The Simple Basics of Building Muscle

I’m going to simplify the process of building muscle for you. So
if you’re looking to gain muscle mass, you’ll definitely want to
read this entire article.

The more weight you lift, the more overload you put on the
muscles. As a result of this increased overload, the more muscle
you build . And that’s a good thing because gaining muscle is
not a difficult thing to do, as long as you do 2 things right.

1. Lift heavier weights over time. 2. Eat supportively to grow
muscle

Let’s tackle each of those here.

The key to muscle growth is overload. Not just lifting a weight,
but a weight that gets heavier, over time.

Want to know how to gain muscle? One week, lift 20 pounds. Next
week, try 22 pounds. Next week, 25 pounds.

Progressively heavier weight, over time, stresses and forces the
muscle to respond to that additional stress by getting bigger.

Providing you eat enough calories to be used to grow the muscle.
Lift heavy. Eat enough quality calories.

That’s muscle growth, in it’s most simple form.

To show you an example, here are some of the lifts I was doing
In January of 2001.

Flat bench press–285 pounds Incline bench press 215 pounds
Squats 385 pounds Alternate dumbbell curls–50 pounds each arm
Straight bar bicep curls–100 pounds Seated dumbbell shoulder
presses–50 pound dumbbells 1 arm dumbbell rows–60 pounds

About 12 weeks after, my lifts were:

Flat bench press–365 pounds Incline bench press 265 pounds
Squats 525 pounds Alternate dumbbell curls–80 pounds each arm
Straight bar bicep curls–145 pounds Seated dumbbell shoulder
presses–90 pound dumbbells 1 arm dumbbell rows–120 pounds

And guess what happened as a result? Yes, I gained about 20
pounds of muscle in this time period, because I forced my body
to do it.

It was this increase in overload that made my muscles respond
and get bigger. I also ate enough protein and calories to give
the raw materials needed.

The whole point of this is to show you how muscle gains are
going to occur. By lifting more weight, over time.

Nothing else will stimulate muscle growth. So if you’ve been
lifting the same weights for the past year or more, chances are,
you haven’t gained very much muscle.

So, to change this, start trying to increase all of your lifts,
the next time you step in the gym.

Muscle growth occurs from lifting heavy and eating supportively.
If you continued to lift the same old weight over time and time
again, your body has no need to create new muscle growth and
strength.

It can already handle what it’s doing with what you have.

And finally, always keep a written journal or log for your
workouts. If you are at all serious about building muscle and
increasing strength–this is a must.

It’s the only way you can keep track of your lifts and know when
its time to go up in weight.

Just use a small pocket notebook and write all your lifts and
weights used in it.

Please do this–it’s that important.

Let’s say you didn’t use a notebook and decided to go by memory.
Say that you had a great bench day and ended up going up 5
pounds in weight.

But you fail to write it down and think, “I’ll remember that I
went up.”

Now, a week goes by and you’ve totally forgotten the weight you
used last bench day, so bench time comes around again and you’re
scratching your head, wondering what it is you last did for
weight.

Chances are you’re going to put on your old weight, not the new
weight (that you added 5 pounds to). When that happens, you went
backwards and have lost the progress you made.

Believe me, forgetting your weights happen.

You have 30 or so exercises to keep track of, it’s easy to
forget one or two of your weights.

And if you forget a weight and do the same weight again when you
should have went up, you just wasted your time and energy.

You just did something you were already capable of doing and
have missed the chance to increase the overload you were using
(and in turn, the muscle and strength that would have come with
the new overload).

Please use a journal for your workouts. It’s just one of the
simple basics of building muscle.

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