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Struggling to gain some size? If you have a spare 3 minutes, read this article
Gaining Muscle is a slow and tedious process. I will say it just now. Not to scare you off or tell you to quit, but to set your expectations. My one ask of you is to avoid following Instagram athletes and follow their plans because it will not work for you.
Below I will break it down for you and give you the 3 key tools you need to grow fast and grow efficiently.
1 – Calories & Protein. To grow, you need to be in an anabolic state where you are taking in more calories than your body needs to allow for tissue to grow. Its what we call being in a Regenerative state. You will have heard the term “calorie surplus”. This is essentially what we are doing. Figure out what how many calories are required to keep your bodyweight at a steady level, then simply increase this by 200-400 and keep it there for about 10 days or so. But you will struggle to gain quality mass if you don’t eat enough. Period.
Protein is absolutely critical for growth. Amino acids provide the blocks that will allow for new tissue to grow and damaged tissue to repair. So get in plenty of protein. The recommended figure across the board is 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. So 170 grams of protein per day if you weigh 170 pounds. There is no science behind it. The surplus doesn't have to be huge, but you do have to eat enough - this is something I was reluctant to do for a long time. But when I did, I made some of my best progress.
2 – Progressive Overload. Do you track your progress? You can’t be going to the gym every week second-guessing yourself and just picking up any weight that gives you a pump. Why go in there and just chase that pump every day? Sure, the pump is required, but you should be focusing on getting stronger. When your muscle is exposed to more overload, tension and swelling, it will grow over time. However, you need to be lifting heavier as the weeks go on. So get tracking your progress.
3 – Rest & Recovery. You WILL NOT grow if you don’t recover. If your muscles don’t get enough time to recover through sleep, good nutrition, protein and recovery methods. If you train every day and do not give your muscles a chance to recover, you will not grow. Rest is pretty simple to define and not much goes into it. The reason people struggle with this is due to the “no pain, no gain” mentality. If you are taking some form of Performance Enhancing Drug, then your ability to recovery will be faster. However if you are doing it the natural way, then it really is a case of being a little more patient and allowing your body to heal.
There you have it, 3 key things you can take on board whilst on your quest to build muscle!
