Best way to build muscle

Archive for April, 2010

When I chose a title for this post I had to think twice, why? Because building muscle is not easy, if it was, everyone would be walking around ripped and muscular. The truth is; muscle building is hard work, it takes time and dedication, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be complicated! The key to success in building muscle is having a plan and sticking to it, settings goals and making sure you reach them, both short term and long term. Once you have a plan and you know what you’re doing then your half way there, but be prepared to work hard at the gym!

When it comes to building muscle you need to remember two simple things, firstly you need to lift weights, heavy weights. Secondly, you need to eat, in fact be prepared to eat more than you ever have in your life, day in and day out, especially if you’re on a bulk! Let’s just talk about these two simple facts in a bit more detail:

Lifting weights – If you’re going to build muscle you need to lift weights, simple really, although you would be surprised how many people complicate things here. I have lost track of how many people I have seen at the gym trying to decide which variation of bicep curl to do, and then proceeding to do all of them, four sets of each, spending at least half an hour on their biceps, what a waste! When it comes to weight lifting more is not always better, in fact in most cases it isn’t. When you’re choosing your exercises you need to ensure you pick ones that are recruiting multiple muscle groups, these are called compound exercises, you can find plenty of information on these on my site! Compound exercises give you the most ‘bang for your buck’ they work many different muscles and can promote release of testosterone (much more so than small isolation exercises would). What I’m trying to say here is that I could build a very muscular body with just three exercises – squats, deadlifts and bench press.

Eating lots of food – Believe it or not, this it the hard part and if you can get this step sorted then you are going to succeed without a doubt. Remember that you might spend an hour in the gym four times a work, but you need to spend a lot more time preparing and eating your meals. If you’re on a bulk then be prepared to do some serious eating! The truth is most people fail at building muscle simply because they don’t eat enough. I highly recommend counting your calories and adjusting accordingly if you’re not putting the weight on.

If you can follow these two steps day in, day out then you’re on the road to glory, remember that overcomplicating things is bad, there are so many variations of exercises, programs, sets, reps and so on that it’s very easy to spend time analyzing things and not doing anything. Remember this final golden rule – everything works but not forever. There is no magic routine, most programs you see will work, but only for a while until your body adapts, you need to keep things fresh and change up your routine constantly to ensure your body doesn’t adapt and plateau.