The Five Rules To Building Muscle

By Russ Howe

One of the questions you will be asked on a consistent basis as a Fitness Instructor is how to build muscle quickly and effectively. It is one of those areas which, no matter how many scientific advancements are made in fitness, the majority of gym members never truly get to grips with.

Should you consider yourself to be one of the many people in need of some help with their fitness journey, you are in the right place today.

Watch world leading fitness instructor Russ Howe PTI's five step guide on how to build muscle quickly.

There are a number of different strategies you can use, a number of different physics which work. In fact one of the biggest barriers in the fitness industry in general is the sheer amount of different styles and techniques out there. What should be a great asset and provide great variation instead serves only to confuse the majority and they end up getting nowhere, unable to commit to anything for fear that in three months they'll be told everything they have been doing is 'wrong'.

So don't be fooled. There are a number of ways to build a better body, there is not just one right way of training and a million wrong ways. Realizing that fact will help you get past the first stumbling block you'll encounter on your path to building a better body, erasing the self doubt in what you are doing and why you are doing it.

On this page we will be delving into the list of fundamental steps which form the basis of a good strength and size workout plan as well as nutrition guide. Whether you are a complete newcomer to resistance training, somebody who has never even stepped foot inside a gym before or someone who has been training for a while but never truly got the results they were pushing for, you will get something out of today's article.

The first port of call is your diet. Don't be fooled into believing you only need to diet if your goal is weight loss. On the contrary, if your goal is to get more muscular your diet is very, very important. You can train all day long if you want but your nutrition is the thing which is going to determine what happens to your body.

So, the first thing we must do is assess your body's desired calories per day. Everybody is different and most people do not have access to the scientific equipment necessary to determine their exact calorie needs each day so we're going to share with you a proven calculation to determine a useful ballpark figure.

Write down the weight you want to reach in pounds and then multiply it by 15. Congratulations, you've done it. Now you have your daily calorie target and yes, it was that simple! If you'd like to build up slowly swap out the multiplication of 15 for a multiplication of 12 instead.

Now that the base target is in place we can begin work. You're already ahead of the masses, who don't take the time to do this calculation in their entire fitness lives.

Your training program will need attention too, naturally. Your workouts cannot be just random and they cannot be built to simply suit your personal tastes. When people ask us where they went wrong it's common to discover that they've simply been leaving in their favorite exercises and cutting anything which didn't feed their ego quite as much. Compound exercises are the spine of your routine, build your workout around your big lifts for maximum results and try to aim your rep range in the muscle growth zone, which is eight to twelve reps.

You are now coming along swimmingly and should be feeling very confident in yourself here. The next two steps cover less obvious points which are often overlooked.

The amount of rest you get is paramount to your results. Many of us dismiss the importance of rest and believe we don't really need it as much as doctor's and scientists tend to make out. That's their loss, don't let it be your downfall. Your body needs rest just as much as it needs a healthy diet and exercise.

Start out with a three day routine and then progress to a four day routine after you have been training for more than two months. You can train more often and you will notice some people doing this, but you need to get the recovery period perfect otherwise it holds you back, so it's wise to start with a smart plan.

We also need to quickly mention the importance of sleep when it comes to getting stronger and more muscular. You've probably been told countless times that you should get eight hours rest every night but how often do you actually do it? If you are like most people the answer is not often enough. Your body recovers from your day's work while you sleep and if you don't give it that basic need your results will suffer for it.

Natural growth hormone is released while your body recuperates from the day's work. If you don't get a decent night of sleep and you like to be up again on just a couple of hours rest you will notice it becomes much harder to get any results with your fitness. Your gym sessions will suffer as will your mood in general.

If you are like the overwhelming amount of gym users struggling for results then you are now in a massively advantageous position. The next time you stroll into your gym or local fitness centre you can do so safe in the knowledge that you officially know how to build muscle and are about to make giant leaps on your previous efforts. You don't necessarily need a personal trainer to guide you, you just need to learn the basic rules.

About the Author:

About the Writer: Russ Howe PTI is a popular personal trainer. See how to build muscle with our free video guide giving the 5 steps to a more muscular body and the best shoulder building exercises.