How to Build Muscle Mass
Building Muscle
Although most are seeking to lose fat, there are a lot of people who wish to build muscle mass. And unfortunately there is just as much confusion about building muscle as there is about fat loss. It's a simple matter of breaking through the myth and following the few muscle building guidelines that you're about to read. But first you need to forget about whatever you think you know about building muscle and gaining weight. There is a lot more to it than just drinking a protein shake and doing a few sites of bench press.
Resistance Training
In order to force your muscles to grow, you must place upon them an amount of stress (weight) from which they've never experienced. Muscles naturally adapt by building in size and strength when they're not able to easily move weight. They have a mind of their own in a sense, they think to themselves, "hm... that was too heavy for my liking, that stress could have injured me, I'm going to get stronger in case that happens again." And of course, strength gain results in building muscle, which ultimately results in weight gain. There are two different types of resistance training, machine resistance and freeweight resistance.
Freeweight
Resistance
Of the two resistance training technologies, freeweights is usually by far the best to integrate as the primary training protocol in your exercise program. Freeweights have several advantages over machines for a few reasons. First, the very raw nature of the movements (by a dumbbell or a barbell) allows your body to perform each rep along the lines of your natural physiology. Many machines don't allow you to do this because your movement is restricted to the path in which the machine is constructed. With that said, now we'll take a look at the differences between barbells and dumbbells.
Most people associate the barbell with the single most popular exercise, the flat bench press. But, pretty much everything you can do with dumbbells, you can do with barbells as far as targeting muscles is concerned. Barbells are primarily to help you build overall mass and power. The single most prominent barbell exercises for building mass are the Squat, Deadlift, Flat & Incline Press, Military Press, and Rows. Performing these exercises alone will go a long way in building muscle, gaining strength and weight.
Dumbbells on the other hand offer a lot more exercises. The use of dumbbells is primarily for defining muscle. They place focus and emphasis on stabilizer muscles more so than a bar. Say for example you're doing a flat barbell press, the lift is identical to the flat barbell press, except the weight your pushing is not connected through a bar. Therefore, the weight each arm is pushing up is completely independent from the other, which requires more control from the stabilizer muscles.
As far as building muscle is concerned with barbells and dumbbells, I find it best to integrate both within your exercise program. Personally, I don't like to mix the two for the same muscle group at the same time. Generally I'll stick with either barbell or dumbbells with chest for example, and then in a few months I'll switch to the other. When I want to add some mass and strength, I'll stick with barbell at lower reps, sets and exercises. Then when I want to cut up, I'll switch over to dumbbells at a bit higher reps, sets and exercises.
So if building muscle is what you are concerning yourself with for now, try to make the barbell exercises the focus of your exercise program. With that said, here are common barbell exercises sorted by muscle group:
Chest Exercises
- Flat Barbell Press
- Incline Barbell Press
- Decline Barbell Press
- Floor Presses
Back Exercises
- Deadlifts
- Barbell Rows
Leg Exercises
- Squats
- Barbell Lunges
Shoulder Exercises
- Military Press (aka Shoulder Press)
Bicep Exercises
- Barbell Curls
- Barbell Preacher Curls
Tricep Exercises
- SkullCrushers (aka NoseBreakers)
- Close-Grip Bench
The above exercises are all exercises for the barbell, there are of course many more exercises if you take into account dumbbell exercises. The only thing I would recommend using dumbbells for at first would be for some shoulder, bicep and triceps. For shoulders you can use dumbbells for side & front lateral raises, for biceps you can do some concentration curls or hammer curls, and for triceps you can do tricep kickbacks.
Cable resistance can also help. For back, I recommend doing wide-grip pulldowns. For chest you can do cable flies, and triceps you can do tricep pushdowns with a v-bar. In order to perform all of these exercises it's pretty much a necessity to have a gym membership. All of this equipment is way too expensive to buy on your own.
Machine Resistance
As mentioned before, I always recommend using freeweights over machines if building muscle mass is what you want. But if you don't have access to freeweights, machines can still definitely help you put on some muscle. Remember, the only difference is the fact that most don't allow you to work stabilizer muscles, so don't fret! You will have to eventually work your way up to the heavier weight if you want to put on a significant amount of muscle. This means hitting heavy weight, at lower reps, and at fewer sets. If you do that, you'll be able to build a good amount of muscle mass.
Diet & Nutrition
Your diet is also very important when you want to build muscle. Building muscle can only occur most effectively when your diet program is a surplus calorie diet. This means that you must consume more calories than your body burns on a daily basis. You also need to make sure you consume an adequate amount of protein and carbohydrates.
First you need to determine your BMR, which stands for Basal Metabolic Rate. Click the BMR link to determine what it is. Once you know your BMR along with your combined BMR & Activity level is (daily caloric expenditure, as mentioned in the BMR page), you can then determine how many calories more you need to consume over that number.
Let's say you determine that your daily caloric expenditure is 2,300 calories. If building muscle mass is your goal, then you'd want to start off by consuming at least 2,600 calories (a 300 caloric surplus). That way, there will be 300 extra calories that your body can't burn, and that most of those extra calories will go to putting on weight, especially weight in the form of muscle if you're consuming enough protein and you're regularly performing resistance training in your exercise program. If your diet isn't in a surplus mode, then you will only be able to build muscle mass for so long until you plateau.
You will also need to pay attention to the ratios of your macronutrients, which are protein, fat, and carbohydrates. Your daily caloric intake should consist of roughly 10%-20% fats, 30% to 40% protein, and 50% to 65% carbohydrates.
There
are different types of carbohydrates which you need to discern. You'll want
to stay away from consuming a lot of simple carbs (usually found in junk food,
and on the higher end of the glycemic index) and increase your consumption
of complex carbs (found in most natural foods, and on the lower end of the
glycemic index). Complex carbs give you a sustained amount of energy over
longer periods, while simple carbs act quickly and leave you feeling more
drained of energy shortly after. You generally want to consume a lot of complex
carbs earlier on in the day in the morning, and also before you lift.
There are also different types of fat. You'll want to avoid consuming saturated fat and stick with unsaturated fat. You can find unsaturated fat in most natural foods like nuts, peanut butter and grains. Unsaturated fat is found in a lot of junk processed foods, but it's also found in a lot of meat products. However, meat products contain a lot of protein which is what you want, so I wouldn't avoid consuming meat simply because it has some saturated fat.
Protein is very important when you build muscle, because that is what protein is for. Protein repairs cells within the body, especially muscle when it becomes "broken" down due to resistance training. Things like protein shakes, protein bars, meat products, and dairy are all good sources of protein. Consuming protein after lifting is a necessity, and just all throughout the day is a good idea as well.
You should consume no less than 6 meals per day if building muscle is your goal. Obviously these meals don't have to be huge, but going back to our example, if 2,600 calories is the target, then spreading out those calories throughout those meals is what you want to do.
Interested in more specifics pertaining to building muscle? Then we can help, at FitPractical we educate our members online in how to achieve fat loss and build muscle by customizing their own diet programs and exercise programs. Take the tour to learn more about how you can become a member within a few minutes for a very low price.
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