The Basics of Muscle Gain
The very BASIC things that you need to do to gain muscle:
Train your muscles. Muscles need resistance to grow. Weight training is the most efficient (and recommended by me) but any sort of resistance will do. If you want a specific muscle to grow, you have to train that muscle. Look at ballet dancer’s calves, swimmer’s shoulders, biker’s quads and hamstrings, sprinter’s gluteus. Choose what muscles your want to grow, and pick exercises most suited to them.
Increase resistance over time. Your chosen exercise must get harder with time. If it’s easy, muscle has no reason to grow because the muscle you currently have is capable of doing the job.
Eat. Eat a bit more than you burn so you can use those extra calories to build muscle and to push harder at your workouts. And no, fat does not turn into muscle.
Eat protein. Just fat and carbs won’t do…. I know they are delicious. You don’t have to quit eating them. But they don’t give you that toned look, protein does.
Sleep. This is when you repair muscles. This is when you grow. This is when your body releases growth hormone required for you to recover from your workouts and prepare for the next. Our body breaks down muscle in the gym, and builds it back up while we sleep.
De-Stress. Stress slows down the recovery process by breaking down muscle. Stress can be a by product of many things, even working out too much. You may require lifestyle changes to keep stress low.
By just focusing on these you will notice muscle gain. When your body stops changing, you may look into other options.
These rules never change, everything else builds on these rules.
A great training program can fail to bring results if you don’t follow the rules. A good program can give you great results if do follow them.
If you’re ready to take your fitness to the next level, check out my programs here.
If you’d like me to coach you, contact me here.
