Muscle Gain 101

Whether you are looking to gain muscle for improved athletic performance, or just because you want to look and feel better, there are several proven ways to build muscle mass and bulk up. There’s no short cut to getting bigger arms and bigger legs, but with the right diet, nutrition, and exercise regimen, it’s possible to notice changes sooner than you ever thought possible. Here’s a quick guide to Muscle Gain 101:

Diet & Nutrition

Gaining muscle mass starts with changing your diet and improving your nutrition. There are two primary elements of your diet that you should focus on the most – protein and carbohydrates (“carbs”). Your body uses protein to build and maintain muscle – think of it as the raw material that goes into building huge biceps and massive chests. And your body uses the carbohydrates as a source of metabolic fuel and energy.

As a rule of thumb you need 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day. Some of the best sources of this protein include lean beef, skinless chicken, eggs and whey protein (which some people prefer to consume as a post-workout protein shake). Your body can get the necessary carbohydrates from oatmeal, whole grains, brown rice, quinoa and vegetables.

And there’s one more thing you should keep in mind about diet and nutrition – you should consume 5-6 smaller meals throughout the day, rather than 3 big meals. This will keep your metabolic rate higher and will prevent your body from using your lean muscle as a source of fuel.

The exercise regime

As a general rule, you should plan to workout at least 45 minutes per day, three or four times a week. Since cardio activity is necessary for a healthy heart, you will want to mix in some cardio – such as running, swimming or biking – on days that you’re not lifting. But the key focus has to be intense workout routines that use heavy lifting exercises. The reason is simple: the way to bulk up is by applying stress to your muscles. When these muscles undergo a lot of stress, they begin to develop tiny tears. As the body repairs these tears, it ties together muscle strands in a way that makes them thicker and stronger. That’s what accounts for the “pumped up” look of serious bodybuilders.

You can think of your body as being composed of both big muscle groups – your arms and legs – and also smaller, stabilizer muscle groups around your shoulders, hips and abdomen. To get the biggest muscle gain possible, you’ll want to focus on the biggest muscle groups. That’s why many people in the gym will spend so much doing heavy leg squats, chest presses and various forms of bicep curls. That routine hits all the major muscle groups.

The best routines for building muscle are those that keep in mind the equal and opposing muscle groups of your body – your biceps and triceps, your chest and back, and your quads and hamstrings. You don’t want to over-work your body, so many people set up weekly routines where they divide their arm and leg exercises into specific groups, each with about 10-15 repetitions (“reps”).

But your body is a remarkably adaptive machine. Over time it begins to build up tolerance to all the stress you’re placing on your muscles. That’s when you might notice you’ve started to “plateau” – all of a sudden, you seem to be lifting heavier weights, but gaining less muscle mass. That’s when it’s time to shift to a slightly new routine that continues to stress and engage the muscles.

The final component in building muscle mass is sleep. That’s when your body goes to working repairing your muscles – fixing all the muscle strands you’ve been pulling apart during intense workouts, and building them back up to become bigger and stronger. And it’s also the time when the body releases hormones like testosterone, which is key for muscle gain in men.

Putting all this together, the secret to Muscle Gain 101 is having the right diet, the right routine, and enough time for your body to recover and grow. As long as you keep striving for personal bests in the gym and mixing up your routine, you’ll continue to see muscle gain on a regular basis.

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