1. Eat enough of the right foods
Probably the biggest mistake people make is that they don’t eat enough. In order to build muscle you have to consume more calories than you burn off. Those who haven’t been on a bulking diet before may often think that they eat an adequate amount already, but in reality it might not be enough.
Aim for 2700-3200 calories a day, this will provide you with the necessary amount of calories to build muscle mass whilst minimising fat gain.The calories you take in should consist of quality foods and not junk food which won’t help with muscle building. To learn about the foods you need to eat more of check out this article on muscle building diets.
It is also important to remember to eat enough protein as this will be used to rebuild and strengthen your muscles after your workouts. Your daily requirement of protein should be around 1.25-1.5 times your body weight in pounds. You can click here to find out more about how much and how often you need to eat to optimise muscle growth.
2. Have a workout plan
A lot of people wander into the gym and do whichever machines they feel like doing. You might not be that bothered about having a weekly workout plan but if your plan is to build muscle; the sooner you start planning your workouts, the sooner you will see muscle improvements.
For your workout, you should only target certain muscle groups and then have a entire days break until you train those muscle groups again.
If your workout mixes exercises training entirely different muscles, you are not pushing your muscle groups hard enough e.g. Chest press and a lat pull down utilize different muscles and should therefore be done in seperate workouts.
A basic workout plan for a week could look something like this:
Mondays – Biceps, Back, Abs
Tuesday – Triceps, Chest, Shoulders
Wednesday – Break
Thursday – Quadriceps, Hamstring, Calves
Friday – Biceps, Back, Abs
Saturday – Triceps, Chest, Shoulders
Sunday – Break
3. Don’t overtrain
One of the most important tips is to workout for at most 1 hour. After an hour your cortisol levels start to rise and this is a catabolic hormone which will inhibit muscle growth.
It’s always best to leave the gym when it’s been an hour and get something nutritious to eat or have a protein shake.
Overtraining can also happen if you workout the same muscle groups 2 days in a row. For example, if you train your back and biceps on Monday, make sure you don’t train them again until at earliest Wednesday. This provides your body the necessary amount of time for the muscles to repair.
4. Don’t mix cardiovascular exercise and weight lifting
Sure you can do a 5-10 minute run as a warm up before lifting weights, but the error is when people try and do a long run before or after they lift weights. Doing both cardio and weight lifting in a workout means that you can’t work your muscles hard enough within the space of an hour.
So the smartest thing to do is to just choose one or the other for your workout. Your workout plan could be something like weight lifting four times a week and cardio once a week, or weight lifting three times a week and cardio twice a week.
5. Try new exercises
The best way to build muscle is to add some variety to your workouts so that your body doesn’t get used to the same exercises.
Have you ever noticed that if you take a long break from weight lifting, when go back to do your first workout you’re extra sore the next day?
The reason for this is that your body is no longer used to doing the exercises that it was doing before, therefore it results in muscles being sorer and needing more time to repair themselves. This is why you should change your exercises after approximately 4-6 weeks.
So as an example, if you had been doing the barbell bench press as part of your workout for 4 weeks, the next 4 weeks could be dumbbell bench press instead.This will take your muscles out of their comfort zone and train them harder, and this will lead to faster muscle growth.
Push ups can also be done alongside your weight lifting as they are a good way of mixing up your workouts. You can read more about the benefits of push ups here.
6. Eat straight after your workout
It is recommended that you eat something 0-30 minutes after your workout. This is to prevent your levels of cortisol from rising and to encourage the anabolic testosterone levels in your body instead.
What you eat should be high enough in protein and carbohydrates which provides energy to kick start the muscle building process. One of the fastest ways of getting protein and carbohydrates is to have a protein shake directly after your workout.
7. Supplements
Supplements are not a necessity if you eat plenty of good food, but they can be beneficial. As already mentioned, protein shakes can be very useful for instant protein and energy replenishment after lifting weights. You can find more information on how to use whey protein here.
For the most part using whey protein is safe, however, before you start supplementing with it make sure you read these whey protein dangers.
You can find plenty more tips throughout the rest of the site. Try and read as much as you can before you start training. Having a solid understanding about how to workout and eat will mean you can use your time effectively, and this will let you start building muscle from day 1.
Source from http://www.musclebuildingdaily.com/
