Building muscle is a great way to protect bones and can also make you look a bit sexier. Whether you want to tone your body or build a massive amount of muscle, there is a lot you need to know. For example, how often should you practice weight training? Here are just five things everyone should know about building muscle.

Growth Begins with Nutrition

Nutrition is necessary for muscle growth. Not only does this mean eating adequate amounts of protein (1-2 grams per pound of body weight), but it is essential to eat enough calories. Not eating enough calories will prevent your body from growing muscle. In fact, if your body is getting too few calories it may begin to break down muscle and start storing fat.

Stretching Before the Workout Is Necessary

In order to prevent injury, you need to stretch your muscles before you start lifting weights. Stretching works to warm the muscles so that they are more flexible. Lifting weights without stretching can damage the muscles because they don’t have enough give to handle the weight. Take 5 minutes to stretch the entire body, paying special attention to the areas you will be working that day.

Muscles Require Rest

There are two ways in which your body needs rest. The first is making sure to get 7-8 hours of sleep each night. While sleeping, our muscles recover and continue to grow. The second way you need to rest is to alter your routine between weight lifting and cardio. Your muscles need time to recover after a weight training routine or they will not grow.

Desired Results Will Determine the Routine

If you want to bulk up, it is recommended to lift heavy weights in fewer reps. Those that want to get toned, but not bulky, should opt for lighter weights and more reps. This option is perfect for most women that simply want to tone their body for a sexier look.

Consistency Is Essential

You cannot work your body to death one day and then not have another workout for 2 weeks. You need to be consistent in your workout. Many people opt to weight train 3 days a week with a day of cardio in between for a total of 5 days. This ensures that your muscles continue to grow.

Building muscle is easier than you might think. Remember it all begins with adequate nutrition and that the workout itself needs to begin with at least 5 minutes of stretching to prevent injury. Don’t forget that your body also needs rest for the best growth and that your desired results will determine your routine. Last, but not least, be consist with your workouts.

About the Author: Octavie Henges is a female bodybuilder who enjoys reading about how to get ripped fast and disecting the opinions of other fitness enthusiasts. She encourages everyone to see a doctor before starting any fitness routine.

There’s a wealth of information available on how to build muscle, and much of it, sadly, is somewhat misleading. A visit to Internet bodybuilding forums can unearth all kinds of theories and rumours about the best sports supplements and dietary strategies. It’s well worth doing a quick read-up on some essential biology and physiology before you run up a huge bill on protein powder.

A popular subject of debate is whether or not whey protein should be used as a substitute for meals to help prepare for intensive workouts and build muscle. The scientific facts behind this process can shed some light on the best decision to make when it comes to using sports supplements.

The first thing to bear in mind is that the brain’s demands for glucose will take precedent over other parts of the body when you eat a meal. When you eat carbohydrates, fats or proteins, the body will convert them to glucose and use the glucose for energy.

Protein is easier to convert to glucose than fat. So, if you eat proteins alone during a mealtime, your brain will capitalise by converting that protein to glucose due to the large number of insulin receptors in the brain. Insulin secretion increases whenever glucose levels in the blood increase, so a large intake of protein will lead to glucose build up and insulin secretion.
This process means that anyone who uses protein to replace a full meal, be it in the form of whey protein, egg, chicken breast, casein or any other protein powder, will not feel the benefit of that protein in their workout. The brain will use the protein to create energy – an expensive waste for anyone who has bought protein-rich products to aid their workout.

The solution to the problem of getting what you want out of protein supplements is quite simple – make sure you eat a meal in addition to your extra protein.
Eric Satterwhite of BodyBuilding.com explains: “Make sure that your glucose and insulin levels are up and constant before chugging down a protein shake or amino acid supplements (especially glutamine). The smart thing to do would be to use you protein supplement exactly as that – supplements – meaning in addition to your small meals.”

He goes on to say that carbohydrates are also a key consideration, as whey proteins and low glycemic carbohydrates act together to increase nitrogen retention.
“Your small meals should be actual meals with protein, fats, and low GI carbs. Your best bet for these carbs are vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, spinach, green beans, etc,” he added. “Low GI starches/legumes are acceptable as well. And then as you are finishing your meal, start sipping on your whey protein drink. I have found this to be incredibly effective and I have stated eating big bowls of vegetables with every meal.”

If you are looking to add on some real muscle for power results, I have included three steps below about doing so. These steps will help you build serious strength and power. These are the basics for serious strength training and should not be taken lightly. If you train and eat right, the world and beyond can be yours. With that said, your lifts are what you make of it.

Progressive Overload: When it comes to building strength, this is a pretty much basic principle to follow. This is where you start with a certain resistance or weight that you can handle with good form and slowly increase the weight and resistance over time. As time passes, your strength gradually goes up as you start to increase the load to lift more heavier weight. As an example: If you rep out 200lbs on deadlifts for a set of a set of five, add 5 more pounds each week to gradually lift heavier weight. So if you’re repping out 200 one week, rep out 205 next week, and build up from there. See where I’m getting at? Don’t try to overdo it and add 30-40 pounds each week. By overdoing it and pushing yourself beyond what your joints can handle, you’ll up with more injuries than anything else. Remember, the keyword here is progressive. So just keep that in mind.

