Muscle Building Tips

To add more muscle or bigger muscles you must consume more calories than you expend. There is no two ways about it, if you are not getting a sufficient amount of calories you are fighting a losing battle in building muscle. You will want your source of calories from lean sources of protein such as a quality whey protein powder, lean cuts of beef and skinless chicken. You can get the rest from complex carbohydrates such as brown rice, oatmeal and fruit/vegetables. Throw some essential fatty acids in there and you’ll be on your way to a bigger stronger you.

2) Use compound exercises. I can’t stress this enough but to give yourself the best chance of building new bigger muscle you will want to perform the squat, bench, deadlift, bent over rows, tricep dips, shoulder press, chin ups and lunges. When performed compound exercises give stress to a greater number of muscle fibres than your isolation exercises and they also release a greater amount of natural testosterone and growth hormone into the body.

3) Get enough rest. Your body grows outside of the gym and spending all your time in there will be detrimental to building new muscle. If you are working to an high enough level/intensity when you are in the gym your rest days will be very important. As a general rule I would not go to do the gym more than two days in a row. Again if you are working to a high enough intensity your body should intuitively tell you that it’s time to rest. This is the one of the muscle building tips that seems to be ignored the most.

4) Set goals. You need to set goals and set a path when it comes to building muscle. If you don't have a goal the chances are you will not have the same focus and drive when you are in the gym. Goals help you with motivation, clear path and give you a bit of extra drive. When setting your goals you should be specific in what you want to achieve. Having a goal such as 'I want to be big and strong' will not be much benefit as it is too arbitrary. If you slightly tweak that goal to 'I want to bench press X pounds X times in six weeks' it will make a huge difference as it gives a timeframe and is measurable. Goal Setting is not to be underestimated.

5) Drink water. Drinking water is something you must do when building muscle. Water plays an important role in the transporting, digestion and absorption of vital nutrients that are essential for muscle growth. The human body is made up of over 70% water and essential for homeostasis. Being dehydrated as little as 5% can lead to deceases in strength of up to 15%! Plain and simple you won't lift as much when you are dehydrated. With water playing a role in almost every function within the human body it make sense for you to be properly hydrated. Leave your drink bottle at home at your peril.

6) Stay consistent. You need to stay consistent to be able to monitor your progress. This is key as it will give you the ability to gage if you are getting stronger and building muscle. Constantly changing your program will lead to not getting better in any exercise as you will not be doing it long enough. People are strong in exercises such as the bench, squat and deadlift because they consistently train those exercises. I recommend you change your program every 8 to 12 weeks, but when you get your new program you should do this consistently. This is not to say that you don't stop doing something that doesn’t work, it means you need to consistently be training a certain way to get good results.

These muscle building tips will help!