Muscle Building Basics

When it comes to training, muscle building is obviously what we’re here for. Here are some answers to commonly asked questions.

Do I need to lift weights to put on muscle?

Lifting weights stimulates muscle damage. Though that may sound strange, its only after you work out that your body begins to repair the damage and you experience the muscle growth. Regular heavy weight sessions will provide regular muscle growth. Think of it as getting a tan, you slowly get darker by spending a little bit of time in the sun every day. The same concept can we applied to training. The goal is to start low and increase training load as needed to continuously make gains. It’s that simple.

Do I need to do compound exercises, like squats, deadlifts and bench press?

Compound exercises allow for the greatest amount of overload on the body. This is the quickest and more efficient way to improve your strength and change your body composition. The compounds provide a larger muscle recruitment which impacts how anabolic hormones respond to training. That is not to say you absolutely have to do them to change your body composition, but if they allow you to achieve the physique that you want in a shorter period of time why not do them? Learn good form and go heavy.

What do I eat to build muscle and look lean?

Eating food is a good start!

The truth is more muscle means more food – remember, maintaining muscle is energy expensive and for this reason you need to eat a calorie surplus. Eating just enough calories will only allow you to maintain your weight, your intake as to be great than your output. More food will allow you to train and fuel more muscle growth.

How many reps should I be doing to build muscle?

I always get asked this. I can talk all day about rep ranges but – higher reps allows you to include more volume throughout a training block because high reps accumulate less central nervous system (CNS) fatigue. Working with lower reps is also great because it will target more of your CNS. This will increase your work capacity which will then allow you to do more volume throughout a training block. So in simple terms train in all rep ranges because they all have some benefit.

At the end of the day it is that simple, the hardest part is getting started. Get a structured plan and begin your fitness journey! If you want more tips, send me an email or check out my new e-book!