The best tips for building muscle quickly

The best tips for building muscle quickly: To have a toned, muscular body, you need to train hard and eat right. We reveal how you can build muscles quickly and effectively – in the fitness studio or in the home gym.

Would you also like to have a toned body like the Men’s Health cover models? Sure, with a broad chest, strong arms and a flat stomach, you not only cut a good figure and boost your self-confidence, but you also do a lot for your health. But the way there is hard: you not only have to lift weights ambitiously, but you also have to reduce your body fat percentage.

What is the benefit of muscle building training?

Effective muscle training gives you one thing: more muscles, more power, more self-confidence! But it’s not just about superficialities like appearance. Your health benefits enormously from your muscle training. Below we give you 5 reasons that should completely convince you to train regularly.

1. Muscles prevent pain

Poor posture can cause headaches or back pain. The reason is weakened back muscles, which leads to imbalances that your body then has to compensate for. Shortening and tension of the muscles are possible consequences. You can specifically prevent this with muscle building and strength training . Especially if you have back pain, you shouldn’t neglect exercise. On the contrary: the right muscle building exercises strengthen your back muscles and provide relief.

2. Muscles make you slim

Yes, you read that right: muscle growth helps you lose weight . Because your muscles are the number 1 fat burner – around the clock. It doesn’t matter whether they are currently working or not. This basic tension, also known as muscle tone, constantly uses energy. In plain language this means: the more muscle mass you have, the more energy your body burns, even when at rest. In technical jargon this is called an increased basal metabolic rate. The result, confirmed by studies : you lose weight faster and can maintain your weight more easily. On average, your muscles use around a quarter of the energy that your body uses overall.

3. Muscle mass will never make you cold again

You probably know those muscular guys who walk around indoors in just a T-shirt, even in winter, while others are still shivering in their sweaters. This is because the muscles produce heat. A study in the journal “The American Journal of Human Genetics” confirms that people with lots of red muscle fibers are significantly more resistant to cold. Of the energy used for muscle work, only around 45 percent can be used for muscle contraction: body heat is, so to speak, the waste product, and this also applies when you are at rest. This explains why you sweat after strength training or literally shiver in the cold or even when you have chills: the body actively warms itself up with the help of the muscles.

4. Muscles protect your bones and joints

Muscles not only have the function of enabling you to maintain an upright posture and move, but also make you more robust overall by supporting your body and protecting bones and joints. The strength of the muscles around the joint ensures that you effectively prevent injuries, especially in the joints.

5. You are never too old for muscle building training

You can sustainably increase your muscle mass through targeted strength training. On the other hand, if you don’t do any strength training, your muscles will shrink – and you will gain body fat more quickly. From the age of 30 onwards, you will lose muscle mass every year without strength training, around 3 kilos per decade. The older you get, the more important physical fitness is for maintaining your muscles and health.

The good news: Even as you get older, your body still responds very well to muscle training. Even though you may no longer amass more than ten kilos of muscle per year, it is never too late to start strength training to become more flexible, fitter, stronger and more efficient. Before you get started, however, you should get checked out by a doctor so that any previous damage can be taken into account.

How do I plan my muscle building training?

How do you train properly to achieve muscle growth? Building muscle mass and increasing strength are adaptation processes in your body. If you demand this beyond the limits known to it, it will continue to adapt to this in the future. In order for your muscle training to be successful, you should follow the following training rules and training principles:

How strenuous should muscle building training be?

No sweat, no gain. This means: challenge your body! Only then will he react to training stimuli and change. Sweat, muscle burning and sometimes sore muscles are intentional. This is the only way you will build muscle. “You should train your muscles with high intensities and volumes until fatigue in order to achieve maximum muscle growth.

For beginners, it is sufficient to just push a muscle to its maximum load. Advanced users should push it to the limit. For larger muscles like that You can do 10 or more sets on the quadriceps on the thigh. However, we recommend various exercises of three to five sets each. But be careful: the stressed muscles must then regenerate enough! “If you don’t give your muscles time to thicken up, you’re wasting something valuable Growth potential,” says Power Prof Stephan Geisler, from the IST University in Düsseldorf.

How often do I need to exercise to build muscle?

Only repeated, regular training leads to the goal. Therefore, train at least 2 times, preferably 3 times a week. Beginners train twice a week, advanced trainees up to 5 times. 30 to 60 minutes per training session is ideal. You shouldn’t lift for longer, minus the warm-up and cool-down, otherwise you’ll prevent your muscles from regenerating and therefore from growing.

