Muscle Building Tips
Annie Jones provides advice on five essential muscle building tips.
In the gym, same as in life, we have to play with the cards that are dealt with us, referring to our body constitution and genetics. Yes, it is true, genetics do play a tremendous role in one's ability to put on muscle mass, and some people are less fortunate than others. There is a name for them, hard gainers. Building some serious muscle might be more challenging for these folks, but it is possible, and I am about to present you with some essential tips for going from scrawny to brawny. Enjoy!
Increase your calorie intake with the right foods
You have probably encountered a skinny gym goer desperately trying to put on mass by eating extraordinary amounts of food every day, but still no luck. Most of them started this eating "regimen" because someone told them, "To get big, you need to eat big." This idea makes sense, but some of these poor guys are stuffed all the time without making any progress because they still do not consume enough calories.
One crucial thing to realize is that more volume does not always equal more calories. For example, one big bowl of oatmeal can barely pack up to 300 calories, while only 100 grams of beef contains around 250 calories. Compared by size, the bowl of oatmeal will most likely fill you up, but 100 grams of beef will not. Focus on calorie and nutrient-dense foods such as meats and healthy fats (avocado, nuts, seeds). Doing this will make it easier to get in enough calories, along with all the necessary nutrients, without torturing your stomach. There will still be a place for good quality carbs in your life but think of them as a filler or addition to the before-mentioned foods.
More time under tension sets
“Feel the burn” is a phrase always thrown around in the workout community, but what does it mean? This saying refers to the burning feeling that arises when your muscles spend some time under tension, for example, during the last few reps in your set. This is important because that sensation indicates that your muscles are being challenged, which produces progress (hypertrophy and strength gain).
The way to achieve this is to perform slower reps. As you may have noticed, the speed at which you do a specific exercise can make it easier or more complex, and you are looking for the latter. To start, concentrate on the length of your reps and do not worry about the amount. 5-second reps would be a good beginning.
Next, try to keep a steady tempo when doing the exercise; you can even get a buddy with a stopwatch to count the seconds for you. Another vital thing is the form, and remember that you should never compromise it only to get another rep. My advice would be to try this method with bodyweight exercises, such as pull-ups, and eventually move on to free weights.
Get more quality sleep
Sleep is the elephant in the room that many people neglect, overlook, or do not wish to accept as crucial when it comes to putting on muscle mass. To clarify this point, we can start with the question - why do we sleep first?
Well, sleep serves many functions, all critical to our health and wellbeing. It is when the brain gets much-needed rest that provides us with alertness and mental clarity throughout our waking hours. Also, quality sleep is a significant factor in hormone optimization, without which there cannot be such a thing as a healthy body.
During the night, testosterone and human growth hormone are released, both responsible for muscle growth. Cortisol, the stress hormone, gets regulated and lowered during this time, and insulin sensitivity gets better.
Besides this, hard gainers need to know that sleeping is when muscles go into catabolic mode; therefore, eating just before bed is a must if you do not want to lose any precious gains. Having a protein shake or a protein-heavy meal before slumber will prevent muscle breakdown and provide your body with much-needed nutrition.
Compound exercises
"What do you mean by this?" you might ask. When it comes to your workout program, think more in terms of a strongman rather than a bodybuilder. Bodybuilding workouts, which are very popular with gym "bros" all over the globe, contain a lot of isolation exercises (e.g. bicep curls, triceps extensions, etc.). This can be great for some people, usually the genetically gifted kind, but it would most likely be a waste of time for a hard gainer.
Strongman programs, on the contrary, are composed of compound, whole-body exercises such as squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, and so on. Compound movements like these produce a response in your central nervous system, promoting serious muscle gains throughout the whole body. For beginners, it is imperative to learn the correct form first before jumping into a 5-days-a-week heavy lifting program. Some of these exercises can be overwhelming at first, so if squats are too challenging, start with leg presses to build the necessary strength. Start with about 70-80% compound exercises in your regimen, and over time, the squat rack, Olympic bench, barbell and pull-up bar will become your new favourite tools in the gym.
Worry about under-recovery instead of overtraining
Overtraining is a word that you can hear a lot among exercise enthusiasts. Some claim it is a myth, an excuse of the weak, while others say they have experienced its dreadfulness. The truth is, overtraining is accurate in the world of professional sports. If you are an average Joe, who lifts several times a week, this thought should not even enter your mind. On the contrary, proper recovery should be a significant concern, where most recreational athletes fail. People with overtraining-like symptoms most likely do not eat right, sleep enough, or rest properly. Thus they fall into a chronic under-recovery mode.
The majority will then assume that too much training is the problem and then decrease their workout frequency and volume. So how do you do it the right way? There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to putting on muscle, so hire a professional to write you a good program that applies the training principles, and stick to it, all while making rest a priority. It does not have to be more complicated than this.
Conclusion
If you are still having second thoughts about some of this advice, I encourage you to do more research, and there is plenty of material for that online. This is time-tested and scientific information, guaranteed to produce results if you put it into practice correctly. It will not be easy, but it will be effective, and if you can gather some motivation to get you started, the results you will see will keep you going.
Page Reference
If you quote information from this page in your work, then the reference for this page is:
- JONES, A. (2017) Muscle Building Tips [WWW] Available from: https://www.brianmac.co.uk/articles/article237.htm [Accessed
About the Author
Annie Jones is the inspiration behind BoostBodyFit.com. She started a bit on the chubby side but went through the transformation and now enjoys excellent health and looks great! She created the blog purely to share her experiences and expertise on health, nutrition, exercise, and everything else in between.