Building muscle is generally a much slower process than losing weight. In order to gain muscle to the best of your potential, you'll have to pay attention to three factors: your diet, your exercise program and your overall lifestyle. By moderating these factors you'll begin to see significant results as quickly as possible.
Step 1
Increase your caloric intake. In order for you body to grow to the best of its potential, it must be satisfied that no food shortage is imminent. Depending on your current body weight and the urgency of your plans to build muscle, construct a diet of 3,000 to 4,000 daily calories. To accomplish this in a single day, split your food into between five and seven meals, relying heavily on complex carbohydrates such as whole grain bread, potatoes and brown rice.
Step 2
Increase your dietary protein intake. Protein contains the amino acids that provide the building blocks for the growth of new muscle tissue; as such when constructing your meals, ensure that you're consuming between 1 and 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day. To accomplish this, rely heavily on protein rich staples such as meat, fish, eggs, beans, tofu and nuts. If further supplementation is necessary, consider an isolate protein power, available for purchase at most health food stores.
Step 3
Weight train three times per week. This will break your muscle fibers down, providing the stimulus for them to recover and regrow to a greater size. At each session, perform the following compound mass building exercises: bench press, shoulder press, bent over row, squat and dead lift. For each exercise, complete five sets of five repetitions, using the heaviest weight that you can manage without allowing your form to suffer. Aim to increase your maximum weight each week as a barometer of progress.
Step 4
Eliminate the elements of your lifestyle that aren't compatible with optimal muscle growth. If you have a habit of late night socializing, stop; getting less than 8 hours of quality sleep per night can affect both your performance in the gym and your muscular recovery and growth. Further, avoid using alcohol or other recreational drugs. These substances can interfere with the production of hormones that are important to the muscle building process, inhibiting your gains over time.
Things You'll Need
- Calculator
- Resistance training equipment
References
- "Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition"; International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: Protein and Exercise; B. Campbell at al.; 2007.
- Ergonomics: The Effect of Partial Sleep Deprivation on Weight-lifting Performance
- Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research: Effects of Alcohol on Plasma Testosterone and Luteinizing Hormone Levels
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