Sep 299 min read

How To Build Muscle

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Many exercisers find it difficult to build muscle. A common misunderstanding is that a sure way to pack on size is to throw a few weights around. While this can deliver short-term results, they tend to taper off quickly.

Increases in size slows and eventually grinds to a stop. Anyone who has ever experienced this knows just how frustrating it is. And many exercises have become discouraged and quit training.

This is unfortunate because there are so many health and fitness benefits of building muscle.

For example, according to strength training expert, Anita Bean, a well-planned routine can increase muscle mass while boosting your metabolism. Moreover, among the benefits of weightlifting, Bean also lists anti-ageing, reduced body fat, reduced blood pressure, improved posture, and decreased injury risk (The Complete Guide To Strength Training).

But what’s equally unfortunate is that a few minor adjustments to an underperforming routine can improve its effectiveness at triggering gains in both strength and size.

Workout routine to build muscle

That brings us to the purpose of this blog. Below I’ve compiled a list of muscle-building tips. These tips are taken from excellent bodybuilding books such as Arnold Schwarzenegger’s The Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding and the NSCA’s Guide To Strength Training.

While no promises can be made, if the following tips are applied, you should experience increases in muscle mass. However, it should be borne in mind that no two people will respond the same way to a training effect.

Tips to build muscle

Before we venture into the workout routine to build muscle, it’s worth reviewing the best methods of training for hypertrophy. To be clear, hypertrophy refers to ‘an increase in the size of the individual muscle fibres,’ (NSCA’s Guide To Strength Training).

There are two reasons why it makes sense to start here. First, a clear outline of the principles of building muscle will shed light on the structure of the workout routine and training stipulations.

Second, a firm grasp of how to promote muscular hypertrophy will enable you to train more effectively in the future. When you’ve outgrown the workout below, you’ll have all the tools necessary to develop your own routine.

So, if you’re ready, let’s take a look at those tips.

How to build muscle tip #1: Overload

To stimulate significant growth, muscles must be subjected to sufficient stress (which is technically referred to as 'overload'). This is a key principle of training for hypertrophy. What it means in essence is that to make a muscle respond and adapt to a stimulus, it needs to produce force.

The best way – really the only way – to make a muscle produce enough force so that it will adapt and grow bigger is by lifting heavy weights. Which leads nicely to our next tip.

Related: Try this Heavy Kettlebell Workout

How to build muscle tip #2: Prioritise resistance training

When it comes to increasing strength and size, not all training methods were created equal. This can clearly be seen when comparing endurance and powerlifting athletes. An endurance athlete, such as a cyclist, is typically slender whereas a powerlifter is comparatively Herculean in stature. This simply boils down to the physiological response of each training method.

‘Resistance training is a more prolific stimulus for muscle fibre growth than endurance training because resistance exercise provides the high-intensity stimulus necessary to recruit Type II (fast-twitch) fibres, which are more capable of increasing their size than Type I fibres,’ (NSCA’s Guide To Strength Training).

How to build muscle tip #3: Prioritise compound lifts

Similar to the diverging effectiveness of different training methods, some exercises are better suited to stacking on size than others. If I asked you which exercise – barbell squat or seated leg extension – would promote the biggest gains, which one would you choose? If you said squats, you’d be bang on. But that begs the question why are squats a superior muscle (and strength) building exercise to seated leg extensions?

Arnold Schwarzenegger answers that question in his epic book The Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding. Based on his explanation from scientific studies, Arnold observes that ‘testosterone production is increased when you do large-muscle-group free-weight exercises.’ The examples he gives include the deadlift, power clean, and barbell squat.

He goes on to explain the role testosterone plays in promoting size. ‘Testosterone,’ he tells us, ‘is anabolic, and with more testosterone in your system you get stronger and can build larger muscles more easily,’ (The Encyclopaedia of Modern Bodybuilding).

Related: Check out these Best Muscle-Building Exercises

How to build muscle tip #4: Workout structure

Few people realise the importance of properly structuring a workout and the placement of exercises in the plan. I’ve been ignorant of this for years. My method of designing a training session consisted of plucking exercises out of a hat and plonking them down willy-nilly. Then, with my ‘plan’ in place, I’d proceed to flog myself to within an inch of exhaustion. Not clever.

As I later came to learn, a well-structured workout can improve performance outcomes and reduce injury risk. To help you avoid my mistakes, I’ve compiled a list of key considerations of how best to structure a workout routine to build muscle.

How to structure an effective workout

Step 1: Ensure that the training method and exercises selected reflect your fitness goal. Because your goal is to build muscle (just a hunch), the method must be resistance and the exercises are primarily free-weight compound lifts.

Step 2: Position complex compound exercises at the start of your session plan. Performing multi-joint movements with heavy loads increases both the risk of injury and the potential severity of the injury. Thus, correct technique is of paramount importance. It’s easier to maintain quality technique when muscles are freshest. ‘Therefore, if you will be performing power movements, you place them first in the workout program,’ (NSCA’s Guide To Strength Training).

Step 3: Schedule plenty of rest between sets. Rest and intensity are interdependent training factors: the heavier the loads, the longer the muscles need to recuperate before repeating the lift. Rushing your rest will not only impair your performance but could also deteriorate your technique. But what is the optimal rest duration after a set? The NSCA states that ‘Hypertrophy protocols require rest periods between 30 and 90 seconds,’ (Guide To Strength Training).

However, researchers at a Brazilian university found that 2-minute (120-second) rest intervals enabled athletes to train at higher intensities in the following sets. When the rest was reduced by just 15 seconds, performance decreased (Bigger Leaner Stronger).

Step 4: The same logic stands for the rest we take between workouts. This is referred to as the inter-training-session rest period. And though no specific recommendations are given for optimal durations, it’s good practice to rest a muscle group for a couple of days after an intense workout.

