If you are someone that regularly lifts weights in a bodybuilding style workout routine in order to gain weight in the form of muscle, then you should be very concerned that you are weight training in such a manner that you accomplish that in the most efficient manner.

In order to properly evaluate the effectiveness of your workout program, it is very important that you understand exactly what is it that makes a muscle grow in size, not just strength (as 99% of weight lifters seem to confuse the two and think that they go hand in hand, which they don't).

It isn't just a matter of lifting heavier and heavier weight with good form in a progressive manner that will stimulate muscle mass.

If that were the case, that all you had to do to build big muscles was to constantly lift more weights, then powerlifters and Olympic lifters would have the best muscular development...and they don't.

I'm sure you know someone that can lift a lot of weight, yet they don't have the muscle mass to match.

Bodybuilders have better developed muscles all over than just about every powerlifter, with the occasional exception.

Sure, powerlifters are bigger in overall size and girth,and weigh more than bodybuilders, but a lot of that "size", "girth", and "weight" is not muscle mass, it's body fat.

These are the most important factors that will determine if your natural workout routine is properly structured to allow you to gain and build the most muscle mass that your genetics will allow:

1) Total calories that you eat per day

2) Increasing lactic acid by-products

3) Increasing internal pressure within the muscle

4) Constant muscular tension

5) Stimulating hormonal metabolic processes

6) Causing higher amounts of blood to be sent to the muscle after it's trained

7) Progressive weight overload / increases

Now, just because there are many factors that you must cover in your weight training program that doesn't mean that you have to make it complicated.

It's actually pretty simple to do, as long as you are using the proper workout techniques.

If you noticed, I placed the total amount of calories you eat per day as #1 on the list.

That's because you can have the perfect bodybuilding routine, be consistent day in and day out, train with all of the heart, might, and dedication in the world, but if you don't eat enough calories for your particular body type and genetics, you will not be supplying your muscles with very crucial nutrients it needs to repair the muscle, let it recover, rebuild, and grow.

You simply will not gain one ounce of muscle weight if you are not eating enough calories, regardless of how or how much you workout.

This is hands down the most important factor to building muscle mass at the fastest rate possible.

If you aren't taking care of your daily total calorie needs, don't bother moving on.

I'm being honest with you.

Now, factors #2 - #6 are all just as important as each other.

These 5 factors all go hand in hand.

I'll go into detail about those 5 in my next article.