So, you want to build muscle but you may not be aware of how to do it. I mean, everyone knows that you have to lift weight and eat a lot of food, however, if it were that easy, everyone would walk around jacked. Since we don’t see everyone with perfect beach bodies, it must be harder to build muscle. That’s why we decided to talk more about how to build muscle, sharing different ways that will help you achieve your goals.
This question of how to build muscle fast is enough in itself to keep a lot of gym goers debating for hours. This proves that there are a lot of different opinions about this topic. That’s especially true because we’re all having different body chemistries and different genetics. This means that one person will truly respond better than the other to the exact same routine. Still, there are some tried-and-tested routines for ways to build muscle that will work for everyone out there, because these are “the basics of gaining muscle”.
Generally, the process of building muscle is a balancing act with different variables. That includes your workout regime as well as the food that you consume. But there’s a lot more, such as your sleeping schedule, your lifestyle, age, genetics, and so on. It is about the food quality, food quantity, and numerous other factors.
Yet, before we get into how to build muscle mass more precisely, let’s start from the beginning and define what it actually means to “build muscle” in the first place.
What Exactly Means “To Build Muscle”?
Yeah, I know that this may sound like an obvious question – the process of gaining more muscle mass. However, most people do not really understand the internal processes that will cause you to build muscle. You know that in order for you to grow muscle, you will need to lift weights, as this will cause hypertrophy (muscle growth). But why?
Well, when you lift weights, you’re actually causing micro-tears in muscle tissues. Your body has a very smart defensive mechanism that will try to defend itself against this type of stress by growing bigger and stronger muscle tissues. So, we need to create those micro-tears (when using resistance training in the gym, or lifting weights) so the muscles would grow to cope with that stress. That’s why, muscular hypertrophy basically means that the muscles adapt to the regular pressure exerted on them by lifting weights in the gym. In an attempt to adapt to the pressure and stress of muscle tissues being torn, they grow in size in order to be able to more capably complete the work necessary for them.
Yet, this is a matter of adaptation. That’s why you constantly need to progressively overload your muscles to make sure that they keep on growing. Otherwise, they just adapt to the stress and they have no need to keep on growing. That’s why you need to ensure that your workouts and nutrition are pushing yourself, otherwise you will struggle to see the results you want.
Pushing yourself in the gym (and in the kitchen), doesn’t mean that the muscle building process can’t be fun. In fact, you must make it fun, otherwise you are unlikely to reach your goals. You can still have a lot of fun, and enjoy your meals, and your training sessions.
Important Steps To Build Muscle
Eat a lot of protein
Approximately 80% of your muscles are made of protein. Protein is the building material of muscles. You can’t build a brick house without bricks as you can’t build lean muscle without protein. Protein is crucial for muscle preservation, growth, and recovery. Your body is constantly using protein for different necessary repairs all over your body, especially when necessary to repair the micro-tears of muscles following resistance training. That’s why people who often lift weights will need more protein than a person with a sedentary lifestyle. Having this said, you will need to stock up on protein if you want to build muscle. Aim to eat one gram of protein per pound of body weight every day. Opt for a diet rich in protein. Protein food examples are various poultry meats, lean red meats, fish, eggs, nuts, cottage cheese, milk, protein shakes, and numerous others.
Increase your calorie intake
You may have noticed that foods are “calculated” in calories. Calories are actually a measurement of energy that a certain type of food offers for your body. The great thing when it comes to muscle building is that you get to eat more. While it is theoretically possible to build muscle in calorie maintenance and even calorie deficit, that’s significantly harder. If you want to build muscle, you need to increase your calorie intake and ensure you eat in 500-1,000 calorie surplus every day. You need to find out how many calories you need to eat a day to maintain your current weight based on various factors (online calorie calculators can help) and then add 500-1,000 calories more.
Use multi-joint (compound) movements
Instead of spending all your time in the gym on isolated movements such as bicep curls, you better opt for compound movements that will use multiple muscles at the same time (multi-joint exercises). Some good examples of exercises are kettlebell snatches and swings, deadlifts, bench presses, squats, rows, pull ups, and numerous others. With multi-joint (compound) movements that use different muscles at the same time you will be able to lift heavier weights, leading to hypertrophy. Plus, you work multiple muscles at the same time. It doesn’t mean that isolation movements such as bicep curls do not have their place in bodybuilding but don’t focus on such exercises only.
