20 Tips for Pain-Free Strength & Muscle Gains

Elliot Newman Elliot Newman March 06, 2020

If You Want to Gain Strength and Muscle Quickly – Without Pain or Injury – Here’s How to Do It…

By Elliot Newman

Lots of guys give up on their fitness and physique goals because they get injured, or simply because they aren’t making any progress… they aren’t building strength or muscle (or losing body-fat).

In this blog post I’m going to share 20 tips with you that’ll help you to make FAST gains in Strength & Muscle – without causing yourself pain or injury in the process!

Read on, take notes, then get to work…

20 Tips that’ll Help You Gain Muscle and Strength – While Minimizing Injury Risk…

1. Pay Attention to The “Big 5”

Sleep, Hydration, Nutrition, Training, Recovery.

Do these 5 things CONSISTENTLY, and do them WELL, and you WILL make gains in strength and muscle (or fat loss if that’s your thing).

It’s that simple.

2. Technique First

If you want to maximise your gains from a particular exercise, and minimize your injury-risk, you HAVE TO get your technique right.

Most people in the gym fail to do something as simple as a bicep curl with good form – let alone more complex exercises like squats and deadlifts.

Needless to say…

If you squat, bench and deadlift with BAD form… you’re going to get HURT sooner or later.

So get your technique right.

By the way… my friends at www.strongfirst.com do an amazing job teaching technique on kettlebell, barbell and bodyweight exercises. You should check them out.

3. Use The Conjugate Approach

The Conjugate Approach to training – made popular by Louie Simmons and Westside Barbell – involves a continuous rotation of exercises that all train the same muscle groups.

This leads to less chance of injury – because you’re not repeating exactly the same movements over and over again.

It also avoids psychological burnout, or: BOREDOM

Here’s how it works…

Instead of doing the Bench Press every week, you do something like this:

  • Bench Press
  • Close Grip Bench Press
  • Low Incline Bench Press
  • Decline Bench Press
  • Wide Grip Bench Press
  • Steep Incline Bench Press
  • Military Press

And so on. Rotating the exercise every 1-3 weeks.

All of these exercises predominately train the triceps, shoulders and chest – yet, by changing the variation frequently, you stay fresh, both MENTALLY and PHYSICALLY.

4. Focus on Big Compounds Movements First In Your Training Sessions

Say “YES” to squats, presses and pulls at the start of your training sessions. Because these exercises allow you to move the most weight, and make the biggest strength and muscle gains.

Save smaller exercises, like bicep curls, tricep extensions, hamstring curls, and ab work, for the end of your workouts.

5. If it Hurts, STOP!

This sounds so simple, yet many gym-goers, especially guys, SCREW THIS UP!

Listen. The “pain” of hard work, and burning muscles, and hard physical effort is fine. You need that in order to progress.

However, real PAIN…

Of joints that aren’t happy, and muscles that might tear – is your body’s way of saying… STOP.

Last year I ignored my own advice and ended up with a minor pec tear.

Be smarter than me, and LISTEN to your body… PAIN means STOP.

And, sometimes, all you need to do is change the exercise slightly to make the pain go away…

Maybe changing from Bench Press to Close Grip Bench Press (if your shoulders are hurting), or from squatting to deadlifting (if your knees are hurting). Or, from doing Tricep Extensions with DUMBBELLS to doing them with Bands (if your elbows are hurting).

6. Warm Up Wisely

You HAVE TO warm up before you start lifting heavy weights.

As a minimum, do a few warm up sets on your first exercise of the day. Say that’s squats, you might do:

Bar x 5 x 2 sets

40kg x 5 x 2 sets

60kg x 5 x 2 sets

First working set:

80kg x 3

Other things you might include in your warm up could be:

  • 2-3 minutes of easy ‘cardio’ (say: treadmill, rower or bike), to get a light sweat going
  • Mobility Drills to loosen up your joints and prepare them to lift heavy
  • Original Strength to improve your reflexive strength
  • 2-3 sets of 15-25 reps on 2-3 exercises – targeting the muscle groups you’ll be training that day (for upper body it could be: press ups, pulldowns and tricep extensions. For lower body: back extensions, leg curls and ab work. Matt Wenning talks a lot more about this HERE)

7. Be Patient and Consistent

Getting bigger and stronger takes time.

So, if you want to see serious strength and muscle gains, consider it a lifelong endeavor, and be PATIENT and CONSISTENT.

Rome wasn’t built in a day, and nor is a great physique or great strength.

8. Try to Get 8 Hours of Sleep a Night

This makes such a difference to the quality of your workouts, and the speed of your gains.

What’s step 1 to getting 8 hours of QUALITY sleep a night?

Actually being IN BED for 8 hours! 

So, don’t go to bed at 1am if you know you have to get up at 7am!

Instead, figure out what time you have to get up, then go to bed 8 and a bit hours before that!

9. Get Hydrated

After sleep, nothing will affect your training results as much as HYDRATION.

Drink at least 2 litres of water a day, and consume plenty of quality salt – like Pink Himalayan Salt.

I train early, around 8am in the morning, and all I have before training is:

  • 400ml water with 1 teaspoon of alkalising salts (as soon as I wake up)
  • 500ml water with 1 scoop of Amino Work Capacity, along with 4-8 tsp of Raw Organic Honey (about 30 minutes before training)

10. Eat Well

What you EAT will affect your ability to RECOVER from training, and build MUSCLE (or lose fat).

