How To Gain Muscle Fast and Reap the Benefits

Adding muscle to your body has so many positive side effects that we don't have time to mention them all here. It helps you burn fat, increase your metabolism, build strength, look better, feel better, etc. We could go on. However, I am guessing that the majority of people who are looking for a way for how to gain muscle fast are probably doing so for one of two reasons. They are either looking for an edge in an athletic endeavor or frankly they just want to look good. Whatever you reason for wanting to build muscle fast I applaud you. In an era where there are too many people sitting around playing video games while their waistline expands you should be congratulated for taking steps to change your physique in a positive fashion.

Building muscle is not as difficult as it sounds but it does require hard work and some discipline on your part. Below you will find a few steps to move you in the right direction.

Now this part is not difficult. The difficult part for most of us is eating less. However, the first thing that you need to do when trying to build muscle is to make sure that you are getting enough of the right foods to enable your muscles to grow. Find out how many calories you are currently eating on average each day. Then realize that you are going to have to step it up from here. Just make sure that you are eating “clean.” Don't merely eat junk to get your calories up. I am a proponent of getting about 35% of your calories from protein and about 20% or so from quality fats. The rest will be from carbohydrates (about 45%). Make those good carbohydrates. Don't settle for a bag of chips.

If you are currently 150 pounds and you are trying to gain muscle then I would start with a diet around 3000 calories each day. If you are already consuming that without any luck then step it up from there. Now some will have a difficult time getting enough quality protein in their diet. If this is the case then you can consider supplementing your diet with a protein powder. It is not necessary but it may give you the boost your are looking for. Also spread your meals out throughout the day. Eat at least 5 times each day. Don't try to squeeze all of your calorie intake into 3 meals each day.

You cannot put on muscle without lifting weights. You can do things like bodyweight exercises but they will mostly complementary to your weight lifting program. If you want to add muscle fast then you need to lift weights. I would make sure that you are lifting 3 – 4 times per week. You can do a fully body workout 3 times per week or you can do some type of split routine where you work each body part 2 times each week. Do no lift weights every day. You will need to give your body time to heal and rest.

If you know how to gain muscle fast then you need to lift heavy weights. Now I realize that may sound a bit confusing. Heavy weights to one person may be light to another, so what do I mean? You need to lift heavy to you. If heavy for you is a 135 bench then that is what you will do. You will increase in time. Focus you weight lifting sessions on weight lifting sets where you only perform 5 – 7 exercises at most. You will also need to do sets where you do not do more than 3 – 5 repetitions. When you lift heavy weight you force your muscles to adapt to the stress that you are placing on them. In response they will grow in order to meed the new demand.

One of the best things that you can do when trying to learn how to gain muscles fast is to perform compound exercises when weight lifting. The following exercises would be at the tip of my list: dead lifts, squats, overhead press, bench press. I would also throw in the following bodyweight exercises which I believe are great compound exercises for packing on the muscle: pull ups, handstand push ups and regular push ups. These exercises force your body to tap into its resources to perform. I know it may sound odd but doing heavy squats has the ability to create muscle increase throughout your body. Focus on the compound lifts during your weight lifting sessions.