There are no secrets to growing muscle. Yes, I know that conflicts with the title of this article. Let’s just call it the “7 principles of growing muscle”. Either way, here is what you need to know:
1. Eat More Food
To grow more muscle you have to eat more food. Eat clean and focus on eating smaller and more frequent meals. This will keep your furnace so that it can build muscle. Strike your own balance through trial and error on gaining enough weight to build muscle but not increasing your fat content too quickly.
2. Plan Ahead on Training
You have to know what muscle groups you are working out on which days. This will tell you how to supplement and eat for that particular training session. Smaller muscle group=don’t eat as much that day, large muscle group=load up on calories.
3. Focus on compound movements
If you want to build muscle you have to lift heavy. Compound movements utilize the most muscle groups, so they should really be your focus. Center your split around the bench press, Squat, and Deadlift.
4. Choose Nutrient-Rich Foods
As you start to add calories to your diet it is easy to fall into the trap of eating junk all the time. This will cause your body weight and fat content to rise with no corresponding rise in muscle, so you must avoid this. Center your diet around dense foods like chicken, rice, and sweet potatoes.
5. Vary your reps
To grow the most muscle you need to vary your rep ranges. Your sets should comprise some heavy sets with low rep counts along with lighter sets with a higher rep count. This will recruit the maximum amount of muscle fibers giving you the most growth possible.
6. You Must Sleep
You won’t do any good tearing up your muscles if you don’t give them sufficient time to heal. If you’re training too much you’re just tearing down what’s already torn down. This won’t result in new muscle growth, which is why you should only be training each muscle group once per week. And don’t forget to stretch.
7. Track Your Training
You need to see on paper that you’re making progress. If you’re constantly going to the gym doing the same lifts at the same weights and rep counts week after week you’re not going to make any progress. If you know where you’re coming from you can know what you should be striving for your next session.
There you go, put a plan together and go get it. Make everyday better than the last and always keep growing muscle.
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