Lift heavy
High-rep sets can be highly valuable and in no way I’m trying to diss them. Nonetheless, when it comes to muscle growth (hypertrophy), you need to lift heavy weights for fewer to moderate reps. You don’t need to go super heavy and have very few reps as you’d mostly focus on strength gains. On the other hand, high-rep sets with lighter weights focus on endurance. Yet, to build muscle, you need something in the middle as it causes greater tears in your muscles, which will later grow bigger, allowing you to build muscle. 3-4 sets of 5-15 reps with challenging weights that push you to the limit are highly effective, especially if you choose compound exercises. With compound exercises you lift even heavier weights, leading to even more muscle growth. You can get the best of both worlds by going for both high and low rep exercises too!
Drink your shake before you workout
According to a study done by the University of Texas in 2001, gym-goers who are drinking their protein shakes before their workouts will enjoy the effects of a greater protein synthesis than those who are drinking a shake post-lifting. In the end, drinking your protein powder in the form of a shake between half an hour and an hour before you workout will provide you with various benefits, as whey protein is faster absorbed when in liquid form. Have your pre-workout protein shake and enjoy the muscle growing properties.
Never underestimate the resting period
The actual magic of muscle growth occurs when you rest, not when you are lifting weights. As said, you tear your muscles (cause micro-tears in muscle fibers) when you use resistance training. You force water and oxygen to go into muscles, that’s why they appear bigger (due to the pump). Nonetheless, your muscles will actually grow when you rest. That’s why you should provide your body, muscles, and mind their necessary rest time from strenuous workouts. If you’re forever training to exhaustion, your body will never be able to climb down from the battle mode to start healing, resting, and growing. You must do tough workouts, but you must space them out over the course of a week, not pack them all into a span of a few days. This way, you ensure you fully recover after each workout, increasing the potential for muscle growth.
Eat your carbs after a workout
Carbs are extremely important to help you keep on going in the gym as carbs are the primary energy source for your muscles when you push them hard in the gym. Besides, your body also uses carbs to aid the recovery post-workout. By eating high-carb meals post workout, you will increase your body’s insulin. This way, you manage to slow down the rate at which the protein breaks down. Therefore, you could eat at least something post-workout to ensure the proteins are not broken down, such as a peanut butter sandwich, a piece of fruit, or something in this matter.
Eat regularly
When you eat, your insulin increases and insulin is considered an anabolic hormone because it helps you grow muscle. Having this said, if you eat something regularly, such as every 3-4 hours (roughly) you ensure your insulin is high enough to keep on growing muscle. It is optimal to eat every 3-4 hours in smaller portions rather than just once or twice a week in enormous portions. Taking long spans between snacks and meals will slow down the rate at which your body will make new proteins. So, you just calculate the number of calories that you need to eat in a day and divide it by 5-6 meals. This will give you an approximate number of calories that you would want to eat each meal throughout your day.
Progressive overload
As said, your muscles will adapt to the certain stress you exert on them in the gym, and they may stop growing because there’s no need for them to grow. If you want to continue to build muscle, you will need progressive overload. That’s when you gradually increase the weight, frequency, or number of repetitions in your strength training program. It will continue challenging your body, allowing your musculoskeletal system to get stronger. For example, if you deadlift 200 pounds for 5 reps this week, aim to deadlift 200 pounds for 6 reps or deadlift 210 pounds for 5 reps the next week. You don’t need huge differences, but keep on progressively overloading your muscles, slowly and steadily.
Use HGH.to
Here at HGH.to, you can get the best quality products that will help you build muscle. You still need to follow all of the above steps, as you still need a great diet, a proper lifestyle, and a planned out training regimen. Yet, you can also add HGH, anabolic steroids, or numerous other compounds from HGH.to that will significantly help boost the effectiveness of training and working out. You can get bulking or cutting products to find out how fast and how easily you can do so. They allow you to boost anabolic hormones such as testosterone and HGH, making sure to reduce muscle soreness, and recovery time between workouts, and go much harder in the gym, burning fat faster and most importantly – help you build muscle mass faster and easier.