How many repetitions and sets do I choose for muscle building training?

Choose the weights so that you can do no more than 8 to 12 repetitions – the last few with difficulty. A good movement pace for beginners: 2 seconds for the overcoming phase, 1 second for the static phase and 2 seconds for the yielding phase.

Example: For a push-up, there would be 2 seconds for the downward path, 1 second at the lowest position and 2 seconds for the upward path. Even one intensive set is enough to stimulate muscle growth. You should move on to the next exercise after the third set at the latest. Give yourself at least 1 minute break between sets. It should continue after 3 minutes at the latest.

What weight brings optimal muscle building?

The amount of weight is very important for your training success and muscle growth. The strain is optimal when it creates an effective stimulus on the muscles without unnecessarily increasing the risk of injury. The ideal weight should be 10% below the maximum training intensity.

You determine your maximum weight the first time you do an exercise by estimating and trying it out (or getting advice from a trainer). When doing strength training, you should choose the weight so that you can do 8 to 12 repetitions. If you do less than 8, the weight is too high. Anything more than 12 is too low.

When do I need to change my muscle building training plan?

Always doing the same routines, movement speeds and exercises won’t put the best strain on your body in the long run, no matter how much weight you put on it. Consequence: Your muscle growth stagnates.

 Therefore, change the training stimuli every 6 to 8 weeks, for example by switching out exercises. Use other exercise equipment, such as free weights, instead of machines. Change grip techniques, body position, pause length or tempo.

How do I divide my muscle building training?

Beginners who only train twice a week are best off doing a full-body workout in which they train all muscle groups. If you train at least 3 times a week, it makes sense to divide the whole-body workout over several days according to muscle groups. Because every muscle should only be strained again after recovery, after around 48 hours.

Advantage of so-called split training : You can train on consecutive days.

The 3 most common split tactics:

The push-pull method:	You divide the units according to how the muscles work. One day the program involves pushing movements and the other day pulling movements. For example, a push workout might target the following muscles: chest, triceps, and front shoulder. The next day is followed by the pull workout with exercises for the back, biceps and rear shoulder.
The player-opponent method:	Muscles that work in opposite directions are specifically trained together. Example: 1 time biceps and triceps as well as stomach and lower back, front and back thighs as well as chest and upper back. Advantage: Every muscle can be put under maximum strain because it is fresh and rested.
The Upper Body-Lower Body Method:	You train the legs, stomach and lower back in one session, the next time you train the arms, chest, shoulders and upper back. This way you avoid overloading certain muscle groups.

How important is regeneration when building muscle?

Recovery times are just as important as your muscle training. The muscles need to regenerate , nutrients need to be replenished and the residue from energy burning in your cells needs to be removed. Plus: your muscle grows during the recovery phase. Therefore, after each workout, you should give the stressed muscles 24 to 48 hours of rest, depending on your training level. If you pick up the dumbbells too soon, you will gradually become weaker. The reason: The body has no chance to regenerate its performance. This is called overtraining.

But you shouldn’t wait too long before your next training session, otherwise you’ll miss the moment when your body has more power. After about a week it is back to its original performance level. It adapts to the missing stimuli by breaking down muscle.

How does muscle building work: What is muscle hypertrophy?

Muscle building is the increase in the size of the body’s muscles. Hypertrophy training, the technical term for muscle building training, aims to increase the overall cross-section or circumference of the muscle by increasing the thickness of the individual muscle fibers. But what happens when muscle grows in the body? Requirement for building muscle mass: The muscles are challenged beyond their usual performance level. This training stimulus from the workout creates micro-tears in the stressed muscle (muscle soreness). During the recovery period after resistance training (approximately 24 hours), the body begins to repair the damaged fibers and even thickens them to adapt and strengthen them for similar stress in the future. In training theory, this process of adaptation is called supercompensation .

Is muscle soreness part of building muscle?

A slight muscle soreness is part of it. Muscles only grow if micro-tears occur in the muscle during workouts. And these small injuries cause muscle soreness. But you shouldn’t overdo it either, otherwise you could risk muscle injuries, which would then force you to take a break for a long time. Give the muscles a break until they recover. If you have sore muscles, you shouldn’t start training again straight away. Otherwise, long-term damage to the muscle can occur. You can speed up regeneration by taking a cold shower after strength training and sleeping at least seven hours per night. This also helps with sore muscles .

