Alright building muscle is not exactly easy as pie in a pure sense but the overall process is understandably simple if you make it so. Bodybuilding, building strength, and losing weight does not have to be a science if you don't make it so. It's both a science, life-long practice involving action, and an art all rolled into one definitive process.
photo credit: Jayel Aheram
Always take note of muscle building principles if you want results. The factors of building muscle is strength training, food, and resting. You train with weights to provide a stimulus to the body.
The body reacts and responds to the applied stress and adapts accordingly with stronger and bigger muscles. Food is the fuel, the catalyst, and engine that drives muscle growth. Just like how we feel hungry with an appetite to eat cheeseburgers, muscles also have an appetite if it wants to grow. Eat lots of food.
Provide your muscles wtih plenty of food.
Pay attention the the rules of proper muscle building nutrition.
You break muscles down by lifting weights. Lifting weights is just a matter of picking up something heavy, and putting it down. Pick it up again, put it down. Lift up and down.
Repeat over and over again to get those muscles working and exerting force. Repetition draws results.
Recovery deals with sleep and plenty of it. Sleep is the most effortless and yet, many people don't get this right. Assign at least 6 hours, 8 is best every night and get those ZZZZZZzzzzzzz's.
If you get confused about this muscle building business or currently suffering from a lack of action due to information overload and analysis paralysis, refer to the article, bodybuilding principles and prioritize all activities and efforts around the 3 most essential factors of building muscle:
Strength Training/Weight Lifting + Lots of Food + Sleep
Take a step back and keep things simple. Look at the big picture concepts of what you have to do to build muscle. Then get to work and train. Stop reading pages and pages of training literature every single day if you haven't gotten your butt off the couch to the weight room.
On being simple, follow the KISS philosophy. Start out with simple and short strength training routines. You don't have much of an option if you're a busy person.
For some simple routines, check out the body part splits article and strength training workouts for the busy professional.
Here's a list of the most basic and effective muscle building routines:
- 3x5 full body workouts
- 5x5 full body workouts
- Push/Pull/Leg Split
- 3, 4, and 5 day body part splits
On exercises, always maintain and use good form. If you're going to work out, you want to stimulate the muscles the correct way. Otherwise, what's the point if you don't target your muscles correctly. Proper form also reduces the chance of injury. Use bodybuilding.com's exercise database or pick up Stuart McRobert's "Weightlifting Tell-All Handbook" (at amazon.com) for detailed tutorials on exercise execution and form for a variety of compound movements.
There's nothing complicated about this stuff. Familiarize yourself with the training principles of building muscle, the correct nutritional basics, and proper recovery. Then get to work and train. The key here is focus, consistency, and action.
Train Hard. Train Safely. Train Smart.
If you have any questions or comments, don't hesitate to leave a comment below or email me at ZQH245@gmail.com or ZQH250@gmail.com
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