Roger Clemens. Barry Bonds. Mark McGwire. Sammy Sosa. Shawne Merriman. Floyd Landis. And on and on and on.
You recognize these names. These are disgraced professional athletes who cheated, who disrespected their sport and their competition by taking performance enhancing drugs - namely, human growth hormone (HGH) or some sort of anabolic steroids. Whether their goal was gaining muscle mass or increasing their body's ability to process oxygen and therefore improve cardiovascular stamina, the process is the same: They use drugs to increase their workout regimen and push their bodies beyond what would otherwise have been their limit.
And these drugs have made their way into our gyms and even our schools. Kids, always obvlivious to long term repercussions and always wanting to look good, often fall victim to performance enhancing drugs with dire long term consequences. If the goal is gaining muscle mass, then going the route of human growth hormone or anabolic steroids is all too easy. It's too tempting, too obvious of a short cut, for many, many young people to overlook.
So if the goal is gaining muscle mass, how does one go about it without the input of human growth hormone or anabolic steroids? After all, these drugs not only make it so that your body builds muscle more quickly and retains it better and longer, but steroids also dull the aches and pains associated with strenuous exercise. That means you can work on longer, harder and more frequently than you would be able to otherwise. When it comes to gaining muscle mass, you can see how that would be an advantage.
That's why you have to be realistic about your goals and your timeframe. You need to set a baseline exercise regimen, build your core muscles, and work from there. So any exercise regimen that aims for gaining muscle mass will start with mundane exercises like sit-ups, push-ups and medicine ball work. You should concentrate on this repeatedly and with extreme prejudice for at least a month, getting your core solid and impossibly ripped and fit, before aiming to gain muscle mass anywhere.
Once you've done that, it's time to switch to hard core weight work. This means high weight low reps, pushing the highest amoung you possibly can, rather than low weight high reps, which ends up producing a leaner cut of muscle.
And above all, you need to switch your diet. Add lots of high protein meals while cutting out as much fat as is possible.