Maximizing Body Tension: One of the keys to successful strength building is maximizing tension during your lifts. Your body’s production of tension is the definition of strength. Muscular tension equals force and force equals tension. Maximizing tension during your lifts adds more strength and force. When it comes to body weight training, you might be good at doing 50 pushups, but try doing 5 one arm pushups. It might be less reps, but more tension for your body to output more force. The more force your body creates, the more strength you’ll gain. This is one of the reasons why powerlifters and strongman competitors are so strong. This is the basis of strength training.

Compound Movements: When you want to build muscular power, doing compound exercises is a definite rule for sure. Don’t waste your time with those single isolated lifts like dumbbell curls or tricep extensions. That’s for bodybuilders. Instead of just doing dumbbell curls, try doing pullups instead. Not only do your biceps get worked, but your lats, traps, shoulders are getting worked out as well. By working out multi-joint type exercises, you trigger the natural growth of anabolic hormones and well as stimulate the nervous system.

Without using high dollar supplements or steroids, one of the best ways to gain weight is the natural way. In many minds today, a lot of people tend to think all you have to do is drink protein powders and weight gainers to build a Greek like body. Some of these supplements might help you gain weight, but that might not be the right kind of weight you’re looking for aka fat. There is a slow and progressive process you have to follow in order to build muscle and gain weight.

Here are some tips to gain weight naturally:

1.) If you’re going to want to start seeing results, you are going to have to start eating healthy. Dieting, oh the gruesome word we tend to loathe with our hearts. Or at least 75% of the overweight Americans do anyway. For most people, it is almost near impossible to eat healthy every single minute. Anyone that tells you don’t have to diet in order to get results you want is lying. It takes hard work and discipline.

2.) Try not to go overboard when you first begin your mass gaining diet. And what I mean by that is don’t jump start your diet 1000 calories above your daily average caloric intake. Slowly build up your calorie intake as each day and week goes by. So if you’re consuming about 2,000 calories a day, bump it up 2200-2300 for the first week or so. Then the next week, bump it up another 200-300 calories. See where I’m going with this? The reason why you don’t want to straight jump into a 4000 calorie diet is your body is going to go into “what the hell” mode and then transform a large amount of those calories into fat.

3.) About every couple weeks or so, you should step on the scale to see how much you weigh. Try to avoid stepping on the scale everyday as this might cause some anxiety issues with some. Trust me, I’ve seen it. If you’re not seeing any increase in weight, revise your caloric intake and increase your calorie consumption. And it’s not all about just the calories either, you have to watch what macro-nutrients you are taking in such as protein, fats, and carbs. Weigh yourself again in about another 2-3 weeks to see if you have made any progress. If you still aren’t seeing any minimal weight gain, revise your diet and continue to increase your macro-nutrients and calories. Repeat this process.

4.) Instead of eating three large meals a day, try to eat 6 proportional meals a day with about 2-3 hours apart if possible. Doing this will help your body metabolize all nutrients and not turn into fat.

5.) This is where the real sweating begins. If your workout routine consists mainly of dumbbell curls, drop the weights now. Literally. In order to gain muscle mass the quickest way possible, you need to include compound exercises that hit large muscle groups all at the same time. By hitting large muscle groups at once, you can spend less time with isolation exercises and more time building muscle mass. The biggest compound exercises you should focus on are deadlifts, bench press, squats, power cleans, and the like.

6.) Last but not least, in order to grow you need to get proper rest. The most muscle growth and recovery you make is while you are sleeping. If you are only getting 3-4 hours of sleep per night, your muscle gains are going to be extremely minimal. So no more late nights on facebook or myspace and hit the bed after a good day’s worth of work.

The days of the three to four hour, marathon workouts are long gone. At least these kinds of workouts are gone for the bodybuilders who have stayed in touch with the new, more effective cutting edge training philosophies. Workouts of two or more body parts in a single session, while utilizing 15 to 20 sets for each of those body parts, is way out-of-date. Today’s bodybuilders have evolved with the advancements in training methods understand that brief, intense workouts are all that’s necessary for stimulating substantial muscle growth.

A common belief among many people training in the gyms today is that “the more you do the better.” People in general feel as though the more volume of work they can pump out, the better the outcome will be. It’s logical for a person to think this way. Isn’t that how most accomplishments in life work? The more you toil at something, the better you’ll be at it, right?

But when it come to building muscle, this is not true. If you want to generate muscle growth, adopting this mistaken belief will force you to settle for gains that are substandard to what you’re truly capable of accomplishing.

As difficult as it may be for you to grasp this statement right now, you must integrate it into your belief structure if you want to effectively add muscle mass to your physique.

Less is more sometimes!
When done with the right amount of passion and intensity, training the different muscle groups with less volume and less frequently, rather than with more work more frequently, is a far more effective way to build muscle.