Okay, so what movements should you be working hard? Easy: bench press, incline press, overhead press, bent row, deadlift, biceps curl, close-grip press, lat pull-down, seated and standing calf raise, squat, leg press, and stiff-legged deadlift. Perform these movements with a barbell or dumbbells unless cable apparatus (back work) or machines (certain leg and calf training) are necessary. Without question, there are tons more exercises one can do for each of the body parts, but these should be used only as "relief" exercises. Make the above staples of your lifting and you'll be well on your way.

Well on your way to where? Years of hard work pushing and hoisting iron, that's where!

Who says a vivid fantasy life is unhealthy? When we fantasize about the truly impossible with regularity, soon enough our highest goals seem minor. Lots of strength athletes are comic book devotees and fans of monsters-demons-wizards-type movies. What do we say when we see a huge and strong athlete? We say he's a monster! Monsters aren't real. They're fantasy. Get it? Imagine yourself rowing 800 pounds for ten and suddenly 300 is a cinch.

There are physique athletes who claim standard leg presses are better for developing the specific muscles on the fronts of the thighs and this might be the case. However, nothing packs more overall meat onto the entirety of the lower body and helps add muscular bodyweight than the squat. You want to be 200-plus pounds of reasonably-hard sinew? Squat. You wanna be a super athlete? Squat. You want to be one badass shit kicker, period? Squat.

Did I mention you should squat?

It would be nice to have the ability to put feelings into words. Where I'm "at" before a big workout, where anyone has to be before training like a man - can't be expressed on paper. The killer instinct is either there or it isn't. Sure, over the years the gift is nurtured and honed into a sharp blade, but if it isn't there, no one can give it to you. I'll tell you this much, the Rocky movies, parts one through five (with a sixth on the way), can't give it to you.

Attitude is everything when it comes to weight training. To build large and powerful muscle one must commit himself to many years of hellacious training. To last, motivation must come from within. You can be motivated from an external source, but it won't last. If the fire doesn't burn within, you'll throw in the towel, or become frustrated, many years before you'd even begin to get somewhere.