How to build muscle & add mass
Gaining mass & muscle is something every bodybuilder aims for. To be successful you need to be consistent and persistent in the way you train and eat. Its not something that will just happen over night. Below are my key points to gaining muscle & mass;
Eat more
I can’t tell you how important this is. I really feel getting the correct diet and sticking to it is half the battle of bodybuilding. If that’s the only thing you take away from my website it would be worth it.
If you’re trying to put on weight and gain mass fast, I would recommend doubling your calorie intake per day and designing a good diet plan to suit your needs. Sticking to calorie dense foods and eating high protein foods such as red meat, fish, eggs and dairy will help. You need 1g protein per pound of body-weight daily to build & maintain muscle. (See nutritional guide for more advice).
As someone with a high metabolism myself I struggled consuming enough to sustain my training and found better results when I supplemented my diet with a weight gain to increase my calorie intake. However as a side effect to gaining mass you may find an increase in body fat, if your training is correct though most of these calories will be used for energy and muscle production.
Training
Concentrate on free wight exercises that use large muscle groups and keep it simple e.g. bench press. Use heavy weights and low reps; no more than 8 reps per set to keep your training intense. For gaining mass do no more than 2 to 3 exercises per body part, any more will hinder development. Split your workout, e.g. back & biceps or legs & abs etc. (see workout programmes for me detail)
Don’t over train
It’s so easy to over train especially if you’re new to bodybuilding. Limit yourself to about 3-4 training sessions a week and stick to it. Try and keep these to no more than 60minutes each. In my opinion 45 minutes is more than sufficient time to train. More time in the gym and your testosterone levels will suffer.
Recovery
Do not underestimate the power of sleep, your body needs 8-9hours of sleep in order to run efficiently and this is where your body will grow and develop. Loss of sleep will cause a drop in hormone levels and lower your metabolism making it a lot harder to gain muscle.
Limit your cardio
During the bulk up stage limit your cardio to 2 to 3 sessions a week of about 20 to 30 minutes.
Train your legs
Often overlooked, but so important. I can’t tell you the number of people I see in the gym who only ever train their upper body, day after day. Squats work your whole body and in my opinion are one of the most important exercise. Squatting & dead lifting uses all your muscles at once and will help develop your body as a whole.
