Gaining muscle requires a combination of training hard enough, eating enough of the right foods, and getting enough rest. If one of these is not occurring, you will have difficulty adding lean mass. A good training program with balanced meals and enough time for recovery will allow you to increase strength, build power and add size. Consult your physician before beginning any diet or exercise plan.
Diet
To gain muscle you must eat enough protein to grow, possibly twice as much as a sedentary person. Get as much protein as you can from lean beef, chicken, milk and eggs. You also need fat in your diet, but try to get most of it from essential fatty acid sources such as oily fish, nuts and seeds. A diet too low in essential fat can limit your ability to produce testosterone, which is the hormone most responsible for building muscle.
Training
You must train heavy using multi-joint lifts such as the squat and deadlift, which work multiple muscles including the largest muscles of your body. Heavy work for the back, including chinups and rows, needs to be done to work the widest muscles of the upper body. Bench presses and military presses will work the rest of your upper body. If you are having trouble gaining muscle, do not perform isolation exercises such as cable curls and push downs, as these work only small muscles yet still deplete your ability to recover.
Workout
Train your entire body every workout, but only three times a week on non-consecutive days. This will give you three sessions a week to focus on heavy, basic training and practice the compound lifts. Train using three to five sets of each exercise, and no more than five to eight repetitions per set. Add weight until you are training with 75 percent of your one-repetition maximum and keep your rest periods under 90 seconds. This will not only stimulate the production of more testosterone, it will keep your cortisol levels down. Cortisol is a hormone that can promote fat storage and muscle wasting.
Recovery
Rest is a critical element in gaining muscle. If, after adjusting your diet and training you are still not growing, you may need to rest more. If you are very active on the days you do not lift you may need to reduce your activity level more to give your body time to recover. If you are struggling to gain muscle, this is not the time to train for your first marathon or triathlon. While enjoying your spare time is important, you must decide how important gaining muscle is to you.
References
- "Journal of the American College of Nutrition"; "Beyond the Zone: Protein Needs of Active Individuals, Individuals"; Lemon; 2000
- "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition"; Dietary Omega-3 Fatty Acid Supplementation Increases the Rate of Muscle Protein Synthesis in Older Adults: a Randomized Controlled Trial; Gary I. Smith et al.; Feb. 2011
- "Fiziol Cheloveka"; Acute Testosterone and Cortisol Responses to High Power Resistance Exercise; Andrew Fry & Charles Lohnes; July-Aug. 2010
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