Top Tips From A Bodybuilding Champion!

Bodybuilding champion Chris Jones has been in the industry for a long time and has won a variety of bodybuilding titles and is well recognised in the industry. He has kept to the fundamentals of muscle building and with this strategy has gained amazing size, symmetry, power and shape. LA Muscle caught up with Chris to get his top tips on how to build muscle and what has worked for him.

TOP BODYBUILDING TIPS BY CHRIS JONES

"If I were asked by someone, what advice would you give to someone getting into the sport of bodybuilding, it would probably be the following: KEEP IT SIMPLE! Let me explain".

When you start out, there is, in fact, TOO MUCH information out there and the popularity of the internet and social media has meant that there is information so readily available at our fingertips that there is, quite literally, too much that everything can become so confusing! When I started out, we had to read the magazines (which were totally irrelevant anyway, since they allegedly published the routines of the genetic elite pros jacked up in tons of gear!) Through asking other bigger guys at the gym, and reading through all the hype, we tried things through trial and error and finally discovered what worked for us! So, what did actually "work?" THE BASICS!!!!!!

In a nutshell, pick a handful of the best and the hardest compound exercises, such as squats, deadlifts, bent over rows, chin ups, overhead presses, dumbbell presses and rows, dips, barbell curls, sit ups, leg raises, and sometimes adding in things like a leg press or hack squat. Isolation exercises shouldn't even be part of the arsenal until you've already built up a good foundation of size and strength. Then, the "secret" (if there ever were one) was to dedicate weeks and weeks and months on end to becoming progressively stronger in these lifts whilst using immaculate technique. Rep ranges would vary from time to time and prudent exercise substitutions would also be made from time to time, but not for easier exercises. Progression would be key; striving for either more reps with the same weight or more weight on the bar for the same reps.

Another one of the crucial pieces of advice I would give would be to make sure that proper exercise technique was followed and that, rather than just lifting a weight from point A to point B, trainers focus more on "feeling" the target muscles working and developing a powerful mind/muscle connection.

The funny thing is that, the more advanced you become, the more you are able to explore other training techniques and protocols and programs. Believe me, I've tried virtually everything through the years and have completed some of the most gruelling training plans I have ever come across but, as they say, the more things change, the more things stay the same. What does this mean? Well, you can try all these special code named programs and super body blitz, German Volume Training, IFBB Pro Mass Plan etc but you have to remember that the basics never fail!!! Still, KEEP THINGS SIMPLE!!!! It's funny that, whenever your feeling strong for repetitions and your key lifts are progressing (which doesn't seem to happen that often these days) it just seems that your actually getting bigger and more muscular! Coincidence? Not necessarily. Obviously, we can't just keep getting stronger ad infinitum, but increasing strength gives us much more scope for increasing hypertrophy (muscle size), but at the advanced level, we have to also explore other methods to increase the load on the muscles, other than just increasing the weight, but that's a whole different essay! Lol.

You also need to keep your supplementation on point. a good quality protein like LA Whey is obviously key for post workout, BCAA's for recovery. Creatine for size and strength and a quality testo booster like Norateen Heavyweight II.

In conclusion, KEEP IT SIMPLE. Get progressively stronger in the key lifts whilst lifting in impeccable form. Eat 5 or 6 balanced and nutritious meals per day and never get overly hungry. Drink plenty of water, avoid processed foods and fizzy drinks and limit alcohol and do your cardio! Don't OVERDO the cardio- just a few times per week at a moderate intensity unless you are stick thin and don't need to. Get plenty of sleep and rest and minimise stress levels. That's it really!!! Go forth and GROW!