When it comes to finding out the best way to gain muscle, there are a lot of suggestions out there about what to do and what not to do. These tips and hints range anywhere from telling you exactly what to eat, exactly what particular exercise will pack on the most muscle, and many other ideas. For the sake of this article, I’ve gone through several articles about gaining muscle and picked out what I would consider to be some of the best general tips that you should keep in mind if you are trying to gain muscle. I’ve tried to leave out most of the really specific advice mainly because a lot of the specifics of training are up to experimentation and what works best for you. But you’ll want to follow these general rules to get the most out of your efforts.
Here are some of the top tips to help you gain muscle:
1- Focus on compound / multi-joint lifts. The best lifts for gaining overall muscle mass are the big lifts that involve more than one muscle group at a time. These lifts include bench presses, squats, rows, and dead lifts to name a few.
2- Eat a lot more than you’re used to eating. A lot of gaining mass is simply eating more calories that you burn each day. Figure out your RMR and about how much you burn from your workouts, then make sure that you’re eating more calories than that.
3- Use mostly free weights. For a long time now, free weights have been the basis of any real mass gaining routine. You’ll get a lot more out of them than using machines all the time. At most you should only use machines 25% of the time in your workouts.
4- Workout INTENSELY! Honestly, if you’re just going to the gym and lifting some weights, you’re probably not going to see the results you’re after. You have to have some good intensity in your workout! Push every set to the point where you can’t do another one without help or resting. In order to gain muscle, you have to push your muscles to the limit.
5- Eat more protein. Increase your protein consumption to 1 gram per pound of body weight. This will give your muscles the nutrient they need to build muscle.
These are the basic rules. If you follow these rules and adjust some of the more particular things to your own needs and abilities, you should start to see some gains. Remember, putting on muscle can take some time. Have the dedication and discipline to stick with it long term if you really want to see things happen.
