Get Big and Strong by Building Muscle
Posted in: Muscle Building Workouts
If you’ve always wanted to get big and strong – and in relative quick time – then the only way to do that is by building muscle. And, the most effective and efficient method for building muscle is training with weights.
Ok, so you just lift every day, and you grow, right? – Wrong.
While building muscle is relatively simple, there are some fundamental rules which you must adhere to, or your results will be limited at best and non-existent at worst.
You want the best results possible, after all, don’t you? Course you do. Read on…
Rule 1: Get on a good beginners weightlifting program. A good program will be filled with what are known as ‘compound lifts’, such as squats, dead lifts, bench presses, bent over rows, shoulder presses, etc.
Those kinds of exercises incorporate not only one muscle, but several at a time. The result is you build your overall body strength and size by proxy, without having to directly target single muscles – which can take forever.
A good beginner program will last no longer than one hour performed at a reasonable pace, and, will usually be around 3 – 5 days. Rest days are imperative, and having rest days between workouts even better. A good program also is arranged in such a way that different muscles are worked on different days, giving them at least 48 – 72 hours to fully recover.
Rule 2: Eat plenty of good, clean foods. Diet can be tricky, because it’s so unique for each individual, and all anyone can ever give anyone is a rough guide for them to test out on themselves, which they absolutely need to adjust to make it work for them.
Gaining muscle all comes down to calories. Good calories that come from good foods, that is. It could be that you need 15 calories per lb of bodyweight per day to gain muscle size, or you could need several hundred more than that. Like I say, everyone is unique.
Equally important to overall calories are the macronutrients. What nutrients you eat, and in what amounts will determine how much muscle you put on, and how much fat you put on. Some people break down their total daily calorie intake into ratios such as 40% protein 40% complex carbohydrates, 20% healthy fats. Others may opt for higher protein ratio, and lower complex carbs.
As a rule of thumb, it’s the complex carbs which fuel your workout and recovery so you should make sure you eat some before your workout, and after. However, don’t overdo them: they are where most people put fat on, by eating too many carbs. The best sources of carbs are brown rice, pasta, and potato.
Protein is essential to your muscle growth. Eating around 1-2 gram per lb of bodyweight per day is really beneficial, or even essential, in maximising muscle growth. The best protein sources are eggs, beef, milk, chicken, fish, pasta, rice, and potato.
Fats are also essential. Without fats, your testosterone levels won’t be up to the additional strain of building muscle. Yes – testosterone is essential for muscle building, and fats – including saturated fats – help to boost it.
You should eat a small meal every 3 hours – particularly protein – a to keep nutrients in your system, repairing and building muscle and preventing muscle atrophy (wasting.)
Ensure you monitor your weight gain. Because of the calorie surplus needed to build muscle, you will put fat on, this is inevitable, but, how much fat and how fast depends on how much you over eat. It’s up to you how you go about it, you could go on a full on bulk and worry about ‘cutting’ the fat later, but, it may take months to do so. You could on the other hand, play it slow, trying to gain no more than 3lb total body weight per month, and monitoring body fat levels. Taking it slow generally ensures it’s mostly muscle you are gaining.
Rule 3: Rest. Rest. Rest. Oh, and did I tell you to rest? Rest before you lift, rest after you lift, and on your rest days – rest. You’ll have a hard time building muscle if you are participating in other physical activities. Muscles need rest to repair and grow, and can’t do that if you are constantly tearing them down. Also, by doing physical activities whilst you should be resting, you are burning calories which could be used to build muscle, and the result could be you leave them short, don’t grow, and possibly even lost muscle – rendering your workout efforts wasted.
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