If your aim is to put on some muscular size, and therefore want to find out how to gain muscle mass, then you should know that the process of gaining muscle is simple, but it takes work, time and dedication.
The basic principles of muscle building are simple to understand, but it does require one to have a good understanding of the various elements involved in the process. And to be able to implement and properly comply with a good muscle building program to get impressive results.
The Fundamentals Of Gaining Muscle
The main pillars to gain muscle are proper nutrition and resistance training. Most of the things that you'll do to gain muscle will revolve around these two key components. Also, you may need to include a cardio exercise routine and some supplementation with your program in accordance with your circumstances and goals to get optimum results.
" You gain muscle mass by routinely training with resistance (lifting weights) and consuming the right nutrition for muscle building "
Most men and women can gain muscle mass if they follow a suitable program that comprise of a well-structured nutrition and training program for building muscle that works. If you want to successfully build muscle and improve your body composition you need to implement and stick to the right course of action that will produce the desired outcome.
The following are the various components of gaining muscle mass that all muscle building programs have to address.
If you want to gain muscle you have to lift weights that are relatively heavy to break down existing muscles, which will rebuild and grow a bit bigger and stronger when they are given enough time to recover after the workout.
The process for increasing the size of a muscle is to induce a bit of damage to the muscle by lifting heavy weights, then you have to give the muscle enough time to rebuild and repair itself (do not work it again for a certain amount of time) and become a bit bigger and stronger than it was before.
However, this tearing and rebuilding process cannot be done just once or twice to make you become stronger and more muscular. The key to getting significantly bigger muscles naturally is to stick to a long term training routine and keep increasing the amount of resistance and/or workload you are putting on the muscle each time it's ready for work again.
This is called progressive overload and it's where the magic of gaining muscle mass happens. No matter what you do, the type of program that you use or the type of gym equipment you workout with, if progressive overload doesn't happen you will not get bigger muscle.
So think about getting bigger muscles by training with more resistance progressively from the time you begin to workout up until you build up the amount of muscle mass that you want through a number of workout sessions.
Basically, building muscle is about pushing to gain strength. When you consistently push for more challenging resistance, the stronger you'll become and the more muscle you'll gain.
more strength + progressive overload = more muscle mass (image credit)
"You Can't Gain Muscle Mass Fast By Sticking With One level Of Resistance For Too Long"
You'll not get bigger muscles on your body if you just stick to one level of resistance throughout all your workout sessions.
The reason is your body adapts rather quickly to a certain size of weight when you train, so you'll need to add more weights in order to build more muscle. The faster that you progress to lifting heavier weights, the faster you'll gain more muscles. But you may not always be able to add weights. Sometimes you'll have to do something else to make progressive overload happen such as increasing reps.
Proper Technique And Form
Although consistently increasing resistance and workload is necessary to gain muscle mass, you have to progress to more weights properly. There are a number of other elements involved in weight training that's part of the strength gain and muscle building process that you also must pay attention to if you want to succeed.
In order to maintain balance in the development of your body, properly stimulate all potential muscle fibers and prevent injury to yourself, you have to focus on using correct technique and form at all times when weight training.
So when you start any weight training program keep in mind that proper technique and form is equally important as the size of the weights you are lifting to build muscle.
Exercise To Gain Muscle
As we learned above, resistance is necessary to create stress on the muscles to induce a bit of damage for growth to happen. Resistance is any force that tends to oppose or retard motion. There are different types of resistance exercises. Lifting weights is absolutely the best type of resistance exercise to build your muscles.
Body weight exercises such as pushups and pullups are also resistance exercises you can use to gain some muscle mass when you are newly starting out, but progressing the resistance to get stronger and gain a significant amount of muscle mass is limited with these exercises.
You are able to progress to much higher levels of resistance better with weight training.
There are also numerous types of weight lifting exercises used for building muscle that can be either compound or isolation exercises. Compound exercises are the best for building muscle mass when you are newly starting out because they grow muscles in multiple body parts. And isolation exercises are used to shape up specific body parts to sculpt the body shape that you are after.
Your muscle building program should tell you which type of weight lifting exercises to do, when to perform them, number of reps, sets per exercise etc. When all these variables are structured properly in a program and you comply well with the instructions of your program, it should result in good muscle gains overtime.
"The Squat and Deadlift are popular compound exercises used to build muscle mass" (images credit)
Proper Nutrition Is Crucial To Gain Muscle
Your body cannot get stronger and develop in size if you do not eat well. Food is essential for your body to grow, develop strength and get enough energy to perform intense exercises.
Therefore, a solid nutrition plan is also a very important requirement for gaining muscle mass. In fact, if your body is not getting the right type of nutrition it needs, then all your efforts in the gym could be futile. So you must make sure to find out what is the right nutrition plan for your body type and combine that with your workout routine.
To build muscle you are going to want to make sure that you're eating meals that include the right types and amount of nutrients for muscle gain such as lean proteins, complex carbohydrates and healthy fats. A calorie surplus is a must for building muscle, so you have to find your calorie maintenance level and create a surplus.
Supplements To Gain Mass
Supplements may be used with a muscle building program to help supply essential muscle building compounds that may not be obtained through your nutrition. This helps boost muscle growth and accelerate the muscle building process.
Cardio During A Muscle Building Program
Cardio exercises such as running and jogging should also be included with a muscle building program accordingly to help your body burn fat.
Different people need to use cardio in accordance with their individual circumstances and goals. Your cardio routine should be regulated by specific conditions that pertain to you such as your body type and the pace at which you are gaining muscle mass.
The above highlights the basic information with regards to muscle building for anyone who want to know how to gain muscle mass. There are different professional programs designed with different methodology that can be used to gain muscle mass, but all muscle building programs have to address these key requirements for building a muscular body.