Always emphasize Clean, QUALITY foods, and keep in mind that you need to eat a few hundred calories more than your maintenance level in order to gain muscle. To lose fat, the reverse is true (you must eat a little fewer calories than you burn each day).

This is crazy simple, yet many people build physiques out of junk food (and wonder why they end up SICK). Or, they try to lose weight without being in a calorie deficit (NOT gonna happen)

11. De-Stress as Much as You Can

Stress = higher cortisol.

Higher cortisol = lower testosterone.

This is a great recipe for gaining FAT.

But, if you want to gain muscle and strength – get your stress levels DOWN!

Going for a short walk, eating well, meditating, getting massage, even SEX can help!

12. Use a Variety of Rep Ranges

Too many guys think 3 sets of 10 is the only way to train (mainly thanks to decades of Bodybuilding magazines telling them 3 sets of 10 was the only way to train!).

To make FASTER progress, use a variety of rep ranges…

As a rule of thumb:

  • Use 1-5 reps on big compound movements like squats, presses and pulls
  • Use 6-25 reps on everything else

The lower reps are GREAT for building STRENGTH.

The higher reps are great for building MUSCLE.

Combine the two for maximum results.

Example:

I’ll often work up to a 1 rep max on my first exercise of the day – where building STRENGTH is the focus.

Then follow up with 3-5 assistance exercises, done for sets of 6-25 reps, where building MUSCLE is the goal.

13. Get a Sled

A Sled is one of the best ways to build muscle with little stress on the body, little stress on the lower back, and little stress recovery wise.

Even kids, like my 5 year old daughter, can drag a sled (because the technique is very easy, yet the reward is very HIGH)!

This video explains more:

14. Spend More Time On Your Lower Body Than Your Upper

Most guys in commercial gyms are TOP HEAVY. Many have reasonably good shoulders and arms. Many also have TERRIBLE legs.

Train your legs and backside MORE than your upper body.

Why?

Well, think about it… a pyramid is only as STRONG as its base. And, the lower body can handle more volume than the upper body. So, might as well take advantage of this fact 🙂

Plus…

You just look like a total TIT if you have no legs and a big upper body 😉

15. Spend More Time On The Back of Your Body Than The Front

Most guys train their chest, shoulders and biceps. Abs too. A few might though in some leg extensions for their quads.

What’s missing?

Their entire back of their body!

The gluts (backside)

The hamstrings.

The calves.

Spend more time training the BACK of your body. Here are 5 reasons why:

  • A STRONG man has a strong back. Period.
  • If you don’t train the lower back, it’ll likely end up hurt
  • Women dig strong gluts (because it means strong THRUSTING power)
  • The Posterior Chain – hamstrings, gluts and lower back are KEY to athletic performance
  • Strong hamstrings and calves lead to healthier knees

16. “Bulletproof” your Mid-Section

If you want to avoid lower back pain (something that affects 80% of Americans), you need a strong midsection.

One of the easiest ways to bulletproof your mid-section is to do Doctor Stuart McGill’s “Big 3.” I regularly include this in my warm ups, before heavy strength training.

Here’s a video to show you how it’s done:

17. Spend 5-10 Minutes at The End of Your Workout to ‘Cooldown’

I actually hate the term ‘cooldown’ – but I couldn’t think what else to call it 😉

Basically, at the end of my workouts, I always spend 5-10 minutes doing stuff that makes my body feel good.

It could be:

In the long-run, 5-10 minutes of this stuff, every time you finish a training session, adds up. And, keeps you healthy. Meaning: you’ll be able to carry on training, and carry on making strength and muscle gains.

18. Do Some Original Strength Every Day

There’s only one thing that’s fitness related, that I’ve done every day for about 8.5 years now.

And, it’s Original Strength.

As my buddy Geoff Nuepert says:

Original Strength allows you to do what you really want to do – get in the gym and train HARD – without getting f-ed up and injured!

Get the book, it’ll change your life 😉

19. Take a Walk Every Day

10 minutes is good. 

More can be better.

Why?

Better digestion, less stress, better posture (provided you look straight ahead and let your arms swing freely), fresh air, sunshine, vitamin d (which is key to strength gains, muscle gains and testosterone).

I could go on, but you get the idea…

WALKING is GOOD.

So do some.

20. Believe!

Ultimately, if you want to make strength and size gains – you have to BELIEVE in whatever training program you’re following.

Here’s what belief and commitment look like:

I’ve seen people following what appeared to be GREAT training programs, and make ZERO progress, because they continuously ‘second guessed’ themselves, and half-arsed it.

Conversely, I’ve seen people following really average (or even crappy programs), who make EXCELLENT strength and size gains, because they believed in what they were doing, and trained like ANIMALS.

Oh and by the way…

Pretty much everything I’ve just said applies to fat loss training too – I just focused on strength and muscle because that’s my thing (and it’s what most men need more of).

Got questions or comments?

Leave them below and I’ll get back to you asap…

Elliot Newman

Elliot Newman is an Entrepreneur, and is extremely passionate about Health, Strength, Fitness and helping people to live Happy, Successful Lives. Under the pen name ‘Adam Armstrong’ he’s helped revolutionize the sex-lives of millions of people. As a former Powerlifter, and highly sought after Ghost Writer and Copywriter, he’s written best-selling books in the Fitness Niche - collaborating with some of the industries most famous names, including Dragon Door, Pavel Tsatsouline and Muscle and Fitness. When he’s not working, you can usually find Elliot hanging out with his kids, sharpening his golf game, or indulging in another of his favorite passions: driving sports cars on great roads.

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