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Muscle-Building 101: A Beginner’s Guide to Gaining Muscle Mass
- PeakFitness
- 4 days ago
- 11 min read
How many times have you searched 'how to grow muscle mass' and had zero helpful results? You may be starting to give up on learning how to, but do you really want to build muscle?
If so, you aren't alone - approximately 25-30% of the world's population have shown an interest in making their muscles bigger, and most of these people struggle to know where to begin!
That is why we have created an easy guideline for how to get bigger muscles quickly.
In this guide, you will understand everything necessary about the quickest way to build muscle, from how muscles grow to workout and nutritional plans.
So why not read on and discover all the secrets to muscle building?
Table of contents:
The Basics of Muscle Growth
Understanding the fundamentals of muscle growth is very important for actually being able to grow that muscle mass.
There are a few things you should understand about growing your muscles: how your muscles grow by repairing and rebuilding (also known as hypertrophy), progressive overload, and how regular training is essential for long-term success.
Hypertrophy
Hypertrophy refers to the development of muscle fibres through training. This typically involves lifting heavy weights for a moderate number of repetitions (usually 6-12) with longer rest periods between sets.
When you exercise, your muscle fibres become ripped and damaged. Your body then repairs these fibres by fusing them using muscle-specific proteins such as myomaker and myomerger, which increases the mass of those muscles.
Certain hormones such as testosterone and insulin growth factor (IGF-1) also play a big role in the growth of your muscles.
Progressive Overload
Progressive overload means increasing the load, weight, sets or reps of an exercise over time, which is particularly useful for building muscle mass and strength quickly.
For example, you may be deadlifting 50kg for 10 reps, and then you may add 1kg to that weight and go for 10 reps, and then the next week add another 1kg and try 10 reps again. Or you could increase the number of reps or sets.
The idea is to gradually build up strength by increasing the amount you lift each week or two.
Consistency
The most important thing you need to know about muscle growth is that consistency is key to the best results.
If you are not consistent in your training, you only hold yourself back from your full potential. However, by staying consistent with your training and diet, you can progress rapidly and see results in no time.
If you struggle with consistency, try taking some progress pictures each week so you can reflect on the progress you are making, motivating yourself to stay consistent.
Designing Your Workout Plan
The first step you need to take when trying to gain muscle mass is creating your own personalised workout plan that suits your needs. Don't just take another person's exercise routine because it works for them, because it may not work for you.
No matter what your workout plan is, you should aim to train each muscle group 2-3 times every single week for the best results.
You should also ensure that you incorporate compound (multi-muscle) and isolation (single-muscle) exercises into your plan.
Compound exercises are better done at the beginning of each training session because that is when you have the most energy. However, isolation exercises should be completed after the compound exercises because they can focus more on each muscle group individually.
Your Workout Plan
As we have already mentioned, you should be training each muscle group 2-3 times per week, and also including both compound and isolation movements into your workout routine.
But when should you train each muscle group?
Studies have been carried out and have found that the push/pull/leg split (also known as PPL) is the most efficient for muscle growth because all related muscle groups train together on the same day.
Your push day should train the:
Chest
Triceps
Shoulders
Your pull day should train the:
Upper and lower back
Traps
Lats
Biceps
Forearms
Your leg day should train the:
Glutes
Quads
Hamstrings
Calves
When it comes to training abs, I would recommend exercising your core muscles on leg day.
Additionally, you must take one rest day per week with this split, which is best done on a Sunday, so you have 6 days of training in a row and then one rest day.
If you would rather try a different split, then you could try out the upper-lower split or the bro split.
You can always visit the PeakFitness personalised coaching program for help on this.
How You Should Be Training
When exercising, you should aim to be explosive with the weight on the concentric movement (the way up) and then slow and controlled on the eccentric (the way down) as this will make the muscle work harder, therefore producing better results.
Rep ranges will vary depending on your muscle-building goals:
For strength: 1-5 reps
For functional hypertrophy: 5-8 reps
For muscle growth: 8-12 reps
For strength endurance: 12-20 reps
Furthermore, you should complete 3 sets for each exercise and any warm-up sets you need to complete.
Nutrition for Muscle Growth
Nutrition is important for everything in life. When it comes to gaining muscle mass, some would say that your diet plays an even more important role than exercise!
There are multiple things you should understand about the nutrition you need for muscle growth, such as the amount of calories you need to consume, the nutrients you should be eating, and even how much water to drink every day.
Calorie Surplus
Firstly, muscle growth requires you to enter a calorie surplus, which simply means that you consume more calories than you burn each day.
For example, if you burned roughly 1000 calories per day, then consuming 1000+ calories a day would lead to you gaining mass.
By doing this, you will be providing your muscles with the mass and energy they need to grow.
