There is plenty of conflicting information when it comes to proper muscle building, so it becomes difficult to know where or how to begin. Most who are just starting out, should be looking for the basic guidelines that they can strictly follow.
It’s found that the key, as anything else in life is to be consist. Consistency is everything. For those who are looking for permanent gains when it comes to muscular size and strength, needs to implement the best program for their body type, and then apply it on a dedicated consistent basis.
Just knowing what to do isn’t enough, you need to apply it. Building proper muscle mass is the cumulative effect of taking small steps. You might think that performing that one extra rep won’t make that huge of a difference in your overall results, but they do add up.
In the long-term, that additional rep you perform or those small healthy meals that you consume, determines your overall success. If you work hard while completing all of your muscle-building reps properly, and are consistent, it’s proven you’ll gain permanent massive growth, both in strength and size.
Just Use Free Weights
If you’re wanting to make solid gains in permanent muscle growth, it’s recommended that you train with just free weights and nothing else. Also focus just on the basic compound exercises.
A compound exercise is any lift which is able to stimulate more than just one muscle group at a time. Examples would be bench presses, dead lifts, squats, chin ups, overhead presses, barbell rows, dips, and lunges.
Doing compound movements will allow you to handle the most weight, while stimulating the greatest possible amount of total muscle fibers.
Prepare Yourself To Train Hard
The biggest factor that separates making modest gains or gaining serious muscle growth is the level of training intensity. You need to stimulate your muscle fibers to their peak potential.
You need to be willing to take every set that you perform to the point of muscular exhaustion.
Track Your Progress Weekly
Your body is able to build positive muscle because of an adaptive response towards the environment. When training at the gym, what you’re doing is breaking down your muscle fibers.
What your body does is it senses lifting weights as a potential threat to its survival, so as a result will react accordingly, this by rebuilding what it thinks are damaged fibers. The end result are larger and stronger muscles, this to protect itself against any future threats.
So to make continual gains in muscle size and strength, you need to improve on a weekly basis. This could be performing that additional 1 or 2 reps for each exercise, or adding more weight.
Make sure that you keep a detailed log to track your strength increase progress.
Stop Overtraining
Overtraining is the number one enemy when attempting to build muscle size and strength. Those who are just beginning a workout program have this misguided notion that the more that they workout, the better.
They naturally assume the more time spent in the gym, the better the results will be. When building strong permanent muscles, nothing is further from the truth.
If you’re spending too much time at the gym, it can have a negative effect on you reaching your goals. Realize that your muscles don’t grow in the gym, but instead grow the most while you’re eating or resting.
The recovery process becomes absolutely critical when it comes to the entire muscle growth process. If you don’t allow your body enough time to recover between workouts, then they won’t have the time to grow.
Eating More Frequently
This is another failure point when attempting to build muscle, that most will neglect proper nutrition. Properly training with weights to get stronger is just half the equation, scarfing down a burger becomes counterproductive.
What you’re doing is breaking down your muscle fibers at the gym, but if you’re not providing the muscles with proper nutrients at the exact times, then muscle growth becomes next to impossible.
It’s recommended that you eat anywhere from 5 to 7 smaller meals per day, spaced every 2 to 3 hours, this to keep your body in a highly anabolic muscle-building state. Each meal should consist of high quality protein and complex carbs.
Increasing Protein Intake
Of the three major nutrient groups, protein, carbs, and fats, protein by far is considered the most important, especially for those looking to gain muscle bulk and strength.
Protein is something that’s found in every one of the billions of cells in the body, and it’s key role is building and repairing body tissue. Without sufficient protein, it then becomes physically impossible for your body to be able to construct any amounts of lean muscle mass.
If you view your body as a house, then think of protein as the bricks. It’s recommended that you consume 1.5 grams of protein per every pound of body weight on a daily basis.
Get the protein from high quality natural sources such as fresh fish, lean meat, poultry, eggs, milk, etc.
Drink More Water
If you’re looking for the easiest and most highly effective way to maximizing muscle gain, then just drink more water. Water plays an essential role in the body, and this can’t be overstated.
The muscles themselves consists of up to 70% percent water. Drinking water will cause your muscles to appear more vascular and fuller, while increasing your strength.
There’s research that supports just a 3 to 4% percent drop in your body’s water level, will directly impact muscle contractions by 10 to 20% percent. The recommended amount to drink is 0.6 ounces for every pound of body weight on a daily basis.