How to Effectively Build Muscle
People who want to try to make themselves look like professional athletes stacked with large and well-defined muscles might find themselves looking at several different online resources with programs that claim to be able to help them get the muscles they want in a short amount of time.
But most websites don’t provide the correct information about building muscle while maintaining fitness.
Some main things are the obvious keys to getting started, like knowing that muscles only grow stronger and more prominent they are being used often. If they aren’t used often in the gym, they are more likely to become smaller and much weaker than you probably want.
The first step is knowing you will have to put in the time and the work at a fitness center to ensure you are hitting your bodybuilding goals.
What are the best ways to effectively build muscles throughout the body? This is where some online sources don’t provide the best information.
But several experts agree on the most essential and practical tips to accomplish the goals of the average aspiring bodybuilder.
Know how many calories you will need to grow bigger
You will have to consume enough food with vital minerals, vitamins, and nutrients to help fuel your body as you progress toward your muscle growth gains.
To calculate how many calories you need, the factors include how old you are, whether you are male or female, your current weight, and how active you will be at home, work, and anywhere outside the gym.
The best way to simplify this is to multiply your current weight by 20, and you will have that many calories to eat daily.
You are currently 180 pounds, so that the equation would be 180 x 20 = 3600 calories daily. That might seem like a lot, but the muscles need plenty of food to grow.
Exercise the major muscle groups.
There are several scientific studies that if you begin training the larger muscle groups, you will spark a jumpstart on the process of building muscles throughout the entire body – and you will be able to create gains that are larger and are made much faster than before.
Working out the muscles in your leg, back, and chest as your primary targets means you should do as much as possible for each group at least once a week.
Meaning you would have a designated day for the legs (Monday), one for the back (Wednesday), and one for the chest (Friday).
Make progressive gains in your gym.
Over time, your body will make enough gains to where the heavyweights you were starting with will become a lot easier than before.
So you’ll have to make the proper additions of plates to make enough of a shock so that it can grow more muscles to continue developing.
You start with about 100 pounds on your bench press in the first week. Add about 10 pounds during week two and 10 pounds for each additional week you continue, and you want to do this for all of your lifts so that you can grow your body’s muscle groups within a proportional pattern.
A progressive approach to your lifts will ensure the muscles don’t become too comfortable and complacent – which hinders growth development.
The added weight will tell the body you need more growth to keep up with the increasing importance. You will see growth and strength increasing every seven days.
Alter your routine occasionally.
Speaking of making sure your body doesn’t become complacent, you’ll want to change how you set up your workout so that the body will learn to adapt and start building to be prepared for anything thrown at it.
For example, you can take the three days of training and decide to stretch it out to six days and have one part of your body focused on each day.
Start your first few weeks of training where Mondays focus on arms and back, and Wednesdays can be your work on back and triceps.
But when it’s time to switch to six days of lifting instead of three, you can schedule chest, triceps, back, and biceps each Monday through Thursday, respectively.
The legs and cardiovascular work can also be split up between Friday and Saturday, giving you Sunday to take the day off.
Occasional partial lifts
You can also change how you perform your lifts by doing lifts that can go a third of the way on your first set, then two-thirds of the way on your second, and then do the total charge on the third.
You are also recommended to do a reverse load progression to lift more on that first set and a little bit less on the other two as you go through the workout.
Supplement your muscle growth.
You want to ensure most of your calories and nutrients come from real food. But supplements are also an excellent way to provide several possible nutrition gaps.
Maybe you need more vitamins to help coax your body to help build more for your muscle fiber. There are several different types to consider picking up at a local supplement or vitamin store.
Whey protein powders – This is usually a requirement for anyone wanting to build big and lean muscles while also increasing performance in the gym and cutting excess body fat.
Whey protein is a vital component in building muscle and is one of the most powerful ways to have protein be digested and absorbed into the body and straight to your muscle fibers.
Casein protein is a twin brother to whey and is often found in dairy milk. This protein is digested a bit slower and is most beneficial to consume before bed.
Creatine – A great way to improve your energy that goes towards your muscles to complete more repetitions and lift more.
Branches-chain amino acids – These BCAAs can usually combine acids like leucine, valine, and isoleucine to better heal and build on your muscle tissues.
Glutamine – By increasing leucine in your muscle fibers, you can reduce breakdowns and improve your immune system.