Building Muscle Takes A Lot More Then Just Lifting Weights

Adding muscle to your body requires the implementation of three critical steps. Miss any one of these steps and your ability to build muscle will be greatly compromised. You're most likely already familiar with the first step which is a good old fashioned bodybuilding workout to stretch and tear your muscles but what about the rest? What else do you need to add huge muscles to your body?

Weight training or working out with weights is the one step most people are familiar with when it comes to building muscle. Through some serious weight training you tear your muscles while working out in the gym and what a lot of gym goers don't realize is that you don't actually build any muscle in the gym. The only thing you're doing to your muscles in the gym is breaking them down and tearing them apart. Before we look at how we actually build the muscle, let's look at what muscles are made of so we have a better idea of how to repair the muscles once we've broken them down in the gym.

The muscles in your body are comprised of two things: protein and water. One of the most misunderstood things about bodybuilding nutrition is that the primary ingredient necessary to building or I should say rebuilding your muscles is protein. If you simply want to maintain the muscle on your body then you should be consuming at least one gram of protein for every pound you weigh. If you want to add muscle, you should be consuming about 1.5 - 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight. In addition to protein obviously you need water but you also want to consume a fair amount of carbohydrates so that your body has something to burn for fuel other then the protein in your muscles and the calories you consume.

One point about carbohydrates before we move on. Immediately after you workout and first thing in the morning are the two ideal times to have a carbohydrate/ protein shake. During both of these situations your body's glucose levels are very low, if you have any glucose in your body at all, and you're at risk of having your body eat away at your muscles for energy. You remember that protein in your muscles? Well given the choice between maintaining your muscles or survival your body wll always choose survival and eat away at your muscles! You wouldn't want that now would you?

So make sure you consume plenty of protein and enough carbs to maintain your weight and energy levels but not too much more becuase they will pack on more fat then muscle onto your frame.

Last but certainly not least is rest. The majority of muscle growth will occur while you're sleeping and that's because your muscles need plenty of rest to grow. So make sure you're sleeping at least 7-8 hours every night and if you're really serious about adding muscle then you won't expend too much energy during the day either. and if you really want to grow you'll drink a tall glass of milk and have some cottage cheese before bed. Milk and cottage cheese both contain casein which is perfect for building muscle at night.

So there you have it. As you can see adding muscle to your body is as basic as these three steps. Workout to tear the muscle. Focus on eating protein and carbohydrates to not just sustain your weight but to support some new muscle growth as well. And finally rest so you can give your muscles a chance to rebuild. Sleep. Eat. Train. Grow. Simple.