Additionally, the more calories you consume, the more your muscles can grow. However, you should note that eating too many calories can lead to excess fat being gained.
Hydration
For hydration, you should be drinking 20-30ml per kilogram of body weight. For example, a 50kg individual would need to drink 1-1.5 litres of water a day.
By hydrating plenty throughout the day, your performance during exercise will improve and more blood will be available for the perfusion of active skeletal muscle, which is essential for gaining muscle.
Drinking more water than this is even better, just make sure not to drink too much.
Nutrients You Should Be Focusing On
There are three key nutrients that you should focus on mainly when it comes to muscle growth, and those are:
Protein
Carbohydrates
Healthy fats
Protein
Firstly, protein is crucial for muscle growth as it helps repair the muscles and other body tissues after shredding them during your workout. Also, protein plays a role in your body's energy production.
You should be aiming to consume 1.2-1.7 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight per day (or 0.5-0.8 grams per pound of body weight).
Some great high-protein foods that you could include in your daily eating plan are:
Eggs
Almonds
Chicken breast
Cottage cheese
Milk
Lean beef
Fish
Protein powder
Peanuts
Lentils
Carbohydrates
Next, carbohydrates are important for muscle growth because they supply the body with energy in the form of glucose, which is then stored in the muscle as glycogen for later use. This energy can be used to boost your performance during your workout, leading to more gains.
Your carb intake per day should be 5-6 grams of carbohydrates per kilogram of body weight (or 2.5 grams per pound of body weight).
A few excellent carb-rich foods that you could add to your muscle-growth diet include:
Quinoa
Oats
Bananas
Sweet potatoes
Oranges
Blueberries
Grapefruit
Apples
Chickpeas
Fats
Finally, healthy fats are also vital for muscle growth because they help with the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and nutrients, which help increase testosterone levels (an important hormone for muscle growth).
You should eat 0.5-1.5 grams of healthy fats per kilogram of body weight daily.
A variety of healthy fats is important for a muscle growth meal plan, so you could include foods such as:
Fatty fish (like tuna, salmon or mackerel)
Dark chocolate
Eggs
Avocado
Nuts
Olive oil
Yoghurt
Other Important Muscle-Growth Nutrients
On top of protein, carbs and healthy fats, other nutrients are also extremely important for the best muscle growth results.
For example, you should include these nutrients in your diet:
Creatine
Calcium
Vitamin D
Iron
Omega-3
Potassium
Magnesium
Glutamine
Vitamin B12
Beta-alanine
Although these nutrients are not as important for muscle growth as protein, carbs and healthy fats, they are still vital for the best results and for other health reasons.
Rest & Recovery
"Muscle is built on your rest days" - that's what everyone says. And it's true!
Your muscles grow when they repair themselves, and this happens during rest days when you recover.
When you exercise, you damage and tear your muscles (as you already know). Then, after your workout during your recovery period, your muscles begin to heal themselves using protein.
This phase of repairing can take roughly 42-72 hours when you just wait for it. However, this can be sped up.
Some things that you can do to recover are:
Quality sleep: 7-9 hours is best
Active recovery: engaging in low-intensity activities like brisk walking or light jogging on rest days
Massage: a deep tissue massage is best
Foam rolling: roll out each body part for about a minute
Stretching: static stretching can help reduce lactic acid in your muscles
Compression clothing: these can help the flow of oxygenated blood to the muscles after exercise
Hot and cold therapies: the cold helps reduce inflammation, and the heat helps dilate blood vessels and promote blood flow to the muscles
Overall, you should prioritise resting whenever you're not exercising. For example, you could stretch the muscles you trained after each workout.
This can help boost your muscle-growth journey and result in your gaining muscle mass much faster and easier.
Tracking Your Progress
Tracking your progress during your muscle-building journey is a key part of staying consistent and motivated, which are both vital for receiving the best results.
There are three primary ways you could monitor your progress:
Log your workouts, weights, sets and reps
Take progress photos
Monitor body weight and body composition over time
Logging Your Workouts
The first thing I would recommend you do is log your workouts in a notebook or on your phone, jotting down the exercises you did, the weight you did, and how many reps and sets you did for each exercise.
You could also include other details if you want, such as how long you rested, the time of the entire session, and perhaps even some self-reflected feedback for yourself for your next session.
This can help ensure that you stay on track as you are holding yourself accountable for your workouts.
Taking Progress Photos
Another thing you could do to track your progress is take weekly or daily progress photos of yourself.
By doing this, you can look back on how you looked when you began your muscle-gaining journey, and you can also look at your weekly progress.
This can keep you motivated because you will be seeing how much your body is changing from your hard work.
Taking pictures of your progress can also help you give yourself feedback on what is working and what may need to be worked on.
