Do you ever wish you could get back to your early days of strength training? Back then the results came so quickly, you felt stronger just about every other day. These days you know you’re strong, but the gains seem fewer and farther between. Here are some tips for building muscle and strength consistently, and avoiding plateaus in the weight room.

Tips for Building Muscle #1: Change Your Routine

If your brain hardly has to work when you step into the gym, it’s possible that your muscles are on a similar “autopilot” setting. Doing the same thing over and over is fine if your goal is to maintain strength and muscle mass; but if you’re looking for gains, you’ve got to keep your brain working and your muscles confused. Dropping the dumbbells and doing some sets on a biceps curl machine, for example, will still work the same muscles. The slightly different angles and movement restrictions of the machine will result a slightly different exercise that will work the muscles differently. It’s best to change your resistance training routine about once every 2 weeks.

Tips for Building Muscle #2: Give Your Body What it Needs

In order for resistance training to produce gains in strength and muscle mass, it needs fuel—the right foods and plenty of water—and it needs rest. Foods rich in complex carbohydrates will give your body the sustained energy it needs to make it through a tough workout, while getting enough lean protein (about 20% of your daily caloric intake is recommended for a muscle gain diet) will provide your body with the materials to build new muscle mass in response to your training. Water is always important; even more so when physical exertion is high. Rest might get overlooked among these tips for building muscle, but your down time is the time when your body works to rebuild and strengthen the muscle fibers you’ve just destroyed with a really tough workout. The new muscle fibers are built bigger and stronger to accommodate the resistance your body knows they’ll have to face; but without adequate rest between workouts, your body doesn’t get the opportunity to do this rebuilding. Shorting yourself on any one of these essentials will decrease the effectiveness of your strength training efforts.

Tips for Building Muscle #3: Work Hard(er)

If you’re already maxing out on ever set of exercise you do, then disregard this tip and focus on the 2 above. But if you’re like me, you have a really good workout every couple of weeks, and the interim trips to the gym are just so-so. I’d be willing to bet that the difference is most often directly related to how hard you’re actually working on any given day. Remember: new, stronger muscle fibers are build when we really challenge (and to some extent, even damage) the existing ones. If your weights aren’t heavy enough or you aren’t doing that one extra repetition to fail on an exercise, you aren’t mandating new muscle growth. So during your next strength training workout, don’t just leave the gym tired: try to work to fatigue on every set of every exercise. If you keep this in mind during every workout, you’ll find that you’re not simply maintaining strength muscle mass, but actually seeing significant gains.

Though these are just a few tips for building muscle, they’re some of the most important and most easily overlooked. So do yourself and your muscles a favor and incorporate these tips into your daily or weekly strength training routine. You’ll be glad you did.

You know that guy at the gym? The really buff one who parades around in his leather weight belt and cutoff T-shirt, and seems to scoff at anyone who can’t curl 75 pounds? I don’t want to look like him. I want to be strong and fit, but I don’t want to be awkwardly bulky. The fear of “bulking up,” as well as concerns about losing speed and flexibility with a gain in muscle mass are all too common among women in particular, as well as athletes of both sexes.

The good news is this: there are a lot of different muscle building techniques out there, but none will simply turn you into a “gym rat” if that’s not what you’re going for. For the world-class tough guy or bodybuilder look, you need to ingest massive amounts of calories and probably more than a few supplements. You need to have a particular kind of resistance training routine, and the genetic capability to become that large. No one accidentally turns into Hulk Hogan.

The goal of resistance training is to strengthen our muscles. Becoming stronger all around allows our bodies to function more efficiently. Furthermore, studies have shown that adults who do resistance training regularly actually have retain higher bone mass densities later in life than those who do not.

So now that I’ve alleviated your fear of getting huge and even given you an undeniable reason to add resistance training to your current workout routine, here are a couple of muscle building techniques that might come in handy.

1. Always work with challenging weights. If you’re brand new to resistance training, it may take some time to figure out which weight or machine setting is appropriate for each exercise. Generally, to build muscle (strength, that is), you should choose a weight where you can do no more than 6-10 repetitions before your muscles fatigue. So if you hit 10 and are still going strong, you need a heavier weigh. If, on the other hand, you’re contorting your entire body to curl a dumbbell 3 times, you’ll probably want to take it down a notch.

2. Don’t get stuck in a rut. In other words, switch up your routine to ensure optimal strength gains. Remember that your goal with resistance training is to gain muscle mass and strength; so don’t be surprised when this happens. Gains can be most dramatic at the beginning of a new exercise program, so pay attention to your body, and adjust weights or repetitions as necessary to keep things challenging. The golden rule of resistance training is to change the elements of your routine every couple of weeks. Substituting a bench press for push-ups will still work your chest and some upper arm muscles, but the variations in direction and movement will provide the muscles with a new challenge. Working with free weights for 2 weeks and then switching to machines can be equally beneficial.

Of course there are many more muscle building techniques we could discuss, if only there were time. But what you have here are the essentials. The details—creating a resistance training technique that is effective and manageable for you personally—are up to you. But don’t worry: when it comes to the gym, you’ll soon find out that the details are the fun part.

If you’ve looked into the diet and exercise industry lately, you’ve seen all of the products on the market that claim to be the “miracle” supplement or the “best kept secret.” But how much truth is there in a claim that a pill or powder can help you build muscle faster? Are those bars and drinks for sale at your gym’s front counter really necessary to build muscle and gain strength, or are they just overpriced snacks in tempting-looking wrappers?

If you’re looking for muscle building secrets, there is no shortage of choices available to you. But like any good secret, each comes with a price tag. And before you do too much shopping around for an easy way to gain muscle mass, it’s important to understand the basics. Here are a few facts to get you started:

-Muscle fibers increase in size and strength when challenging resistance training exercises force them to do so.

-Increased protein intake (whether from lean meats, supplements, or shakes) will increase your potential for building muscle mass. This does not mean that it will automatically lead to larger muscles.

-The individual fibers within a single muscle or muscle group often run in more than one direction.

Therefore a comprehensive workout will require working each muscle group from multiple angles, with multiple exercises.

-Muscles need rest to rebuild after a hard workout. To maximize strengthening and growth, try not to resistance train the same muscle group 2 days in a row.

These tips may not seem like muscle building secrets, per se, but they are important facts to keep in mind if you’re seriously looking to make gains in muscle size and strength. If you want to fuel your body with something other than fresh, healthy foods, you’ll need to do a bit of research to see what all those pretty packages at the gym’s front counter actually do for you. If you want to build muscle, I suggest you hit the weight room.