How to Build Muscle……Fast

When everyone begins learning how to build muscle they often find themselves in information overload by slick advertising, latest hyped work out and of course the popular celebrity diet that is all the buzz.

You have no doubt noticed that this article’s title is How to build muscle…….Fast, I do not want to imply or suggest that you are going to build huge muscles in 5 short days. What is absolutely possible however is that you can increase the odds for natural muscle growth. This short guide will certainly lay down the common sense rules to the fastest way to build muscle.

Let us summarize all the fundamental aspects of muscle building. For those of you that are more experienced this can serve as a kind of back to the basics of muscle building. Without further ado I give you…….

How to build Muscle……..Fast

1. Lift Weights. As simple as it sounds when you begin your plans for muscle building, weights need to figure rather prominently. Bodyweight exercise are excellent for toning, building strength, but you are going to need weights.

2. Force the muscle to Grow. Your muscles adapt just enough until they have no reason to get any bigger. Think of your muscles as a slacker. If he knows he can lift 50 pounds as many times as you want him to, he has no incentive to want to get stronger because your happy with the 50, so he is happy with the 50. You have to test him by next time making him do a little more so he has to get stronger to do 55 pounds. In order to do this he needs to get stronger and under the proper conditions getting bigger is just a by-product. This does not mean increase the weight every single time you work out, but you will need to keep track of how much your lifting.

3. Train for Growth. There are a plethora of reasons why people work out. But if you are working out to build muscle, keep that in mind. That is not quite the same as training to build strength. Often they go hand in hand, but keep in your mind’s eye what your primary goal is. Basically do not do just compound exercises, and be mindful of how many reps it takes you to go to failure.

4. Train for Failure. What is that you say? Yes this is the one time where failure is not only an option, but exactly what we want. Most experts will agree that the optimal rep range for maximum muscle growth is 8-12 reps. So we want to be lifting a weight that we can only lift 8 to 12 times. If you can lift that weight 20 times it is to light to stimulate muscle growth.

5. Vary Your Exercises. I am not talking about muscle confusion. There are basically to types of weight lifting exercises compound exercises and isolation exercises. Compound exercises are exercises that their primary goal is to get as many muscle groups as possible involved. We want to do this for two main reasons. These exercise involve many muscle groups and they actually promote the release of growth hormone, and that is exactly what it sounds like…we need it. Good types compound exercises are military press and deadlifts. Secondly they will build strength that will enable us to lift heaver weights. Isolation exercises are exactly what they sound like the primary focus is on muscle or one set of muscles. This is not to say that there are no other muscles involved, but the main focus is on one. We want to do isolation exercises because we want a muscle to go to failure. A prime example would be the bicep curl. There are plenty of other muscle groups involved, but the bicep is the prime target, that is the muscle that we are targeting for failure within our 8-12 reps. It is for this reason that both type of exercises are in any muscle building workout. Bottom line you need to work the whole body.

6. Eat..then eat eat some more. Up until now your body has been getting away with what you have been feeding it. But building muscle is going to require food. Its like an automobile if you want to drive you have got to put gas in the tank, otherwise your just sitting in the driveway. That may be a bad analogy but I thin you get the idea. Smoothies are a great way of getting some awesome calories into you quick and easy. Remember one pound of muscle=3500 calories a week on top of what you eating now. For my favorite smoothie recipe click here.

7. Protein. Protein is one of the most important things you can put into your body. Every time that muscle gets bigger, it ripped just a little. Don’t worry this is exactly what we want. Our body uses protein to repair these rips so they are bigger and stronger than before. I know there is a far better scientific explanation, but this will suffice for now.

8. Rest. When we resting is when our body is actually doing some pretty miraculous stuff. It is repairing itself, getting ready for the next battle. Like any other soldier it needs some downtime. Obey your body, you know in your heart of hearts when your body is saying I need rest and when you are just being lazy. Avoid injuries at all cost. Get injured you are going to be sidelined and your goal will be further away now. Don’t make your life difficult. Rest

9. Get in Get Out. Sure when you go to the gym you are going to see plenty of people that looked like they were there hours before you got there and are showing no signs of quiting when you are getting ready to go. Again refer to that image in your mind’s eye. If your goal is to be able to say I spent 5 hours in the gym yesterday, then by all means go for it if you don’t injure yourself first. If however your goal was to build some muscle to look good at the beach I would recommend 45 minutes max. If you like you can spend the other 4 hours and 15 minutes in the whirlpool, then you can have both.

10. Water,Water,Water. Yes it is that important, important enough to say it three times. In the interest of simplicity think of your muscles as crops and you are the farmer. If you want the muscles to grow you are going to have to water them. Drinking water is an essential part of building muscle.

You can do this. Many, many people have gone from skinny to muscular or overweight to in shape and you can to. Just don’t get all caught up in whatever new workout the Hollywood insider is boasting about. Keep in mind when Charles atlas was at his peak he weighed 180 lbs. He was not some 280 pound giant. Maybe next time I will post his measurements. Until then as Charles Atlas would say ‘To your Health’.

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This entry was posted on December 13, 2009 at December 13, 2009 and is filed under Excercise and Fitness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.