How to Build Muscle Mass (with Pictures)

2024 Author: Samantha Chapman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 09:13

Are you looking to gain muscle mass and burn calories more efficiently? It won't happen overnight (as many body builders might tell you), but it would be best to follow the steps below to gain muscle mass to your body structure.

Steps

Part 1 of 3: Diet

Step 1. Increase your calorie intake

For example, if you currently consume 2000 calories a day, increase that to 2500. Make sure you eat healthy, but not too much.

Step 2. Get enough protein to support muscle growth

Aim to get at least 1-2 grams of protein for every pound of body weight. For example, if you weigh 80 kg, you have at least 180-360 grams of protein per day.

Step 3. Drink enough water

The body needs sufficient water to develop muscle mass at the optimum speed. Here is a small but efficient formula to help make sure you are getting enough: Height (cm) + Body weight (kg) / 100 = amount of water to drink in liters

Step 4. Eat regularly

Instead of having two or three large meals during the day, a habit we have grown up with, change your eating habits to eat five or six small meals throughout the day.

• To keep your protein intake high, one or two meals can be a protein shake. Here's a practical example, although a quick internet search will point to 100 more delicious protein shakes:
• 0, 2 l of skimmed milk
• 1 banana
• 1 tablespoon of peanut butter
• 2 doses of protein powder

Step 5. Eat fat

That's right - not only do they serve to flavor food, fat is good for you, as long as you eat the right types and quantities! Saturated fats, those found in a stick of butter, in a bag of chips and in bacon, should be limited to 20 grams or less. This is the bad news. The good news is that unsaturated fats are good for you, they are even necessary. Fat is necessary for the correct distribution of vitamins A, D, E and K, it helps improve eyesight and skin health. Depending on your total calorie intake, 50-70 grams of monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fat is good for training and generally for health.

• Monounsaturated fats are found in olives, canola and sesame oil, avocado, nuts such as almonds, cashews, peanuts and pistachios.
• Polyunsaturated fats are found in wheat, cottonseed and safflower oil, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, soybeans and soybean oil.
• Omega-3 fats, an incredible source of fat that is beneficial for the heart and blood health, vision, children and brain development. You will find these fats in many omega-3-rich foods. Another great source is cold-water fatty fish, such as salmon, tuna, trout, and sardines.
• A good way to determine how much fat in grams you should be getting is to multiply your calorie intake by.001 for the maximum amount of trans fat; for.008 for the maximum quantity of saturated fats and for.03 for "good" fats. For example, for a 2500 calorie diet, you should limit trans fats to 3g or less, saturated fats to 20g or less, and mono and polyunsaturated fats up to 75g.

Step 6. Take vitamins

In addition to a well-balanced diet, include an additional source of vitamins in your diet. It will provide the body with the right amount of vitamins and minerals needed to stay healthy. There are many options, depending on age, gender, and especially diet and health needs. Find the ones that suit you and make them part of your routine.

Part 2 of 3: Exercise Guidelines

Step 1. A good diet is necessary for the body to be able to maximize its potential, but there is no potential if you don't start the process of breaking down your old muscles and rebuilding them to make them bigger, more voluminous and stronger

The best way to do this is to start with the basics.

Step 2. Warm up

Before starting any workout, be it a simple jog or weightlifting with more than 100kg, start with a low intensity workout, aimed at warming up all the muscles you need to work. Not only will this help you get into the right mindset, it can also help you avoid injury.

You should never stretch cold muscles. Research has shown that pre-workout stretching, contrary to popular opinion, does not prevent injuries, on the contrary it could cause worse performance. Stretching should be done at the end of the workout

Step 3. Work harder, but for less time

High-rep workouts are good for building endurance, but they won't help you build mass or strength. Instead, try to work 3-8 muscle groups and 6-12 reps per set as a regular workout. The final reps should be hard to finish! If not, increase the weights to be lifted.

• Limit your overall workout to about 45 minutes per day.
• The type changes every 4-6 weeks. As your body adjusts to stress, you will hit a limit where the benefits of weight lifting will begin to diminish. The only way to prevent this from happening is to change things up by increasing the weights and changing exercises. Try a week of increasing weights and doing 2 to 4 reps with the maximum weight you can lift.

Step 4. Get your whole body to work

You will see the maximum benefit when the whole body does the workout. The more muscles you use during training, the more hormones you will produce (including epinephrine and norepinephrine), which in turn stimulate muscle growth both while exercising and throughout the day.