Which exercises are suitable for building muscle?

Put your muscle building exercises together so that you train the entire body. All large muscle groups must be challenged intensively. XL arms are of little use to you if you have a chicken breast. Not only does it look strange, such muscular imbalances also set you back in sports and everyday life. Choose exercises for your upper body , back and legs .

Advanced users swear by the basic exercises for building muscle mass for the large muscle groups. These basic exercises involve at least two joints. Plus: Depending on your level and availability, they can be performed with free weights (dumbbell training) or your own body weight:

• • Squats
  • Bench press
  • Deadlift
  • Pull-ups
  • One-arm dumbbell row

By the way, these are the best exercises for building muscle. When choosing exercises to build muscle, don’t choose too many for one muscle group. Better to focus on the total number of repetitions per muscle group. This should be between 20 and 50 repetitions at the beginning. If you’ve been doing it for a while, you can even complete 100 repetitions or more for one muscle group, depending on the method you choose. For beginners and after an injury, exercises on machines tend to be better suited to building muscle because the movements are guided here. Advanced users choose free weights, such as dumbbell training and cable pulls. Free weights mimic athletic movements and stimulate more muscle mass.

How do I create a training plan for building muscle?

First, set a goal. Write down what you want to achieve with strength training. The more specific, the better. Then create your training plan by setting 3 training days. Plan a maximum of 3 rest days in between. Get what you need for training, such as a dumbbell set and professional help. It’s best for beginners to register at the gym. With a little control and good tips, you can also start training at home.

Plus: Start keeping a training diary now. Because so that you can constantly improve, you should record your muscle building progress. Write down muscle group, exercise, weight, sets, number of repetitions and duration of the workout. Important: Change your training plan every 6 to 8 weeks so that your muscles receive new stimuli again.

How does muscle building work without equipment?

You can also complete your muscle building training in the comfort of your own home. You don’t even need any equipment, such as dumbbells. All you need is your own body. Bodyweight training, i.e. strength training with your own body weight, is also ideal for untrained and overweight people because it is easy to learn using natural movements. Plus: Bodyweight training does not require isolated muscles, but always muscle groups, including entire muscle chains.

What is the right diet for building muscle quickly?

However, strength training and regeneration alone are not enough. In order to build muscle effectively, your diet must also be right. In order to grow, your muscles need the right nutrients. The most important building materials for muscle growth are proteins – also known as proteins. They are what make your muscle fibers expand after a hard workout. The catch: Our body has fat and carbohydrate stores, but no protein stores. Consequence: If you eat too little protein or consume too much of it, your muscles will be attacked and even broken down.

A protein-rich diet allows you to train intensively to provide new stimuli for muscle growth. However, it is not the proteins themselves that are crucial, but rather their building blocks, the amino acids. Some of them are essential, which means that the body cannot produce them itself but must absorb them through food. Good sources of protein include fish, meat, dairy products, legumes and nuts.

When should I eat for optimal muscle building?

To effectively build muscle mass, you should plan 5 to 6 meals approximately every 2 to 3 hours. Eat something small before training (like a few nuts) so that your body doesn’t run on the back burner and can provide quick energy. Immediately after muscle training, there should be plenty of protein (before showering), such as a protein shake, and carbohydrates (e.g. fruit). Reason: This means your body has the muscle-building materials available straight after exercise. “The body should be provided with protein for up to 30 minutes after training so that it does not pull the proteins out of the body,” says Uwe Schröder from the Institute for Sports Nutrition in Bad Nauheim. An hour after strength training there is a meal with a high protein and carbohydrate content. In the evening before going to bed, we recommend a little something like 1 cup of cottage cheese.

Do I need nutritional supplements and supplements to build muscle?

Building muscle requires a lot of energy. Basically, you should eat real foods to build muscle, not supplements. Because as long as you eat whole foods, you don’t need any pills or supplements. Exception: Egg whites or protein powders actually make sense.

Conclusion: Building muscle is healthy

Muscle building training not only ensures a good-looking body but is also healthy. Because: If you don’t do anything for your body, you will constantly lose muscle mass – all by yourself. If you not only want to look good but also stay fit, you should also do strength training. A regular workout prevents back pain, muscular injuries and annoying tension. And by the way, you also get a six-pack, a broad chest and XL arms. Our muscle building guide contains the roadmap to your dream figure. Now all you need to do is get started!