A Beginner’s Guide on How to Build Muscle

Even the most muscular person in the world once began as a regular person with regular triceps and invisible ads. We all have our starting place. However, with the plethora of blogs, insta-gurus, and continuous ads featuring nothing but muscles, it can seem a bit intimidating getting started.

Using the following information and advice, any novice can feel comfortable beginning their muscle building journey. Take your time, prepare, and ease your body into your new routine.

Nutrition

Anyone who went from not working out to going to the gym 3–5 days a week can tell you about the obvious need to eat more food. Even people who began exercising to lose weight understand the need to eat more (maybe not more food in general, but more frequently). So when it comes to building muscle, you are going to need a lot more frequent meals. It is a fact that the body requires a surplus of calories (taking in more calories than you’d expend in one day) to build muscles. You need to be eating the right things. However, nutrition entails more than just eating extra.

For building muscles, protein is key to muscle growth and recovery. The general rule of thumb offered for protein consumption is about one ounce of protein per pound of bodyweight. For muscle building, however, that number could be higher. It all depends on your body, your goals, and training intensity and volume.

Tips

Start Simple — Before jumping into a new gym membership, spend a few days or weeks specifying your goals and determining a routine for yourself. Along the way, begin working out at home with squats, lunges, planks, and push-ups. By spending the first few weeks building your core, your targeted exercises later will come at a less painful cost.

Tweak it — As easy as it is to get comfortable in your routine, it is not a good idea. If your mind and body are comfortable with the routine, it probably isn’t doing much for you. After mastering an exercise, you should almost immediately be looking for different variations. Keep your muscle gains from a plateau by remembering to mix things up.

Supplements — If it wasn’t for supplements, would GNC even be a thing? All jokes aside, the right supplements can be beneficial to muscle gains, fat loss, increased performance and increased strength and power. However, there are many different brands and options, so research is a must.

Vitamins and minerals — No, supplements are not the same thing. Yes, you can/should take both supplements and vitamins and minerals. In reality, most people are deficient in a lease some of the vitamins and minerals categories. Used for metabolic processes and other body functions, vitamins and minerals become even more of a necessity when intense exercise is introduced.

Originally published at josephbenevento.org on January 11, 2019.