• Give equal attention to all muscle groups, such as 5 sets of rowing after 5 sets of bench presses. This will help balanced training, growth and flexibility.
• Compound exercises like squats, deadlifts, presses, rowing and pull ups use different muscles.
• You can work the whole body in each session or divide the sessions, for example, between the upper body one day and the lower body the next day.
• Do not rush. Experienced lifters often base their training on a technique called explosive repetition. In other words, they lift a huge amount of weight in a short (explosive) amount of time. There are important benefits to this method, but the risk of injury in novice athletes is high. It is only recommended for more advanced athletes.

Step 5. Limit your cardio training

While doing cardio is fun for burning fat, it can limit muscle growth by burning glycogen and amino acids. If you want to keep cardio as part of your workout, try interval shots - one minute for one shot, followed by two minutes of light running. Do this for no more than half an hour, three times a week. If you play sports, eat more to make up for lost calories.

Step 6. Rest

The body needs time to recover and repair (develop) muscle mass, to do this you need at least 7-8 hours a day of sleep. Avoid caffeine and alcohol for a deeper sleep.

• In addition to getting the right amount of sleep, don't overdo your training. Even if you are tempted to think “the more I do, the better”, the opposite is true. You can reach a point called "overtraining", where you will lose the ability to "pump" (fill your muscles with oxygen-rich blood) and go to muscle wasting, which is exactly the opposite of what you are trying to achieve. Here are the symptoms to recognize if you think you are close to the overtraining zone:

  • Chronic fatigue
  • Loss of strength
  • Loss of appetite
  • Insomnia
  • Depression
  • Decreased sexual desire
  • Chronic pains
  • Tendency to injuries

• To avoid overtraining, plan that works for you and your goals. Here's an example for a split workout that gives you enough time to work your muscles and as much rest time to recover, more than before:

  • Day 1: Chest and biceps, followed by 30 minutes of high intensity cardio.
  • Day 2: Legs, triceps and abs, followed by 30 minutes of high intensity cardio.
  • Day 3: Shoulders and Back, followed by 30 minutes of high intensity cardio.
  • Day 4: chest, biceps and abs.
  • Days 5-7, rest.

  

  Step 7. Lower your stress levels

  Whether your stress comes from work, home, or how you are, do everything you can to reduce or eliminate it. Not only is this better for you generally, but be aware that stress increases the production of cortisol, a hormone that encourages the body to store fat and burn muscle tissue.

  Part 3 of 3: Specific Muscle Exercises

  

  Step 1. Train your pecs with chest exercises

  Bench presses are the surest way to get pectoral muscles, although there are different types of chest exercises.

  • Do push-ups. Combine push ups with other chest exercises, or do them separately. Keep your arms shoulder-width apart as you lower yourself down. The closer your hands are to each other, the harder your triceps will work.
  • For bench presses, start with a weight that you can lift without any problems. If you are a beginner, try lifting the barbell with 2-4 kg on each side. With your arms outstretched shoulder-width apart, grab the barbell and lower it slightly until it touches your chest; raise explosively until your arms are fully extended upward. Do 8-10 reps like this for 3 sets, adding weight for each set.
  • Lift weights on the incline bench. It is like the bench press, except that the bench is slightly inclined about 40 degrees. Do 3 sets of 8. It will be harder to lift the barbell on the incline bench, so start with less weight than you use on the regular bench.

  

  Step 2. Train your triceps with arm exercises

  Lunges are perhaps the most effective way to work the triceps, which are the muscles near the biceps. You will need strong triceps to bench press heavy weights.

  • To do the lunges, place your hands shoulder-width apart on the bench, with your body and feet out in front of the bench. Bend your elbows slightly and lower your body so that your butt almost touches the floor. Lift yourself up with your arms returning to the starting position; repeat for 3 sets of 20.
  • Alternatively, you can do chest lunges on a machine, grabbing two bars, bending your feet to the floor and lowering your feet until your knees almost touch the floor. Lift up with your arms until they are straight.
  • Do skull crusher, head presses. Lie on the bench with a barbell. Bend your elbows so that the barbell is about 5cm from your forehead. Slowly push the bar until your arms are fully extended before bringing the weight back down. Keep your elbows closed. Do 3 sets of 8.
  • Do head presses with dumbbells. Grab a dumbbell and carefully lift it onto your head, so that your forearms, grasping the dumbbell, are horizontal behind you. Lift your forearms upright over your head, being careful not to hit your head with the dumbbell. Keep your elbows closed. Do 3 sets of 8.

  

  Step 3. Train biceps with arm exercises

  Dumbbell arm curls are perhaps the most effective way to improve bicep strength. As with all exercises, you build muscle mass by increasing the weight you lift.

