Everyone has a different body type, but very few people have well-developed biceps, chiseled thighs, tight glutes, and rock-hard abs without putting in at least a bit of work. Having great genetics helps if you want to define muscle or become more muscular, but it truly doesn’t matter what body type you have if you are determined enough. Be realistic about just how ‘swole’ you want to become, but more importantly, be patient with yourself. Gaining muscle is much like losing fat – major changes are not noticeable overnight.
Let’s take things day by day, step by step, and discover these realistic ways to gain and define muscle mass.
Building muscle is part of every fitness journey. While strength training plays a big role in achieving ripped abs, strong calves, or Popeye biceps, sufficient high-quality protein intake is essential for weight loss and optimal muscle growth. This is because amino acids in protein act as building blocks to repair muscle tears that occur during exercise, support muscle tissue, and help you feel full longer which fuels muscle mass development.
Research shows that proper protein intake is important for muscle growth because it increases muscle mass, optimizes the metabolism when consumed at the right time, and burns fat layers under the skin to help with better muscle definition to show off those gains.
Check out the 3 ways adequate protein intake can boost your muscle growth.
Are you in the market to gain muscle? Building some hardcore muscle—without gaining fat along with it—is easier than you might think.
Here are some tips to start building muscle today.
Pump Up With Protein
Because muscle fibers are made up of many different proteins, protein is the #1 necessary ingredient to build muscle.
One study found participants who ate 20 grams protein every 3 hours significantly increased muscle building potential, compared with those who ate 40 g every 6 hours. [1] So, eating good amounts of protein throughout the day feeds muscles and keeps them raring to go.
The ideal daily protein intake is about 1 g protein per pound body weight. [2] So, a 200-pound man should eat about 200 g protein a day. Of course, this differs depending on individual needs.
The best high protein foods to eat are chicken, turkey, fish, lean beef, eggs, beans, nuts, milk, and cheese. [2]
Many bodybuilders also use protein supplements, which provide a heavy dose of pure protein. Whey protein powder is generally the best choice because it has high protein content and lots of muscle-building branched chain amino acids. [3]
Be careful, though. Protein shouldn’t make up more than 30% of your caloric intake. Too much protein increases risk of kidney problems, dehydration, and other issues. [4]
In the eternal quest to perfect your body, a lot of methods and training regimens will only let you down. However, if you want to build muscle like a pro, hypertrophy training is one of the most effective methods.
When it comes to building muscle mass and strength fast, hypertrophy training can give you results in almost half the time that other strength training regimens take.
This kind of efficiency is what makes hypertrophy training so popular among body builders, but it is important know a few tips and tricks first.
Here are five tips for building muscle with hypertrophy training.
You may have seen or heard cliche slogans like “Go heavy or go home.” You may have been asked “How much do you bench?” You may even be impressed by Olympic lifters, powerlifters, and professional strongmen, all of whom regularly use maximum effort triples and singles to prepare for competition, to try to set a personal record, or just as a component of their regular training routines.
Well guess what? None of those sports are like bodybuilding. Sure, Olympic lifters are typically pretty jacked, powerlifters and strongmen are just plain “big”, but very few of them could compete in a bodybuilding competition and hope to win, without first dieting and training like a bodybuilder for several months.
This brings us to the question – do bodybuilders ever actually have to test their 1 or 3 rep max on any exercise? Do they have to lift super-heavy?
This is one of the top offending bodybuilding myths. Have you ever canceled a workout or skipped training a body part because it felt sore, even though at least 48 hours had passed since you trained it? If you said “Yes”, then after reading this post you will never make that mistake again.
Your muscles will get sore when you use:
heavy weights
slow negatives
forced negatives
assisted negatives
drop sets
high volume
Do you need to avoid these training methods completely in order to prevent soreness, so that you can train again in two days? Not necessarily.
