Definitely agree...there's something about the testosterone too that seems to help me walk around like a winner and make strong eye contact.
Robster, it's been shown that lifting in higher rep ranges (8-12) induces hypertrophy (muscle growth), but building a base as a big strong man entails getting good at the main compound lifts (ones that use the most muscles in doing natural movements). Lifting for heavy sets of 5 is best to build raw strength. Additional hypertrophy work once getting strong is fine, but lots of size can be put on by loading the body with human growth hormone that skyrockets from this type of lifting.
This school of thought involves a few major lifts (squat, dead lift, bench press, and overhead press) with a couple others to train the body's simple movements of pushing and pulling in various directions. Working the body as a system the way it evolved to work will produce good results.
A good way to learn these lifts is by reading Mark Rippetoe's Starting Strength 3rd Edition and following his program. It can also be found on the Starting Strength online wiki and similar info on the site Stronglifts.
Lifting is just half of the equation though. Actually sleep is as important as anything as that is when the body repairs and grows muscle (but not well during drunk sleep). Equally important is diet. The body needs more calories than it burns to grow. Inputs must be bigger than outputs (energy burned). A good start is googling 'lean bulking' for an idea of what food choices can be made to limit the fat gains that will come with muscle. Most people eat the wrong foods while bulking and have to do a long fat cutting cycle, but this step can be reduced by eating a calorie surplus of healthy whole foods (think farmer eating - meat, potatoes, yams, milk, eggs, produce, and water) plus doing things like cycling carbs with more to support heavy lifting days and less on rest days while keeping fat and protein constant. Google carb cycling codex, an article on T-Nation, though this may be more advanced than necessary for a beginner. Still, it's fairly simple and keeps the body from adjusting to a steady carb load or raising insulin when that is good to shuttle protein into muscles after working out, but can cause extra fat storage. It's all about calorie surplus at the right times and without too much excess.
