Our Best Way to Build Muscle Mass

Building muscle mass is a holistic process. You can’t just exercise, and you can’t rely on your diet alone – and no, there isn’t a magical pill that’s going to give you Schwarzenegger muscles in a week. The top way to build muscle mass is to develop a realistic plan focused on weight training and stick to it. If you’re used to packing your anaerobic and aerobic exercise into a single session, the first thing you’ll have to do is drop that habit, because that’s a surefire way to actually lose muscle mass – do your cardio on your muscle resting days, and limit it to a half hour at most.

Working Out

If you’re in a hurry to bulk up, you’ll be glad to know that the best way to gain muscle mass fast is a one-time deal. The more you work out, the more your body adjusts to each exercise, yielding diminishing returns. The absolute beginner is completely unconditioned, and thus benefits from everything! With that said, here are some workouts and tips for beginners and advanced trainees alike:

Cardio Substitute

If you really want to go all-out, don’t do “true” cardio at all. Hop on the elliptical, pump up the resistance, and bring your incline down to around 4 or 5. For one-minute intervals with two-minute cooldowns between, get your steps-per-minute as high as you can and sustain that rate.

Low-rep Dumbbell Workouts

Lifting with low weight and high reps is great for endurance, but that’s not our goal – we want mass, right? You’ll need to find the magic numbers that fit your muscles, but in general, try to use as much weight as you can while doing sets of 10 reps in one minute. Many dumbbell workouts, such as dumbbell squats or heel raises, are great for your lower body. If you’re focusing on your upper body, always do sets one arm at a time whenever possible.

The Power Three

The best way to build muscle mass is to target as many muscles as possible in a short amount of time – there are three workouts which do just that, and I endorse them every chance I get for that reason. They are: dumbbell squats, pull-ups, and deadlifts. Pull-ups are particularly useful because they engage your entire upper body, most notably your back muscles.

Synergy is Key

There are a few reasons you can’t just do squats, pull-ups, and deadlifts for a month and turn into the Hulk. Muscles work together, no matter what you’re doing; wrist curls with dumbbells, for example, will greatly improve your grip strength, which allows you to hold more weight for just about every other muscle workout. You don’t need to study anatomy to get it right – just be sure to vary your routine and hit as many muscle groups as possible.

The Diet

If you’re serious about working out, you need to have the right fuel. The best way to gain muscle mass on the dietary front is to maintain a healthy intake of protein and easily digestible carbohydrates from real food. Do NOT rely on supplements, and in fact, don’t even use them if you can get all of your nutrition naturally. Supplements are okay if you’re naturally skinny and just can’t ingest enough food to get larger amounts of protein without sacrificing your nutritional balance.

With that said, protein and carb shakes work wonders, but they should be consumed within an hour after your workout. This is one of the main reasons your workouts should be less than an hour in total – your muscles won’t be able to recover if they aren’t given sustenance and rest.

The rest of your food intake needs to be spaced out throughout the day – eat 6 smaller meals instead of the traditional breakfast-lunch-dinner scheme. Muscles passively burn off calories throughout the day, and they need a regular supply to maintain steady growth. Consuming a shake (or a particularly protein-heavy meal) right after your workout will help your muscles recover much faster, making your resting time much more effective. Wraps are also a great choice, since you can pretty much load them up with whatever you want. Speaking of wraps…

Wrapping it up

Let’s go over the key points – the best way to build muscle mass is to:

· Have a balanced diet with increased protein and low-fiber carbs;

· Eat several small meals instead of three large meals;

· Get variety in your workout;

· Limit cardio;

· Lift more weight with fewer reps;

· Maintain your schedule;

· Let your muscles rest.

And again, I would like to reiterate the fact that gaining muscle takes time. There is no easy way; it takes hard work and dedication, and the solid fact is that if you want to get cannonball shoulders for your date this weekend, it’s just not going to happen. Be realistic, and don’t set yourself up for failure.

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