How To Build Muscle: 4 Basic Principles

People in the gym and people I’ve trained come to me with questions about how to get bigger and they have their heads chock full of stuff that’s just misinformation.

Building muscle isn’t hard if you do it right, but there are many wrong ways as well.

In this article, I’m going to give you the principles that will allow you to build muscle properly and consistently.

1. Progressive Overload

Your muscles will adapt to whatever conditions you put it under.

So you must overload your muscles to build them. They will adapt by getting stronger and bigger.

So in your weight training regimen, if you plan to build muscle and get stronger, week after week, you should be increasing the load you put on your muscles. And no, this doesn’t just mean adding more and more weight. There are plenty of ways to increase the load on your muscles.

You can decrease the amount of rest in between sets, add more reps, add more sets, etc.

2. Progressive Variation

This isn’t “muscle confusion”. Your body builds neural pathways to your muscles to do the same motion efficiently. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

That being said, if you continue to do the same exercises week in and week out for the same muscle, you’ll see that your ability to do more weight will increase, but you won’t see growth.

What happened was that your body figured out a very efficient way of firing neural signals to your muscles to complete that motion. So efficient in fact, that it doesn’t require you to grow anymore.

3. Rest

Yes, you need more sleep. Many people overtrain because they don’t get enough rest. When it comes to building muscle, often, less work is better.

Contrary to popular belief, muscle isn’t built in the gym. It’s built when you sleep and on your days off. It’s built when your body repairs itself by releasing hormones.

To build muscle properly, you must get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. This is for your muscles, nervous system, and hormonal system to recover.

4. Nutrition

This means getting the right amount of carbs, the right kinds of fats, and proteins.

Your calorie requirements will depend on your weight, level of activity, body fat, and age mainly. So it’ll be about different for everyone.

First, find out the calorie surplus you need to build muscle, then make sure you get that amount each day in the right proportions of foods.

If you get these down and implement them correctly and consistently, you’ll see steady growth.

Learn more about how to build muscle. Stop by Mitch Graves ’s site where you can find out all about muscle building programs and how to completely transform your body.

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