It's such an incredibly simple concept yet I am continually amazed at how few people actually put it into practice.

What are these tools, you ask?

No, it's not the latest breakthrough energy pills.

It's not a pre-workout shake.

It isn't a pair of lifting gloves, straps or a weight-belt.

It's not a water bottle....

The absolute most important tools you could possibly bring to the gym with you are these...

*Drum Roll*

*Drum Roll, Please*

A pen and a piece of paper.

Well, everything.

I'm not exaggerating when I say that bringing a pen and a piece of paper to the gym will separate those who make modest gains from those who make outstanding gains. The simple reason for this is that a pen and a piece of paper will allow you to keep a detailed record of each and every workout you perform.

When you go to the gym, you break down your muscle fibers by stressing them with weights. This is referred to as "muscle overload". When you leave the gym, your body will use the nutrients that you consume to repair the damages that have been done.

However, as a natural evolutionary response, the muscles will be repaired larger and stronger in order to protect the body against a possible future "attack".

Therefore, in order to make continual gains in muscle size and strength, you must put 100% of your focus on improving upon your previous workouts by Progressing in either:

If you are able to progress in either weight or reps from week to week, your body will be given continual incentive to grow larger and stronger. If you fail to improve, your muscle size and strength will stay the same.

Think about it, if you were squatting 200 pounds today, and were still squatting that same weight 3 months from now, do you think you would have experienced any size or strength gains in that time period?

Of course not!

Your body will only become larger and stronger when it is presented with a workload beyond that capacity.

If you want "building muscle in a nutshell", that was it.

I am continually baffled by the guys in the gym who come in week in and week out, aimlessly tossing the same weights around and never writing anything down. It's no surprise that their physiques always look exactly the same year round.

If you want to build muscle mass as quickly as you possibly can, always bring a pen and a piece of paper to the gym for every single workout and keep a detailed record of the exercises you performed, the weight you used and the number of reps completed.

The next time you go to the gym, sit down before your workout and review what you accomplished in the previous week. Your goal should now be to improve slightly upon those numbers by either performing an extra rep or 2 for each exercise, or by increasing the weight on the bar by 5 pounds.

If you can successfully accomplish this from week to week, you will be well on your way to success. The entire goal in the gym is to always get better.

While the specifics of building muscle are important to understand and implement (things like exercise selection, rep ranges and workout structure), the truth is that regardless of what style of training you're currently using, the ultimate deciding factor between success and failure is progression.

You can sit around all day obsessing over specific principles, but the bottom line is that if you aren't getting stronger every week, you absolutely will NOT be getting any bigger.

If you haven't been paying laser-like attention to the amount of weight you've been using, the number of reps you've been performing, and then striving with every ounce of your energy to improve upon those numbers each week, you are completely ignoring the very foundation of the muscle growth process.

If you want to see the best gains in muscle mass and strength that you possibly can, a pen and a piece of paper is the most powerful tool you could possibly have in your arsenal!

Well, you've just been given a very simple but extremely important strategy for speeding up your progress in both muscle size and strength by utilizing the power of a workout logbook.

If you're truly serious about changing your physique by building more muscle, gaining strength and burning off excess body fat, then I strongly encourage you to head over to my friend Sean's website and grab a copy of his book right away ! CLICK HERE 

P.S. >>>> Sean has created a full, printable workout logbook as one of the many free bonus items that comes with his instantly downloadable e-book, CLICK HERE. This logbook can be instantly downloaded, printed off and easily placed in a 3-ring binder to bring to the gym with you.

It contains an indepth 26-week workout plan outlining which muscle groups to train on which days, all of the exercises that should be performed for each workout, proper warm-ups along with the exact number of sets, reps and rest periods for each.

I guarantee that you won't find a more honest, straightforward and effective muscle-building guide anywhere else. This is currently the most widely used online natural bodybuilding program available (according to clickbank.com), and for good reason.

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