A lot of people want to get in shape. Due to several reasons, they go to the gym to improve their physique. People get in shape to stop getting bullied, impress other people, or live a healthier lifestyle.
Increasing your muscle mass will also increase the strength of your muscles, bulk your size and frame, and improve your lean body mass. Changing your body to lean muscle mass takes a lot of time, consistency, effort, and long-term commitment.
The endless requirement is why a lot of people quit early. People lose motivation; they feel like wasting their efforts when they don’t see any significant improvement right away. But with enough knowledge, good workout programs, adequate nutrition, and consistency, anyone can build muscles.
This article will break down everything you need to know about building muscles, including nutrition, recovery, and how to work out.
Exercise Tips to Build Muscles
There are a lot of things you need to consider when exercising to build muscle. There are repetitions, sets, weight or resistance, and progressive overload.
But before we talk about working out, it’s important to note that people with health conditions need to consult their doctors first. Indeed, working out is good for the body, but some workouts might be too extraneous for people with comorbidity. If you have eye problems, check with an eye doctor first. Some things like retinal damage treatment might require you to rest for a while before starting a workout program.
Set your target number of repetitions.
Whether you are using weights or just bodyweight, repetitions are vital when it comes to exercising. To build muscle, you must break muscle fibers and rebuild them during rest. To break them, you must perform an exercise with 1- 20 repetitions. If you are new to training, try doing lower reps and increase it gradually as you get stronger. If you are in weight training, here is a rep range guide:
1 – 5 reps: develops strength
6 – 12 reps: generates muscle growth. Do it with a heavyweight if you are in weight training.
12 – 20 reps: develops muscle endurance. Do it with a lighter weight to build more muscle endurance.
Increase the repetitions as you get stronger, but it is a good idea not to exceed 20 reps if you want to build muscle because higher reps build endurance and do not build muscle.
Choose a good amount of weight.
Performing more reps with heavier weights is almost impossible. Choose a weight that will leave you near or at failure on a specific number of reps. If your max rep is 10, try using a weight that will fatigue you in 8 reps and reach ten as you get stronger.
Do not forget to be in progressive overload, which allows you to build muscle continuously. The easiest way to be in progressive overload is to add weight. You can also increase the intensity by adding another round to your workout.
Choose good exercises.
Choose exercises that will build specific muscle groups. There are two ways to build muscle; compound exercises or isolating the muscle. A lot of bodybuilders are saying that compound exercises are the best way to build different muscles faster. But for max results, combine it with isolation movements.
For example, if you want to build your lats and biceps, the best compound exercise is a pull-up or chin-up. And isolate the muscle later by doing a lat pullover for the lats and bicep curls for better results.
Find a good workout structure to avoid over-training.
A good workout consists of 3-5 compound exercises for three sets and 1-2 isolation movements for three sets per workout.
Usually, you will perform compound exercises with the heaviest sets and isolation movements with higher repetitions. If you are working three sets per exercise, you can limit the total combined compound and isolation exercises to 5-7 exercises per workout.
Follow the mentioned steps as it’s an excellent structure to maximize the benefits you get from workouts and avoid over-training.
Diet Tips for Building Muscle
Of course, you can’t build muscle by just exercising alone. The crucial aspect of gaining muscles is your diet. You can’t build muscle if you don’t give your body the nutrients to grow muscle fibers or tissues.
Bulking and Cutting
A lot of bodybuilders have to bulk and cutting cycles. Bulking is the process of eating more to have a lot more calorie intake than you burn to gain muscle. Cutting is the process of restricting your calorie intake to burn excess fat while working out to maintain muscle mass.
To build muscle, you need to supply your body with the appropriate nutrients like calories and protein. Consuming enough nutrients will ensure that you gain new muscle from the protein you eat. So, it is a good idea to start bulking first, eat a lot of healthy foods, high calories, and protein. And then cut all fats by eating less but with enough protein to maintain muscle.
Required calories
The ideal amount of calorie intake is 300 – 500 per day above your maintenance calories. The best way to compute your daily calorie intake is by using apps like MyFitnessPal. Compute your maintenance calories, and then make sure to have 300 – 500 excess calories to grow.
Required Protein
Protein is an essential nutrient for building muscle. Science suggests that 0.7 to 1 grams of protein per pound of body weight are enough to gain muscle. If you are not gaining enough protein from foods, it is good to supplement it with whey protein shakes.
To reach your fitness goal, you must be highly committed to training and having an appropriate diet. Removing one from the equation will prevent you from reaching your goal.
