Your advice on gaining muscle mass is excellent, but there is one very important point that I think should be clarified. You are correct, but the workout method needs a little more information added. You say that to completely exhaust your muscles you need to life as much weight as possible for a few repetitions. This is true. Lift until you can't lift any more. The problem is that most of us will take this too literally, go directly to maximum lifts and WILL injure ourselves by tearing muscles, tendons and ligaments. Been there, done that! As you point, out, you do NOT want to injure yourself. If you go to maximum weights too soon in your workout, it is dangerous. The problem is that your muscles are capable of gaining strength faster than ligaments and tendons. Also, you want to make sure you warm your muscles up before going to maximum lifts. The best program I have found is to combine the warm up and some pre-exhaustion. Bill Phillips did a good job in explaining this technique in his Body for Life program. To do this, you do several sets for each exercise. Start with a relatively light weight and 12 to 15 reps. Then increase the weight and do two or three fewer reps. When you hit your highest weight, your muscles are already getting tired and you do your highest weight to total exhaustion for a few reps. Then for good measure, drop to a light weight and do more reps. If you do this properly, you will totally blast your muscles and will minimize the risk of injury! This method will maximize gains too. Diet and rest are exactly as you recommend. If you go straight to maximum lifts, you might be able to gt away with it for awhile, but eventually you will have a serious injury.