As a Personal Trainer I am asked how to build muscle on a daily basis by guys who have been confused by the amount of different advice from individual trainers or fellow gym members over the years. Whether you're just starting out on your journey in fitness or you've been trying to get fit for years, this issue has probably affected you at some stage.
Now we're going to end this nonsense and nail down the basic, proven rules.
Firstly we need to establish your goal. Believe it or not, this is the area where men first lose their way. Whereas women are forthcoming in their desire to lose body fat, men tend to want the best of both worlds. How many times have we heard that somebody wishes to lose fat but also get bigger and stronger? Too many.
The fact is this goal makes it harder for you to succeed. If you're not used to training you may find that you get the best of both worlds for the first month or so but after your body adapts to your new training lifestyle those results slow down. You need to make a choice.
Why? Because you cannot do both at the same time long-term. The general rule is that in order to build you need to work at a calorie surplus, whereas to cut you need to operate at a calorie deficit. So doing both becomes somewhat impossible, you see?
If your fitness program is that of an athlete, you have great genetics and your nutrition plan is so good that your quest to get fit is literally dominating your life, it is possible to structure a plan of course but for the overwhelming majority of people who simply want to train after they go to work or around their family life, it's not feasible.
Once you have set your goal, in this case to get bigger otherwise you wouldn't be reading this article, we can get your diet in place and begin looking at the following aspects of your gym routine:
* What exercises will allow you to get the quickest results?
* How many times per week should you train?
* How many reps and sets are optimal?
Put the focus of your workouts on big, compound movements. These multi-joint movements require the most muscle fibres to perform, therefore resulting in greater size and strength gains, too. Bench press, squats and other compound movements are simple yet ideal. Don't spend too long working small muscle groups by themselves, i.e. there is little point in performing five sets of an isolation exercise for your forearms...
Another common mistake is to train too often. When you're trying to build there is a great need for rest. Training no more than four days per week is best, and you should also be splitting each day to hit a different muscle group than the one before. You may wish to train every day once you begin enjoying the buzz from working out, but this leads nowhere. Rest days are in fact growth days.
When it comes to repetitions, this easy-to-follow system will keep you on the right track for building lean mass and keep you progressing at a good, constant pace. Your target zone is 8-12 reps. This is the fundamental training zone for growth. Start with a weight you can push out eight repetitions with and as your strength increases you'll notice you can get more reps out over the coming training sessions. Once you can push out more than twelve, increase the weight and return to eight reps. This progressive stance will keep you from reaching any kind of plateau.
So there you have it. You wanted to know how to build muscle and now you have the facts. Take your time, set your goals and follow our easy list of workout strategies. You will see huge gains with the laws of size and strength training at the foundation of your workout routine!
Now we're going to end this nonsense and nail down the basic, proven rules.
Firstly we need to establish your goal. Believe it or not, this is the area where men first lose their way. Whereas women are forthcoming in their desire to lose body fat, men tend to want the best of both worlds. How many times have we heard that somebody wishes to lose fat but also get bigger and stronger? Too many.
The fact is this goal makes it harder for you to succeed. If you're not used to training you may find that you get the best of both worlds for the first month or so but after your body adapts to your new training lifestyle those results slow down. You need to make a choice.
Why? Because you cannot do both at the same time long-term. The general rule is that in order to build you need to work at a calorie surplus, whereas to cut you need to operate at a calorie deficit. So doing both becomes somewhat impossible, you see?
If your fitness program is that of an athlete, you have great genetics and your nutrition plan is so good that your quest to get fit is literally dominating your life, it is possible to structure a plan of course but for the overwhelming majority of people who simply want to train after they go to work or around their family life, it's not feasible.
Once you have set your goal, in this case to get bigger otherwise you wouldn't be reading this article, we can get your diet in place and begin looking at the following aspects of your gym routine:
* What exercises will allow you to get the quickest results?
* How many times per week should you train?
* How many reps and sets are optimal?
Put the focus of your workouts on big, compound movements. These multi-joint movements require the most muscle fibres to perform, therefore resulting in greater size and strength gains, too. Bench press, squats and other compound movements are simple yet ideal. Don't spend too long working small muscle groups by themselves, i.e. there is little point in performing five sets of an isolation exercise for your forearms...
Another common mistake is to train too often. When you're trying to build there is a great need for rest. Training no more than four days per week is best, and you should also be splitting each day to hit a different muscle group than the one before. You may wish to train every day once you begin enjoying the buzz from working out, but this leads nowhere. Rest days are in fact growth days.
When it comes to repetitions, this easy-to-follow system will keep you on the right track for building lean mass and keep you progressing at a good, constant pace. Your target zone is 8-12 reps. This is the fundamental training zone for growth. Start with a weight you can push out eight repetitions with and as your strength increases you'll notice you can get more reps out over the coming training sessions. Once you can push out more than twelve, increase the weight and return to eight reps. This progressive stance will keep you from reaching any kind of plateau.
So there you have it. You wanted to know how to build muscle and now you have the facts. Take your time, set your goals and follow our easy list of workout strategies. You will see huge gains with the laws of size and strength training at the foundation of your workout routine!
About the Author:
About the Coach: Russ Howe PTI is a popular fitness coach. See how to build muscle with our new video guide giving the 5 principles to a more muscular body and the best shoulder building exercises.
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