Most times, there are only two reasons why people go back to the gym to work out: it’s either to be physically fit and active or to have a more impressive physical appearance like building muscles. If you’re on the latter side of those two reasons, that’s probably why you’re here reading this article.
The physical art of building muscle is easier said than done. From diet building to picking the proper workout routine, planning it alone can be challenging work. The first part of this journey tends to be on defining what muscle building is all about. Muscle building itself means causing muscles to grow through resistance training, which is called muscle hypertrophy.
Muscle hypertrophy is the adaptation of our muscles through continual exposure to progressive muscle training. With this, your muscles would increase their fiber size through length and diameter. That said, effort and endurance are two of the most important attitudes you need to have to grow muscle. So, with all that in mind, how do you gain muscle?
Decide Your Number of Reps
There are a lot of types of muscle-building training out there. Some are even aimed at specific muscles of your body so you can focus on them at times. However, the type of training is not as important as the number of repetitions you should have. So before working away with that barbell, you need to decide the number of repetitions you want to have.
To stimulate your muscle growth, you need to do weight training exercises with an amount of weight that would allow you to do 1 to 20 repetitions. The number is important here because it dictates the aspect of your muscle that it would help build with. For example, five repetitions below will help you with strength, 6 to 12 helps you with muscle building, and 12 to 20 will help you with endurance.
Of course, there are some crossover effects for these numbers. For example, having only three sets will also give you some muscle strength, and having 20 sets will also make your muscle grow. But if you want to focus on a single aspect, following the numbers would help you.
For instance, if it’s your leg day, running on a treadmill can help you. Treadmills can not only help you build muscles in your legs but also build abs. How? Most regular runners develop abs through running. If that managed to convince you and you’re now considering a treadmill, you can see barbends review of the proform carbon treadmill.
Eat Every Three Hours
Of course, muscle building is not only limited to the confines of the gym. As we all know, physical fitness alone can only go so far. It would help if you also incorporated the proper diet you need to have to help you grow more muscles.
In regards to that, there are a lot of articles on the internet that can help you with which food you need to eat to gain more muscle. But the question needs to be asked: how many meals should you have to eat every day and the time intervals between those meals?
By the title of this subtopic, the right answer to that is three hours. Of course, the most important aspects of your diet should be breakfast, lunch, and dinner. However, you should not limit yourself to those three meals.
You can also incorporate a post-workout, pre-bed, and two snack times. By keeping your food intake, you won’t be hungry that much, and it also tends to decrease your waist size. You’ll also feel fuller quickly, and it will decrease your cravings.
Eat More Protein
Of course, when talking about meals, protein should not be forgotten. Exercise breaks down muscles. In order to build those muscles back and recover more quickly, protein intake is the way to go.
It would help if you had protein to build and maintain those muscles you’ve built. To do this, you should have at least a gram of protein per 456 grams of your body weight. For example, you need to eat 200 grams worth of protein every day if you weigh 91kgs.
Of course, there are a lot of food items that can help you intake more protein. This will include but is not limited to: red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, etc. Of course, you also need to have some veggies and fruits in there as well. If you’re unsure of what you’re doing, you might want to get the help of a professional dietician.
Final Words
Muscle building is not easy. It needs dedication, commitment, and endurance. But, if you do it, you can gain muscle and have the body of an Adonis. However, do remember that there is no one-all solution to gaining muscle, and because of that, you can experiment on a lot of things to try and see a routine and diet that fits your body and lifestyle. If you’re having trouble with where to start, you can seek the help of a professional trainer.
