m here to help.

I have put together what may possibly be (judging by the results I’ve gotten from clients who have test run the program) one of the greatest arm specialization programs ever created. So if you are interested in having a couple of thick, veiny pipes poking out of your shirt sleeves, I suggest you click here and give it a shot. When the hot girl in the yoga pants is stroking your arms, you’ll both be glad you did.

Grab your copy of Dan’s bicep-building workout “Two Tickets to the Gun Show” here!

About the Author: Dan Trink

Dan Trink, CSCS is a strength coach, personal trainer and nutritional consultant. He is the founder of Trink Fitness and the Director of Training for Peak Performance in New York City. He has written hundreds of articles on the topics of training and nutrition and is the author of an upcoming book for Human Kinetics. Dan continues to work with a roster of athletes and clients both in-person and online specializing in performance and body composition transformation.

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