The main reason many of us go to the gym is to build muscle. However, many people don’t know how to effectively build muscle. This is what causes so many people to fail in their lifting goals.
It’s harder to build muscle than you might think. You can’t just go to the gym and eat lots of protein and expect to see results. You need to push your muscles to their limits and then let them recover so they can grow stronger. This means you need to create the right conditions for them to recover when you’re not working out.
The things you do in the gym are just a part of the equation when it comes to building muscle. The other 20 hours of the day are just as important, if not more so. Everything from your diet to how much you rest to your level of activity outside the gym can affect your results.
Building muscle is essentially increasing the growth of muscle cells. This can be done by resistance training, which essentially means lifting heavy loads for reps. By doing this, it stimulates the release of muscle-growing hormones and other metabolites.
Muscle hypertrophy is a term used to describe the physical growth of muscle tissue in response to progressive overload (a gradual increase in the amount of weight lifted during workouts). This growth occurs in both the diameter and length of muscle fibers, resulting in overall muscle size.
You need to put in effort to see muscle gains over time, but it’s not the only factor. You also need to push yourself harder than you think you can. This is called “progressive overload.” Progressive overload is when you create increased effort based on the style of training you’re doing. You don’t just go heavier with the weights every time. That could lead to injury.
Despite what you may have read, working out harder is not the key to getting bigger muscles. Gains are made much slower over time, so it is important to have a plan and stick to it in order to see results.
Even though you are trying to build muscle, you can still have fun. You don’t need to eat boring food or spend hours in the gym. As long as you are training and fuelling yourself most of the time, you will be fine. The goal is to create a muscle building plan that fits your goals and needs.
The tips below will help you build muscle in a strategic and realistic way, whether you are a beginner or somebody who has hit a frustrating training plateau.
The 18 Principles of Building Muscle
1. Have a plan.
If you don’t have a structured plan for gaining muscle mass, you may not see the results you want. Having a plan and being consistent are key to seeing the gains you want.
2. Maximize muscle building.
If you want your muscles to keep growing, you need to keep giving your body new protein to replenish what it’s using. Your muscles grow when your body stores protein in a process called protein synthesis. Your body is constantly using protein for other things, such as making hormones, so if you want your muscles to keep growing, you need to give your body new protein to replace what it is using.
If you don’t consume enough protein, your body will break down muscle proteins for energy, resulting in less protein available for muscle building. To make sure your body has enough protein for muscle building, you need to consume protein at a rate that is faster than your body’s rate of breaking down old proteins.
This means that if you weigh 200 pounds, you should aim to eat 200 grams of protein each day.
A man who weighs 160 pounds should consume around 160 grams of protein a day. That’s the amount of protein he’d get from an 8-ounce chicken breast, 1 cup of cottage cheese, a roast-beef sandwich, two eggs, a glass of milk, and 2 ounces of peanuts. The rest of your daily calories should be split equally between carbohydrates and fats.
3. Pre-load your muscle.
Pre-loading a muscle is lifting a heavier weight than normal for a few reps before your normal set.
4. Cheat smart.
You can have a cheat meal without going overboard on unhealthy foods. Eating a dessert or a burger is fine, but try to keep the rest of the meal relatively healthy. You don’t have to eat chicken and rice, but don’t go to extremes.
5. Practice super pyramid.
Pyramid sets are a common way for many people to work out. They start by doing higher reps and then increase the weight and decrease the reps. But let’s take it a step further by doing a “super pyramid.” Instead of stopping at 8 or 6 reps, go all the way down to 1. For example, the reps for a set of incline bench barbell presses could look like this: 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1.
6. Workout semi-fasted.
Did you ever notice how you feel more sluggish when you train on a full stomach? All of that food in your stomach has attracted a lot of blood to help with digestion, which can make it harder to get a pump. Training semi-fasted (eating a very small meal an hour or two before training) can help with hormone regulation and blood flow.
7. Keep it simple.
Try making things more old-school by using barbell exercises. This includes bench presses, bent-over rows, squats, shoulder presses, barbell curls, nosebreakers, and Romanian deadlifts. You’ll be able to lift more while still keeping things basic.
8. Set a total time limit.
Have you ever considered training for a set amount of time instead of a set amount of volume?
9. Work big, not small.
If you want to put on muscle, you need to challenge your body more than just doing biceps curls. Samuel says that key to this is working through “multi-joint” movements. Although isolation training has some value, it shouldn’t be the main focus of your workouts.
Instead of doing exercises that only work one muscle, you want to do exercises that work multiple muscles at the same time. For example, a dumbbell row not only works out your biceps, but also your lats and abs. Using multiple muscle groups allows you to lift more weight and better prepares you for real life situations.
Workouts that include squats, deadlifts, pullups, and bench presses are effective for stimulating multiple muscle groups at the same time. This is beneficial for muscle growth.
10. Do compound sets (for big moves).
Doing two sets of exercises back-to-back without rest in between is called a “compound set.” This can be done with any type of exercise, but is often done with simpler exercises that target one joint at a time, such as a bicep curl combined with a standing barbell curl. You can also try compound sets with bigger exercises that work multiple joints and muscles, like a squat combined with a leg press.
11. Eat whole food protein.
While supplements are useful in providing high-quality protein, it is important to make sure that you are also eating a variety of whole-food proteins such as eggs, beef, chicken, turkey, and fish. Real food is the best way to build muscle.
12. Go machine gun.
The style of training that has been used for many years can still be used to build muscle today. If you have a partner, try to rest for only a short time between sets so that your partner can finish their set. This I-go-you-go style is a good way to increase the pace and to stop wasting time.
13. Cut weight, go strict.
If you find yourself adding extra “english” to your lifts, it’s time to reduce the weight and relearn proper form.
14. Wear a watch.
If you spend all your time texting and talking, it will impede your ability to gain muscle. Not monitoring your rest periods is one of the worst things you can do for your muscles. Wear a watch and time your sets.
15. Reverse pyramid.
If you are tired of the traditional pyramid workout, try a reverse pyramid workout. Start with your heaviest weight and low reps. For each successive set, reduce the weight slightly and perform more reps.
16. Train heavy.
If you want to build muscle and strength, Curtis Shannon, C.S.C.S. says you have to train heavy. “Heavy training challenges the muscles not only concentrically but eccentrically. If done right, the stimulus of heavy weight going down with control and going back up will cause greater muscle tear and rebuild,” Shannon says.
Not every set you do should have you pumping out 10-15 reps. You can still build pure strength by doing sets of 5 reps with heavier weights. As you progress, you will be able to lift heavier weights for more reps.
17. Do someone else’s routine.
It can be difficult to leave your comfort zone, but it might be exactly what you need to break out of a rut. For a day, week, or even a month, rely on a qualified training partner. You might learn something new, and you’ll have new techniques to use when you go back to your normal routine.
18. Sleep at least 6 hours.
Paying attention to your sleep is just as important as paying attention to your training when trying to build muscle. This is because when you are asleep your muscles are recovering and your body is growing. Hormones that contribute to muscle growth are also secreted during this time.
Ideally, you want to get 8 to 10 hours of sleep. However, that does not always happen. If you cannot get 8 hours of sleep, try to do what you can to maximize the quality of the hours you do get.