Step 5: Loading, set and reps (LSR) are instrumental factors for promoting hypertrophy. You could apply all the advice above, but if you consistently lift light loads for lots of sets and reps your muscles will remain the same size – or, God forbid, shrink! Thankfully, unlike the inter-training-session rest period, the LSR protocol is prescriptive. The recommendation is to ‘use moderate loading (70 to 85 per cent of 1RM) for 8 to 12 repetitions per set, with one to three sets per exercise,’ (NSCA’s Guide To Strength Training).

Related: Ready to start this Strength Training Program?

How to build muscle tip #5: Rest and replenish

What we do between our workout routines to build muscle is as important as what we do during them. It might come as a surprise to you, but increasing size is not only about lifting big weights. Don’t get me wrong, pumping iron makes up a substantial slice of the body-building pie.

However, other essential ingredients include rest and nutrition. Failing to take either one seriously will likely limit the effectiveness of your training. As Anita Bean rightly points out, ‘Training with weights provides the stimulus; your diet provides the raw materials for building muscles,’ (The Complete Guide To Strength Training). Rest also allows time for the cement to set before you add another layer to the foundation.

“Your muscles won’t grow if you don’t give your body proper nutritional support,” (Bigger Leaner Stronger).

Metaphors aside, the importance of the role rest and nutrition play in building muscle is evidenced by the extensive body of publications that deal with the subject. Exploring the literature in depth would lead us too far afield from the central concern of this blog. So instead, I’ve put together a quick guide that encapsulates key advice on how best to rest and replenish for muscle growth.

How to build muscle with rest & nutrition

The primary material for muscle growth is protein. Heavy resistance training increases the uptake of amino acids from the blood which are then packed like bricks into new contractile muscle fibres. Thus, to ‘build muscle, you must take in more protein than you excrete,’ (The Complete Guide To Strength Training) The optimal recommended daily protein consumption is 1.4 to 1.8g per kilo of body weight. Don’t make the time-honoured mistake of thinking that more protein equals more muscle. The body can only metabolise a small amount of protein per meal. If that threshold is exceeded, the rest is excreted as waste.
The ‘Golden Hour’ rule is not a folkloric myth that the meatheads at the gym spread to sound sagacious. Studies consistently show that the ‘highest rates’ of energy absorption from food ‘occur during the first hour after exercise,’ (Food, Nutrition & Sports Performance II). Eating a healthy meal straight after your workout supports the repair of damaged muscle tissue as well as replenishing depleted glycogen stores.
Staying hydrated is important for several reasons. For example, researchers found that a ‘fluid deficit’ in people who regularly participate in exercise can decrease performance in the following session. In addition, being dehydrated exerts a strain on the cardiovascular system. ‘For every 1% of body weight loss due to dehydration, heart rate increases by 5-8 beats [per minute].’ How much of the wet stuff should be drinking and what’s the best type of fluid? We’ll start with the second part of that question because it’s easier. Drink mainly water. Beware of ‘sports’ drinks because they are typically high in sugar and/or synthetic substitutes. If you find water is a bit bland, liven it up with a squeeze of lemon and a drop of honey. The amount of water we should ingest hinges on many factors – such as exercise duration/intensity, sweat rate, ambient temperature, absorption rate, pre-training hydration levels, and the list goes on. In an insightful review of the literature on fluid intake during exercise, Coyle (2004) boils a whole lot of conflicting advice down to ‘drink fluids at a rate that matches sweating rate.’ Yet, as few of us are in the habit of measuring our individualistic sweat rate, that advice, though simple, is hardly helpful. Perhaps we should settle with the age-old advice of drinking when we’re thirsty.
It’s a myth that muscles only grow during sleep. The body is repairing and rebuilding tissue 24/7. But, as Matthew Walker argues in his book Why We Sleep, good sleeping habits are important for a host of other reasons. For starters, when we’re well-rested, we generally feel more energetic and motivated. And the more energy and motivation we have going into a workout, the better we’ll perform. Giving muscle groups adequate recovery throughout the week is essential. This was briefly covered above, but it’s worth expanding on the discussion. Exercising the same muscle groups too frequently impairs repair and growth and can result in overtraining syndrome – which, if you recall, is a precursor of injury. The consensus is to give muscles a minimum of two days of rest after an intense workout. It’s for this reason that the split routine is the protocol of choice for bodybuilders. Characterised by assigning muscle groups to different days in the week, a split routine ‘allows sufficient recovery of muscle groups between training sessions because body parts are not trained on successive days,’ (NSCA’s Guide To Strength Training).

Key takeaways

That brings us to the end of this overview of how to build muscle mass. Hopefully, the tips will help you tailor your training routine so that it delivers the desired results.

Before recapping on the key points above, we must remember two essential muscle-building ingredients. The first is perseverance. Muscular growth is a slow process. Natural plateaus can slow progress further.

The second ingredient is patience. In recognition of the fact that building muscles takes time, we must be patient as we persevere toward our goal.

Key factors of building muscle

Muscles must be stressed to stimulate growth. Stressing muscles involves incrementally increasing loads.
Prioritise resistance training. The only way to adequately overload muscles is to engage in resistance exercises.
As Arnold Schwarzenegger said, compound exercises are best for stimulating growth. They engage the most muscle groups and increase testosterone levels.
Workouts should be structured so that they maximise lifting potential while minimising injury risk.
Building muscle is not all about lifting big weights. To encourage growth, the body needs plenty of rest and quality nutrition.

About Adam Priest –

A former Royal Marines Commando, Adam Priest is a content writer, college lecturer, and health and fitness coach. He is also a fitness author and contributor to other websites. Connect with Adam at info@hungry4fitness.co.uk.