The XXX factors for building muscle (Part 1)

I was talking to a young man in the gym today regarding the best way to build muscle and if there was some magic X factor behind it all. He was spending many hours in the gym, 7 days a week, believing if he did this and than went home and ate anything he wanted as he was young enough and had 'done enough' to burn it all off, he would build muscle. However despite doing all this he wasn't seeing any results. I explained to him that there are in fact 3 X factors to successfully build muscle. If one or more is ignored than it will be harder if not near impossible to build muscle successfully. Although genetics is an important factor in determining how much muscle we can build and we all can't end up looking like 'Arnies', even if we had the best nutrition and work out plan in the world, as not everyone has the right genetic make up to do this. However you can always better yourself if you embrace and ensure you follow all 3 of these X Factors:- 1). Intensity of your workout-what's the point doing 3+ sets of 6-12 reps if the weight you are using isn't any way near heavy enough and after completing your 12th rep you look smugly in the mirror, thinking you've done enough but knowing you could have easily lifted another 10 reps at that weight. If that's the case you must lift heavier. The body is in general quite lazy and will only progress in strength and fitness if you push it. Go heavy and when you hit that 10th or 12th rep your muscles should be screaming and shaking as you reach muscle failure. If you reach this point you are stimulating the muscle enough to encourage growth as the muscle fibres are quite literally ripped apart, only to be rebuilt bigger and stronger in order to accomplish the same task again. But once the body can do that weight you than must increase the weight or change up your fitness programme, in order to continue to stimulate the muscle and encourage growth.