People in the gym and people I’ve trained come to me with questions about how to get bigger and they have their heads chock full of stuff that’s just misinformation.
There are many correct ways to build muscle, but also many wrong ways.
I’m going to give you the basic principles to build muscle efficiently and correctly.
1. Progressive Overload
Your body and your muscles will adapt to whatever situation you put them under over a period of time.
Because your muscles adapt, you must continue to overload them. They will adapt by getting bigger and stronger.
Making gains week after week means you must continue to increase the load on your muscles in various ways.
You can decrease the amount of rest in between sets, add more reps, add more sets, etc.
2. Progressive Variation
No, this isn’t “muscle confusion”. This just means that your body builds the neural pathways to your muscles for a specific motion. The more you do it, the easier it becomes for you do to that same motion aka “muscle memory”.
Doing the same exercise every week on the same muscle will increase the weight but not increase growth.
Your body has found an efficient way of doing the exercise without adding more size.
3. Rest
Yes, you need more sleep. Many people overtrain because they don’t get enough rest. When it comes to building muscle, often, less work is better.
You don’t build muscle in the gym. You tear it down there. You build muscle in your sleep and on your days off. While sleeping, your body repairs itself by releasing a lot of hormones it needs to repair muscles.
So if you want to build muscle properly, it’s absolutely imperative that you get 8 or 9 hours of sleep each night. Train hard, and then get the heck out of there. Give your whole body, central nervous system, hormonal system, and muscles, time to recover before you hit it again.
4. Nutrition
No, this doesn’t mean go and grab the closest “nutritional supplement”. It simply means, eat right by getting the right amount of carbs, fats (yes you need the good kind), and proteins.
Your calorie requirements will depend on your weight, level of activity, body fat, and age mainly. So it’ll be about different for everyone.
First, find out the calorie surplus you need to build muscle, then make sure you get that amount each day in the right proportions of foods.
If you get these down and implement them correctly and consistently, you’ll see steady growth.
Looking to find out how to build muscle, then visit www.FitWithMitch.com to find the best advice on musce building programs for you.
