In order to build muscle effectively, you are going to want to focus on increasing the weight you use while still doing the same reps. For example, if you bench press 135 for 10 reps, you are gonna wanna try to do 145 for 10 reps the next week. Now this is going to take time, as building strength takes consistency and patience.
You should focus on increasing the weight in small increments, so whatever you do for a certain exercise one week, your goal should be to just add 5 lbs to it and do the same amount of reps the next week. You will hit a plateau at some point, but when that happens, you need to either change things up or add more calories to your diet.
In order to build strength and bulk up fast, your workouts should focus on compound movements which are exercises that work multiple muscle groups at the same time. For example, the bench press is an exercise for the chest but when you move the bar you are also using your arms, and shoulders as a supplementary muscle group to move the weight.
These are examples of some of the best compound workouts:
Squat
Deadlift
Lunge
Bench Press
Dip
Lying Pullover
Push-Up
Pull-Up
Lat Pulldown
Shoulder Press
There are a slew of benefits that come with using compound movements, such as burning more calories per exercise, as more muscles are being used at once.
Compound lifts allow you to work more muscles in a short space of time, increasing the efficiency of your workout. After a while, they will allow you to exercise the same muscle group for longer periods with lower levels of fatigue. They can also help to improve coordination and balance, joint mobility, and stability through movement in natural patterns. Compound workouts increase the heart rate during strength training, helping to assist the improvement of the cardiovascular system. What's not to like about that?
If building strength is your goal, then you'll want do your compound exercise with low reps and more sets such as 5 sets of 2-5 reps.
If your goal is to build muscle, you should aim for higher reps such as 8-12 reps, because you will need to fill the muscles with blood and keep the muscle under tension for longer in order to build muscle. However, you can still add one heavy set for say, 2-5 reps at the end of your sets for each exercise.
Now, go out there and get a good pump in, damn it.