Monitoring Body Weight & Body Composition Over Time
Body composition refers to the distribution of fat, muscle bone and other tissues in your body.
By properly tracking your body composition, you can more easily determine how much muscle you will need to build if you lose muscle mass, which can help you create a workout plan that is tailored to your own needs.
Additionally, taking note of your change in body weight can help you decide if you need to consume more calories or not in your diet.
Common Beginner Mistakes You Should Avoid
There are many things beginners to muscle building do that are wrong - not saying that you aren't allowed to do these things, but it isn't recommended.
Overtraining Without Enough Rest Or Nutrition
The first beginner mistake you should avoid during your muscle-building journey is overtraining without getting enough rest or nutrition.
Overtraining could be training for too long each day, doing too many exercises during one workout or training 7 days a week.
This can have many negative effects on your body:
Fatigue
Decreased strength and endurance
Negative effects on mental health (such as anxiety or depression)
Trouble sleeping
Increased risk of injuries
Sore muscles
Decreased physical performance
Additionally, not giving your body the nutrition it needs can also have an obstructive effect on your progress and training.
This is because your body won't have the protein needed for muscle repair and also won't be receiving the energy it needs for your workouts, which can lead to a higher risk of injury and a worse performance during exercise.
Lifting too heavy too soon, compromising form and getting injured
Another bad thing that is done by beginners is trying to lift too heavy when starting off, allowing their form to become compromised and then injuring themselves in the process.
Technique is essential not only for better results, but also for reducing the chances of getting injured, and technique will be compromised if you try to lift too heavy.
It is extremely important that before trying an exercise, you make sure that you have learnt the form, and then spend 5-10 minutes perfecting your form. I would suggest asking for help from others around you if possible.
After mastering the technique, then you should gradually increase the weight.
Neglecting mobility and warm-ups
Mobility is important in muscle-building because it reduces the risk of injury by ensuring your joints and muscles have the range of motion required for any exercise you may perform.
Additionally, a good warm-up allows your blood to carry more oxygen through your muscles, which allows them to contract and relax more easily.
By placing a focus on mobility training (which is best done on your rest days) and also ensuring that you warm up properly before each training session, you can not only reduce the risk of injury but also improve your performance during your workout, leading to better results.
Comparing with others
The final mistake we will cover is one we have definitely all done at one point in our lives - comparing your physique to others who have been training for years.
Building muscle is not easy for anyone and it does take a while to see reasonable results.
When you look at influencers like professional bodybuilders, you have to remember that they have been training for years, have personal coaches and nutritionists, and are most likely on a tonne of steroids.
Realistically, you will not achieve your dream physique quickly. However, by staying consistent and not putting yourself down by looking at others, you can attain a physique you like much faster.
Muscle-Building Supplements
Supplements are not steroids.
Supplements are vitamins and minerals put together to help with a specific goal (such as muscle-building).
They aren't a necessity for gaining muscle, but they can certainly propel your progress and help you build muscle mass much quicker.
The only two supplements I would recommend are protein powder and creatine, which are the best for gaining mass.
Protein powder is good for convenience because it can sometimes be hard to reach your protein goals through eating foods only, so protein powder can help you with this.
I would suggest Whey protein for the best results.
Creatine is another supplement which is mostly found in red meats and fish and is extremely beneficial to both your physical and mental health.
Creatine is good for numerous reasons:
It enhances energy production
It increases strength and endurance
It helps you gain muscle mass
It helps with brain function
It reduces fatigue
It can help control blood sugar levels
It is safe to use
If you were to ask anyone in the muscle-building industry what supplements to take, they are guaranteed to mention protein powder and creatine due to how effective they are.
However, still do your research on these supplements to make sure they're good for you.
Some other good muscle-building supplements you could use are:
Weight gainers - these help you consume more calories and protein
Beta-alanine - reduces fatigue and improves performance
BCAAs - help with muscle growth
HMB - good for muscle growth
Please note that you should avoid using supplements as a replacement for your diet because that's not what they're intended for. Instead, add them to your diet.
Muscle-Building Guide Summary
Building muscle requires a balance of consistency in training, proper nutrition and plenty of rest and recovery.
Implement progressive overload into your training, focusing mostly on compound lifts while training each muscle group 2-3 times per week.
Remember, nutrition and recovery are just as important - eat in a calorie surplus while consuming plenty of protein, carbs and healthy fats and make sure to sleep 7-9 hours a night and perhaps engage in some recovery techniques.
Track your progress so you can give yourself feedback and motivate yourself with your progress as this can help you stay consistent.
Now you know how to grow muscle mass, get started on your journey today, and remember that if you need help, then you can always check out our programs or other articles like this.
I hope this muscle-building guide has helped. If you have any further questions, feel free to contact us using the chat box.
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