  • Do the individual dumbbell arm curls. Sitting on the bench, grab a dumbbell from the floor, with your hand between your thighs. Using your thigh as a fulcrum, lift the dumbbell up to your upper chest, bending your arm upward. Switch sides and repeat. Do 3 sets of 8.
  • Do arm curls with the barbell. While standing, grab a barbell with both hands. Extend your arms down towards your thighs. Using your arms only, lift the weight to your chest by bending your arms upward. Do 3 sets of 8.
  • Do pull-ups. Grab a horizontal bar that's the right height for you. Raise your legs so that you are hanging from the bar. With your hands shoulder-width apart and palms facing you, lift your chin up towards the bar using your arms only. Do 2 sets of 8.

  

  Step 4. Work your quads and tendons with the squat

  The squat is an exercise for building muscle mass in the legs. Here are three different types of squats that work different parts of the leg muscles.

  • Do the standard squat with a barbell. Put enough weight on a 20kg barbell and place it on the rack so that it is a little lower than shoulder height. Bend under the bar and lift yourself up so that the bar fits snugly between your shoulders and shoulder blades. The knees should be slightly bent. Lift the barbell off the rack and take a step back. The legs should be slightly wider than shoulder width.

    • Bring the weight down slightly by bending your knees. Keep your hips under the bar.
    • Arch your back slightly, but keep your torso straight.
    • Bring your butt down as low as possible, keeping your leg muscles tight.
    • Inhale deeply and use your legs and hips, not your back, to lift during the squat. Do 3 sets of 10.
  • Do the front squat with a barbell. Place a barbell on the rack slightly lower than your shoulders. Stand in front of the barbell, placing it on your front shoulders. Cross your arms over it and walk away. Keeping your back straight, bend your knees into the squat position, with your hips under the bar. Explode upward and repeat. Do 3 sets of 10.
  • Do the Belgian dumbbell squat. Hold a dumbbell in front of your chest using both hands. In front of the bench, lift your right leg back so that it is parallel to the floor and rests comfortably on the bench. Bend into the squat position using your left leg so that your right knee almost touches the floor. Explode upward. Do 3 sets of 8. Repeat using the other leg.

  

  Step 5. Train your abdominal muscles with crunch and core exercises

  The abs define the stomach muscles, giving the abdomen that tortoiseshell look. There are several exercises that work your abs. Here are a couple of them.

  • Do standard / oblique crunches. Lying on a mat, put both hands behind your head without crossing them. Bend your knees so your feet are flat on the floor. Pushing your lower back to the floor, slowly lift your shoulders off the floor only about 5cm (not to your feet). Don't use the push to help you; use slow and regular movements. Do 3 sets of 20.

    For oblique crunches, tilt your torso to the side as you lift your shoulders off the floor. Alternate sides after each crunch

  • Do the plank to work your abs and core. Lying face down. Lift yourself up so that your body is parallel to the floor, with your forearms (flat on the floor) and fingertips supporting your weight. Keep your body straight and hold the position as long as possible.

  Advice

  • To keep building more muscle mass, increase the weights you lift over time.
  • Rest is just as important as lifting, take a minute to breathe between sets.
  • Train with something that helps distract you and urges you not to give up. For example, a friend or some music.
  • Eat healthy and often, lifting weights lowers the immune system because it repairs the muscles, so vitamins are important to help the immune system. Lift a lot, rest often.
  • Your ability to build muscle mass can be influenced by genetics and gender. Some are genetically predisposed to build muscle easily. Others have to experiment with different diets and workouts to find one that works for them.
  • Most body builders severely limit cardio training as they "inflate" (build muscle mass), then add more cardio when they "cut" (lose fat).
  • Weight training, circuit training, and strength training are great ways to start developing.
  • If you watch TV, do some quick exercises while the commercial is on.
  • Exercising every day is of great benefit. Don't worry, you won't do any damage because your muscles rest while you sleep.
  • Chest and biceps training is the most important if you want an athlete's body.
  • As a variation to the front squat, do a turn (initial momentum movement) and do a front squat, repeat 5 times for 5 sets, as an alternative to 3x8, 5 sets of 5 reps help avoid failure, which will tell the brain not to contract that muscle group so intensely next time.

  Warnings

  • As you build muscle mass, your metabolism will regulate itself like a thermostat, in an effort to sustain some sort of balance in body weight. It may be necessary to increase calories a second time to maintain the weight gained.
  • Don't be intimidated or guessed when you see someone using a different amount of weight than yours. He may be following a program where he does fewer reps with more weight, or vice versa. Building muscle mass has nothing to do with how much weight you lift, but how much you challenge yourself.
  • If you are a beginner, start with lighter weights; if you try to lift excessive weights you could get hurt.