How to Gain Muscle: 6 Muscle-Building Tips

Gaining muscle requires diligent routines and practices. When working to build muscle, there are many factors to consider, from monitoring your training schedule to regulating your diet. Keep in mind that a fitness regimen aimed at muscle gain will naturally cause some weight gain but may decrease your body fat and improve your body composition. Check out the following list of muscle-building tips:

1. 1. Try hypertrophy training. The best form of exercise for building muscle bulk is hypertrophy training, which involves training with weights. Hypertrophy training makes your muscles larger by straining your muscle tissue, causing many tiny tears so that the fibers can grow back stronger. Full-body compound lifting is the most effective form of weight training, as it targets more than one muscle group. Examples of compound lifts include deadlifts, squats, dumbbell exercises, bench press, push-ups, pull-ups, and the overhead press.
2. 2. Add reps, not weight. Some lifters mistakenly believe that lifting heavier weights equals more muscle growth. However, increasing repetitions when lifting weights (rather than increasing the weight size) is more effective at stimulating muscle growth. Select a weight that fits your comfort level during your next weight-lifting session. Incrementally add more repetitions than your previous weight-lifting session to exhaust the muscle fibers. Be sure to perform an exercise to the point of failure to sufficiently deplete your muscle cells and stimulate growth.
3. 3. Lose fat and maintain muscle. A popular training regimen for bodybuilders is to bulk up muscles and then “shred” (lose fat and maintain muscle). Bulking up involves training for around a month to put on muscle. The following four weeks involve cardio workouts to lose fat while preserving muscle mass, which requires high-intensity exercises like cardio or high-intensity interval training (HIIT). During a shredding period, supplement your cardio exercises—which facilitate fat loss—with resistance training and bodyweight exercises, which help build muscle. Be sure to lift weights to maintain your lean muscle.
4. 4. Consume enough calories. You’ll need to eat more calories to supplement your muscle gains. A muscle-gaining diet is high in the healthy building blocks of any diet: lean protein, carbohydrates and grains, healthy fats such as dairy, and fruits and vegetables. Eating enough carbs can be just as crucial as your protein intake when building muscle mass. It’s also important to measure your food intake throughout the day, including any extra calories you consume, like protein bars, cottage cheese, and other high protein sources. Monitoring your caloric intake will help to ensure you consume enough calories to fuel rigorous workouts.
5. 5. Increase your protein intake. Protein helps your muscles repair themselves after rigorous strength training, and you will need to eat ample amounts when building muscle. Increase your diet’s protein breakdown to be greater than the normal recommended amount (roughly 0.3 grams of protein for every pound of body weight). Keep in mind that animal proteins lead to more efficient muscle repair than plant proteins, as they also contain healthy amino acids. Alternatively, increase your protein intake with post-workout whey protein powder, creatine supplements, or protein shakes. Taking protein directly after a workout can help maximize your body's recovery.
6. 6. Relax on rest days. Even if you want to build muscle quickly, getting enough rest is critical to your training program. Rest days allow the protein synthesis process to efficiently repair your muscles after strenuous workouts, and the muscle recovery process will increase your muscle size. Muscle recovery also helps you avoid overtraining, which can lead to injury and become a major setback. On your off days, treat muscle soreness with ice packs and creams, and drink plenty of water.

If you have a previous or pre-existing health condition, consult your physician before beginning an exercise program. Proper exercise technique is essential to ensure the safety and effectiveness of an exercise program. Still, you may need to modify each exercise to attain optimal results based on your individual needs. Always select a weight that allows you to control your body throughout the movement completely. When performing any exercise, pay close attention to your body, and stop immediately if you note pain or discomfort.

Incorporate proper warm-ups, rest, and nutrition into your exercise program to see continual progress and build body strength. Your results will ultimately be based on your ability to recover from your workouts adequately. Rest for twenty-four to forty-eight hours before training the same muscle groups to allow sufficient recovery.

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