The Basics to Building Muscle

How of us see that one guy dead lifting 405 pounds in the corner of the gym with ease and think How do I get to that level? I know I did. What I didn’t know was how long it takes to get that strong. I’m still not and I’ve been lifting consistently for over three years. There were a lot of I was doing wrong but now I understand how to build muscle at least better than when I was younger. Here are some pointers if you want to build muscle and you are starting out.

Life Style

Let’s face it, you will not get to be the biggest guy in the gym if you don’t lift weights. Making a trip to the gym part of your routine or going 4 to 5 times per week will help you put on muscle. When you begin lifting, you will notice that certain weights are heavy, but soon they will become light. This is when you need to progressively increase the weight.

If you continue to lift the same weight, you will gain muscle until your body has adjusted to that weight. To gain more muscle after this point, you need to increase the weight. Start with an extra five pounds and work your way up from there.

Changing the way you eat will help tremendously. Some of us don’t take in enough calories to gain the mass we want and this could be the reason that you are not growing muscle. To continue building a muscle group, you need to take in more calories than you are burning. On average, the male diet should consist of 2500 calories and the female diet 2000. Always check with your doctor to be sure that these levels are correct for you.

The most important concept to remember when you want to build muscle is that you have to keep lifting weights. Going to the gym one day or week and saying that its taking too long to look the way you want will not lead you towards your fitness goals. The way to get what you want out of the gym is to focused on your goals and stay consistent.

The more you do something, the better you get at it. Same goes for muscle growth. The more you lift heavyweight, the more your muscles will grow.

Diet

You've heard from your doctor times how you have to a healthy diet to stay in shape. Well, to gain muscle, you have to do the same but with a little twist. By increasing your protein intake, you can build more muscle because protein repairs the muscle fibers that were broken down from lifting.

To figure out how much protein you should be taking in, multiply your body weight by 0.6-0.8. Performance athletes generally multiply their body weight by 1 or higher because they are trying to become as strong as possible.

The kinds of food you eat are also important. Today, fast food and processed foods are everywhere and easy to get. These foods are higher in calories per serving size and nutritionally not that good. The best way to get the nutrients you need throughout the day is to eat whole foods. Examples of these are fruits, vegetables, nuts, and whole grains.

Lean meats are the most important to add to your diet to build muscle. These meats are high in protein and low in calories allowing you to eat more throughout the day. The best lean meats to eat are turkey, chicken breast, and 90 percent or higher lean ground beef.

It's hard to start eating healthy when you're used to getting fast food on your way home from work or are a part of a big family that cooks a lot. One way you can continue eating the right food is to meal prep for the week. Take a day to cook the foods that you plan on eating that week and put them in the fridge or freeze them. Now you have food ready for you when you get hungry throughout the week and you don’t have to go out and get food.

Training

When you want to build muscle, the best way to train in by using compound movements. Compound movements allow you to target muscle groups while performing one movement. The three main compound movements to are the dead lift, squat, and bench press.

Dead lifts and squats will target your lower body, focusing on your , hamstrings, or quadriceps. The bench press will target your upper body, mainly your chest, but also your shoulders and triceps.

If you want to increase your strength in one area, you can start with isolation exercises to target one muscle groups but to gain muscle the fastest, you want to stay with compound exercises.

There will be days when you can’t make it to the gym but you want to get a workout in. That’s OK. There're work outs that you can do anywhere. Resistance bands can give you a great workout from the comfort of your own home. They're cheap to buy and can be stored away when you are not using them. All you need is a small space in your house or apartment to the movements.

You don’t need to buy equipment to work out either. There're body weight exercises you can do at home and great a great workout. Push-ups and sit ups are staple body weight exercises that target your chest and abdominal's. You can also do air squats to target your lower half and pike push-ups to targets your shoulders.

Final Thoughts

Everyone has their own starting point in their fitness journey. The important thing to realize is that anyone can do this! If you want to build muscle, you can. Keep up with your training schedule and the consistency will show soon enough.

Control your diet by meal prepping. Having food at home has help people, including myself, to continue eating healthy foods.

If you do these , you will grow muscle and one day become that guy in the gym lifting 405 pounds like it’s nothing. Someone might look at you one day and think “How do I get to be that strong?”