In fact, I’d have to say that in truth I was obsessed with finding the “magic” program that would produce the fastest muscle growth known to man.

I decided that it was paramount that my search for this hidden routine continue until I found the perfect blend of exercises that would give me super-fast muscle gains - guaranteed.

Well truth be told, what I found out was this:

Intensity of effort (otherwise known as hard work), is far more important than your choice of exercises. Even the lousiest exercise will produce some muscle growth if you work hard enough on it.

You can work hard using a pretty average program, and you’d do far better than if you lounged your way through the “perfect” program.

You see, most “hardgainers” are looking for the “magic” routine that will instantly turn them into Mr Olympia overnight. But there is no such thing. You see, it’s the intensity of effort that you put into each and every exercise that counts.

Without maximum intensity of effort - no routine no matter who created it will build very much muscle. You’ve got to learn to work hard during each and every set. You’ve got to give your workouts everything you’ve got - otherwise you’re likely just wasting your time.

Work Hard or Go Home…

I hate to be the one to say it. But you won’t gain ANY muscle at all with a half-hearted effort. Anyone who tells you any different is probably after your hard-earned money.

Someone once said that success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Well when it comes to building muscle fast - it’s more like 100% perspiration. And that’s a good thing to keep in mind if you’re not seeing the kind of muscle gains you want.

Make up your mind right now to change that. Make up your mind to start putting every bit of intensity of effort you can muster into every repetition of every exercise you do in your current program.

But understand that what I mean when I say hard work, is not working out for hours at a time and dragging yourself through exercise after exercise. I mean following a simple but proven program and working hard on each individual exercise.

When I finally understood the difference between simply working out and working hard, my muscle gains started going through the roof. And that’s because no program no matter how good will ever work unless you do.

And this “not-so-secret” secret exercise is the key to getting super-fast muscle gains in no time flat. This exercise is probably responsible for packing more muscle on more bodybuilders than all the other exercises combined.

This exercise is the barbell squat.

The barbell squat is the number one exercise for building muscle and strength. You can solve most of your muscle gaining problems with just this one exercise alone. No kidding.

I took me almost six years to grasp the importance of the barbell squat. When I first started training with weights, I wanted big arms, a big chest and ripped abdominal muscles - and I wanted them fast.

It never occurred to me in my wildest dreams that training my leg muscles was the key to unlocking my hidden potential. Most guys don’t want to talk about training their legs. They want the big showy muscles that turn heads at the beach.

But what they don’t realize is that training your legs with the barbell squat is the fastest way to build a strong muscular physique hands down. Without the squat - you won’t grow anywhere near as fast - and you might no even grow at all.

The squat is THE growing exercise. It stimulates growth throughout the entire body - not just the legs. This is known as what’s called the “indirect” effect whereby training one body-part can cause indirect growth in other body-parts.

No other exercise takes advantage of the “indirect effect” better than the barbell squat. Not the deadlift, the bench press, the barbell curl, or any other exercise for that matter.

You might find this hard to believe, but the squat is ninety-nine percent of any training program. It’s just that important. If you don’t believe me, try them for just four weeks the way your suppose to, and I guarantee you’ll be shocked by the results.

Here’s how I want you to do them:

I want you to do just one set. Load the bar with a weight that will allow you to perform between fifteen and twenty repetitions. You can use a Smith machine or squat rack, but make sure that you use some form of safety equipment so that you can get out from underneath the bar when you fail on your last repetition.

Now duck under the bar and rest it across the back of your shoulders. You can pad the bar with a towel or piece of cut foam if you want. Lift the bar from the rack and take a step back. Lower the weight in a controlled manner until the back of your thighs are parallel to the floor. Keep your head up and your back flat at all times during the movement.

Once you reach the bottom, push up until you come to the top exhaling as you do so. Continue performing slow controlled repetitions until you simply can’t perform another no matter how hard you try. Safely return the bar back to the rack and collapse on the floor if you need to until you catch your breath.

Keep adding weight to the bar each workout - five to ten pounds should do it - and make the full fifteen to twenty repetitions like your life depended on it. The rate of your muscle gains will depend almost entirely on how hard you work on that single set of squats.

One Hard Set Of Squats

By the way, if you can even think about doing a second set you haven’t worked hard enough. You need to squeeze every last repetition you can out of that one set. Don’t stop simply because you reach a specific number of repetitions, continue the exercise until no more repetitions are humanly possible.

This one set of barbell squat should be performed two to three times per week in a program that includes a couple more sets of additional exercises. But keep the extra exercises to a minimum. You want to focus on getting your training poundage up higher in the squat. Work towards the three hundred pound goal for twenty repetitions before you give another program a try.

Remember, the barbell squat will make your physique goals a reality. It will help you build bigger arms faster than any curling movement you will ever do - and without it you’ll probably never see the gains you want.

So squat hard - and get big.

Let’s face it - a strong build can open doors that were never open to you before. You can command a new found respect from friends and family - and get a whole lot more attention from the opposite sex as well.

I know this might sound a little simplistic - but being well built is one of the best goals you can set for yourself. It can change your life in ways you’d never imagine.

You will find people responding to you in a different way - and this in turn can make you see yourself in a more confident and self-assured light. I know from personal experience.

But in my haste to achieve my physique goals I committed the “cardinal sin” of training too often and for too long. I made the mistake of overtraining. And I know that I’m not the only “hard-gainer” out there who’s made the same mistake.

The Foundational Secret

So here’s a “rule-of-thumb” that I want you to write down in your training journal so that you stop confusing more training with faster muscle gains. Here it is:

When you’re trying to gain muscle as fast as humanly possible - it’s far better to do too little training - than too much.

This simple rule is the foundational secret to getting super-fast muscle gains. It’s by far the most important lesson I’ve learned over my many years of trial and error training.

You see, you only have so much energy available for training and growth. Your recovery ability is really quite limited. If you workout for too long and too often, you can easily deplete your body’s recovery ability and end up with no muscle growth to show for all that training time and effort.

You have to understand the importance of this simple fact. You can train as often as you like - far be it for me to tell you otherwise - but if you haven’t seen the kind of muscle growth you’ve been wanting, then take a look at your training program and see if you haven’t been breaking this bodybuilding “sin.”

If your goal is to gain muscle as fast as possible, you’ll want to make sure that you’re training no more than three times a week, and for no more than thirty minutes at a time.

And remember, that’s the upper limit. As you progress with your training, you’ll probably want to reduce your training time and workout frequency even further. That may come as a surprise to you, but my experience has proven it to me without any doubt whatsoever.

So respect your recovery ability and keep your training to a minimum. You’ll gain more muscle that way - I guarantee it.