It’s the start of the new year and the end of a pandemic. And that means that a lot of people are going to start to hit the gym again.
During the pandemic, a lot of us gained fat and lost muscle. And many people have been left wondering how to build muscle fast.
Building muscle is a complex process. It’s not just about hitting the gym and eating a lot of protein.
In order to build muscle, you need to push the muscles to the limit. Your muscles then need to recover. It is the recovery that actually leads to more strength.
If you don’t set yourself up for a successful recovery then you could end up not seeing the gains that you were expecting. This means that you’re not just building muscle for an hour at the gym and then during each meal. In order to build muscle quickly and efficiently, you need to see it as a 24-hour process.
In this article, we’ll go over the science behind muscle building and what you can do to start building muscle now. So keep on reading and we will take you through everything you will want to know!
What Is Muscle Hypertrophy?
Muscle hypertrophy is when your muscles adapt from being exposed over and over to intense forms of resistance training. This then leads to greater muscle mass.
Basically, this is a process where your muscles get bigger after going through workouts that are consistent and progressively harder.
This doesn’t mean that you should always be striving to push the heaviest weights possible at all times. If you do that, you will end up injured and unsuccessful.
Instead, it is about finding your limit, and then slowly but consistently adding a little more weight each time you workout.
Maximize Muscle Building
Protein synthesis is the process of storing protein in the body. The more protein that the body stores, the bigger your muscles are going to get.
However, your body is also drawing from your protein reserves for other purposes. You want to make sure that you have enough protein to allow your muscles to grow.
This means that you have to store and build new proteins faster than your body breaks the older proteins down.
So how much protein should you eat? Ideally, in one day, you would eat one gram of protein for every pound that you weigh.
So if you weigh two hundred pounds then you want to eat two hundred grams of protein in a day. The rest of your calories for the day should come from healthy fats and carbs.
Eat More
You don’t just need to eat enough protein. You also need to get enough calories. Let’s go over what you can do to each day to increase your weight by one pound each week.
First, figure out how many pounds you weigh. Multiply that number by twelve. This number is going to be your basic calorie needs.
Now, multiply that number by 1.6. This number will be how many calories you burn before taking exercise into account. We call this the resting metabolic rate.
Now, multiple the number of minutes that you lift weights each week by five. Then multiply the number of minutes each week that you play sports, bike, and run by eight. Add these two numbers together and divide the result by seven.
Add that number to your resting metabolic rate. This is going to tell you what your daily calorie needs are.
Increase your daily calorie needs by five hundred. This is going to be your estimated daily calorie needs that you will have to follow in order to gain one pound each week.
Work Big, Not Small
When you work out, you need to work out smart. It’s nice to spend a lot of time doing isolation exercises on your show muscles. But that’s not going to help you build muscle overall.
You need to do something known as multi-joint movements. This is going to allow you to challenge multiple muscles and joints at the same time.
When you do a rowing exercise, you’ll be working on your abs, lats, and biceps. A great way to stimulate muscle growth is to use multiple muscle groups to lift more weight. You’ll also be forced to use multiple groups of muscles to lift more weight, which more accurately mimics real life.
When you work out, you can really take advantage of these kinds of exercises by doing things like bench presses, pullups, deadlifts, and squats.
Train Heavy
In order to build strength and muscle, you need to train heavy. There is no other way around it. There are a lot of benefits to training efficiently, properly, and heavy.
By training heavy, you will challenge the muscles not only concentrically but also eccentrically. If you do it right, the stimulus of the heavy weight going up and back down with control is going to lead to better muscle tear and repair.
This means that you should be less concerned about doing a lot of reps and instead doing more intense reps. Instead of doing ten to fifteen reps of an exercise, try to do five really heavy reps.
This will let you use more weight and build more strength. As you get better at working out, the new strength is going to help you lift weights that are heavier and do more reps.
It is fairly easy to do this kind of workout. Start off each workout with an exercise that lets you train low-rep. For example, do four sets of three to five reps for your first exercise.
Then do three sets of ten to twelve reps for each move after that.
This is going to give you the best of both worlds. You’ll be able to build your pure strength at the start and then add up reps later.
Have a Drink First
When you drink a shake containing carbs and amino acids before you workout will increase your protein synthesis. In fact, you’ll be better off doing this than drinking a protein shake after your workout.
Amino acids are the muscle-building blocks of protein. Drink a shake that contains six grams of essential amino acids and thirty grams of carbs.
Exercising will increase the flow of blood to the working tissues. So drinking a mixture of protein and carbs before you workout can lead to a better uptake of amino acids in the muscles.
For your shake, add around ten to twenty grams of protein. This is around one scoop of whey protein powder. If you don’t like protein shakes, then eat something like a turkey sandwich.
However, the drink will do you more good. Liquid meals are absorbed faster by the body. You should drink a shake thirty to sixty minutes before you start your workout.
Make sure that you get your protein products from reputable sources. You should consider getting bodybuilding supplements at Wilson Supplements.
You should also stay away from so-called sports drinks. These drinks are full of sugar and can actually make you fatter.
Don’t Always Go Hard
You should do some form of exercise and movement every day. But you don’t want to put the pedal to the metal every single day. You are going to end up exhausted and fatigued if you do that.
Remember, your body needs time to repair itself. If you are intensely working out each day then your muscles won’t have a chance to repair and grow.
You shouldn’t feel dead after each workout. Try to do twelve to sixteen total sets each session and don’t go past that.
You also don’t want to ever do two intense workouts on consecutive days. Workout different muscles on different days at different levels of intensity.
The Importance of Knowing How to Build Muscle Fast
Hopefully, after reading the above article, you now understand the benefits of exercising and how to build muscle fast. As we can see, it takes a lot of work and dedication to get huge muscles.
But if you follow our guide then you should have the knowledge and tools to get stronger and bigger. And always make sure that you are being safe when you are working out. If you are confused about an exercise, speak to a professional who can help you.
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