Tips To Gain Muscle Quickly

Most men want to gain muscle overnight, but they do not realize that there is not magic pill to achieve this. The reality is that building muscle takes time and dedication, but with the if you follow these tips, you can significantly cut down the time it takes to build muscle.

The most important aspect of muscle building is diet.

The primary aspect of your diet is protein intake. Ideally, you should strive to eat 1-1.5g/lb of body weight. So if you weigh 200 lbs, you should eat 200-300 grams of protein daily.

Protein is the most important nutrient in your muscle building diet because protein is the nutrient that will repair and build your muscles. It is a structural nutrient in that it helps to build and maintain your body structure.

But you also have to pay attention to the energetic nutrients: fat and carbohydrates. With regards to fat intake, you should make sure that you cover your EFAs (essential fatty acids), or omega 3,6 and 9. You can buy EFA supplements at any decent supplement store, along with fish oil to make sure that you cover your omega 3 requirements. The benefits of omega 3 fats cannot be explained in this short article, but if you do not have a proper intake of omega 3s, your muscle building efforts will be hindered.

As for non-essential fats, you should also eat them but in moderation, specially saturated fat. Saturated fat is not as “evil” as we think, and specially when you are building muscle, it will help to give you energy and recover. This is why old-time bodybuilders used to drink milk and eat steak, because the saturated fat content in these foods helped them to recover from their workouts.

Now we turn to the subject of carbohydrates. Lately, carbohydrates have been demonized by blind followers of the Atkins diet and other low-carb diets. Yes, it is true that low-carb diets can work for fat loss, but when it comes to muscle building, you need more carbs than usualy.

Why? Carbohydrates will give you the energy to hoist heavy weights, which will help you to build your muscles. They will also give you the energy to recover from tough workouts, and they will actually help you in turning on the anabolic switch.

If you are afraid of getting fat from carb consumption, you can use something called “carb timing.” Throughout the day, you eat protein and fat, and you only consume carbs before, during, and post-workout. By doing this, your carbs end up going to replenish the glycogen in your muscles, instead of ending up in your midsection!

As for the workouts themselves, you cannot get away from lifting heavy weights. A lot of men want to do high reps, saying this will give them “definition”, but if you want pure, raw, powerful muscle, you have to lift heavy weights at low reps. There is no better way.

When you lift heavy weights, stick to the fundamental lifts: squat, deadlifts, bench, overhead press, and other compound movements. These exercises will release great amounts of testosterone and growth hormone that will help you to build more muscle.

If you don’t believe me, you should take a look at powerlifters when they go on a fat loss diet. Yes, I know you think powerlifters are mostly fat, but if you have ever seen a powerlifter after going on a cutting diet, you will notice that he has more muscle than most bodybuilders out there.

Not only that, you will notice that a powerlifter’s muscle has a thickness and density that cannot be obtained from high-rep, isolation exercises. Take a look at Franco Columbu, for instance, Arnold’s weight lifting partner during the Golden Era of bodybuilding. Franco relied mostly on lifting heavy weights by using powerlifting and strongman exercises, and his muscle was thicker and fuller than most bodybuilders of his era. Of course, he was probably the strongest bodybuilder of his era, even stronger than Arnold!

Of course, this does not mean that you can’t engage in high-rep, isolation exercises, but consider the latter as “sculpting” exercises that put the finishing touches on your muscle.

First build raw, pure muscle mass through heavy powerlifting exercises, and then sculpt and refine that new muscle with high-rep, isolatione exercises.