Beginner’s Guide On How To Gain Muscle
If you’re new to your fitness journey, eventually you may find that you want to do more than just lose weight. You probably want to get leaner and more fit. The best way to do this is by gaining more muscle!
How to gain muscle
Patience is key when it comes to muscle building. If you remain consistent in your routine you can start to see visible results in around eight weeks. This obviously depends on body type and your starting point, but remember to be patient with yourself and the process.
Gaining muscle doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll become bulky. It’s just building back the muscle which can help increase your metabolism and burn away more fat.
Here are some tips on how to gain muscle from your workouts.
Eat Protein More Often
When you exercise, you’re breaking down your muscle fibers. Protein will help build them back up and help your muscles recover.
On average, if you weigh about 175lb, you’ll want to consume about 20 grams of protein per meal. This may sound like a lot, but really, it’s only a cup of yogurt or about 3 eggs. You can even supplement with a protein powder if you don’t want to think about it too hard.
Obviously, another great source of protein is meat. You can get grass-fed beef online sent straight to your home! Organic, non-GMO, grass-fed beef is the way to go for meat that is healthy and packed with nutrients. It doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Don’t Take Long Rests Between Sets
Rests that are between 30-90 seconds long trigger fatigue via muscle-building hormones to be released from your body. This fatigue is essential for growth.
Taking a rest for longer than 90 seconds won’t get your muscles to that fatigue point so that muscle-building hormone won’t get released. If you’re too tempted to play on your phone between sets, put on a timer for 90 seconds, so you know exactly when to put it down!
Eat More Calories Than You Burn
This may be a tricky one to wrap your mind around. After all, you’re trying to get fit, right? Why would you be pigging out?!
Well, when you put your body in a deficit (burning more calories than you eat), your body won’t go into muscle-building mode. Instead, it’ll focus on fat-burning mode, for more energy.
Try to eat 250-500 extra calories a day. To avoid having all of those extra calories go straight to your hips, aim for most (if not all) of them to come from protein.
Get Enough Sleep
“Growing muscle” is really just repairing the muscle fibers that have been broken during exercise. We already know that the body’s primary way to recover itself is through sleep. Recovering muscle fibers is no different.
You’ll need at least 8 hours of sleep a night for your muscles to have enough time to recover. When we sleep, our bodies release human growth hormone, which aids in muscle repair. Sleeping for 5 hours or less for only one week can cut muscle growth by up to 15%!
Wrap-Up
The key to growing muscle isn’t a big secret – it’s just science. Follow the steps, and you’ll get the results. The better you follow the steps, the more tangible your progress will be!
Gaining muscle isn’t something that happens overnight. It takes time, dedication, persistence, and a good bit of effort. Don’t expect your arms to double after one week of trying!
If you’ve been trying to bulk up for a month or more without seeing results, it may be time to reevaluate your strategy. Make sure you’re taking measurements to get an accurate depiction of your growth.
Sometimes growth isn’t readily visible!
