How To Build Muscle: 4 Basic Principles
A lot of people have tons of misinformation when they come to the gym.
When it comes to building muscle, there are many ways to do it right, and many more ways to do it wrong.
I want to give you some basic principles on how to build muscle the right way.
1. Progressive Overload
Your muscles will adapt to whatever conditions you put it under.
That being said, in order to build muscle properly, you have to continue to overload it. Your muscles will adapt to the stress you put on them by getting stronger and sometimes bigger if you do it right.
Making gains week after week means you must continue to increase the load on your muscles in various ways.
You can do this by adding more reps, decreasing rest, increasing weights, 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
Most people don’t sleep enough, or get enough rest and thus they overtrain. When it comes to building muscle, 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.
Building muscle properly requires that you get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night for proper repair. Give your nervous system, hormonal system, and muscles time to recover.
4. Nutrition
This means getting the right amount of carbs, the right kinds of fats, and proteins.
Your calorie requirements depend on your age, weight, body fat, and level of activity.
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.
These four principles will allow you build muscle properly consistently.
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.
