For those looking to build muscle there are a few basic things that need to be kept in mind, both in and out of the gym. Paying attention to all of these factors will mean you are giving your body the best possible chance to increase muscle size.

Lift Heavy

This should speak for itself. You want to give your muscles a reason to grow. Lifting heavy weights is the stimulus for the body to build itself bigger and stronger. If you don’t give the body a reason to grow it simply won’t. Light weights don’t cut it.

Use free weight, compound exercises

Free weights are barbells and dumbbells. Compound exercises are those that involve more than one joint (also called multi-joint exercises). These exercises allow the most amount of weight to be lifted, as well as stimulate the release of growth promoting hormones.

Train the body evenly

Ever seen someone in the gym with a huge upper body and skinny legs? Or enormous rounded shoulders with no back muscles? This is the result of not training the body in a holistic manner.

Apart from looking silly it is not functional to train the body in this way. The body is one unit with all muscles working, at least to some degree, in synergy with one another. If you play a sport, whether at club or representative level, it becomes even more important to train your whole body, not just the ‘show’ muscles (chest, arms, abs). And for those who train legs because they only want a bigger upper body, remember that a house can only be as big as the foundation it is built on.

Don’t overtrain

In short, overtraining is a state where the body cannot recover due to excess exercise. Without recovery it will not build new muscle. This means you need to pay attention to intensity, volume and frequency and manipulate these factors to ensure continued improvement (called periodisation).

Periodisation is complex and would require a whole new article but let’s just look at the basics of avoiding overtraining. Firstly, don’t spend every day in the gym. Training 3-5 days/week is fine, depending on the program you are performing.

Secondly, don’t spend all day in the gym. Studies have shown than catabolic (muscle wasting) hormones increase after 45 minutes of intense exercise. However, these studies are all performed with endurance exercise in mind. Since weight training is far from endurance exercise it would be silly to think you “have to get out of the gym in 45 minutes before your muscles waste away!” (As many people do!) But generally a sufficient workout can be done in 30-90 minutes, again depending on the goals and details of your program.

And finally, ensure your nutrition is on point and you are getting enough sleep (7-8 hours for adults/8-9 hours for teenagers).

Eat more, but don’t go crazy

To gain weight you’ll need to eat more food. Don’t fall into the trap of those who say ‘it’s all calories’ and think eating sugary drinks, fatty foods and other junk is fine to help increase total calorie intake. While a calorie is a calorie in essence, too much junk will eventually have a negative toll on your body so eat it only in moderation.

To bulk up your diet to add size include foods like milk, fish, meat, nuts, rice and pasta.

Having said that, you can’t rush muscle growth by eating excessive amounts. For example, lets say you do a weights session that stimulates the body to add 0.001kg of muscle (all VERY hypothetical). Eating more than enough food will not increase the amount of muscle built, that is determined by your training. Therefore, excess food is simply stored as fat.

Eat enough protein but don’t obsess

Yes, to gain muscle you will need to eat enough protein. No, you don’t have to eat endless amounts of meat or protein shakes to acquire the necessary protein intake.

The body only needs a set amount of protein to synthesise muscle tissue. Any more than this is generally not used for building muscle. The general consensus is 2g/kg of bodyweight.

This means that once you meet your protein quota, you can gain those extra calories from other sources. For example, lets say you know you are eating adequate protein but still need extra calories to provide the fuel for growth. Instead of trying to pound down more dry chicken breast or another steak, you could choose to go for some variety and eat some nuts (very calorie dense), fruit or carb source. The point is, you need to meet your protein requirements but you don’t need to exceed it, and doing so will not increase muscle growth beyond a certain point.

Include Cardio

This may go against what many people believe to be correct. However, including cardio brings a number of benefits to your muscle building efforts.

Firstly, improved aerobic condition means more oxygen is being supplied to the muscles resulting in improved performance in the gym, as well as quicker recovery from workouts.

Secondly, increased oxygen availability means the rate at which fat is oxidised is increased, helping to keep you lean. The added calorie burn from cardio also helps limit fat gain.

Then of course you have the obvious health benefits that performing aerobic or anaerobic cardio brings. This is something that needs to be kept in mind.

And finally, choosing a form of cardio carefully can actually benefit your weight training by making you stronger. Think short sprints (10-40m) and jumps. When rest periods between sets and total volume are controlled you can often use these types of exercises to maintain general fitness as well as make you bigger and stronger.

But there is one situation where I would not advocate cardio for those looking to build muscle. For the extremely skinny, impossible to gain weight trainers the extra calories burnt from cardio simply make it too hard to eat enough food. These people usually have small appetites so cardio just makes it harder to get in enough food. But these people are actually VERY rare so don’t put yourself in this group unless you know for sure you are an ultra-hardgainer.

Be Patient

Building muscle is a slow process. As a beginner you are lucky in that, provided your training and nutrition is on point, you will see improvements much faster than an experienced lifter. But you still need to be patient and more importantly, consistent.

Conclusion

Keep these things in mind when looking to build muscle. Anyone can build bigger muscles and while it seems complex the process is actually quite simple. You stimulate the muscle to grow with training. Then you provide an environment in which the muscle can grow by eating enough and getting enough sleep. The rest will take care of itself!

Mobile Personal Training covers the Hills District area including Cherrybrook, Castle Hill, Galston, Pennant Hills, West Pennant Hills, Glenorie, Dural, Round Corner, Glenhaven, Kellyville, Hornsby, Baulkham Hills, Beecroft and Glenwood.