Stick to complex carbs that will fuel you for longer. A research review found that sleep is vital for athletic performance and recovery. A crucial muscle-building hormone is released during deep sleep.

It also gives your muscles a chance to relax. Adults need about 7 hours of sleep a night, according to the CDC. Some folks swear by supplementing with creatine. A research review showed that taking about 5 grams per day can help you train longer and harder. Creatine is an amino acid compound that allows your muscles to store more energy to use in powerful bursts.

That extra performance boost means you can maximize your Gains. A fitness app can help you keep track of your diet and exercise routines. Pro tip : Look out for apps that can connect you to 1-to-1 training sessions. Here are the best apps if you have muscle gains in mind:.

Stay hella hydrated before, after, and during your workouts. A research review showed that dehydration can slow down protein production. It can also speed up protein breakdown and increase your risk of injury. But try to drink about 16 to 20 fluid ounces 4 hours before your workout, according to the American College of Sports Medicine.

Isolation exercises are a great way to build one muscle group at a time. An isolation routine can also correct muscle weakness and increase your balance. Compound exercises work multiple muscles at once. This can help you get a full-body workout in less time. Just keep in mind that they might not be as effective as isolation exercises for building muscle mass.

You should always give your bod time to bounce back after every workout. The exact recovery time depends on how long and intensely you worked out for. According to the American Council on Exercise active recovery might be more effective than passive recovery.

Some good examples are gentle yoga , walking , or swimming. Getting started can be the hardest part of any lifestyle change. By creating muscle-building habits like the ones above you can set yourself up for success.

Results take time. You could be losing fat and gaining muscle mass. But if you set realistic goals and stick to them, the results will come. Remember, your diet is a key component in gaining muscle mass. Try to focus on lean proteins and complex carbs to optimize your results.

This can help you learn the basics. Want to learn more about muscles? You can still get a muscular physique working out at home with just your bodyweight or a set of…. Both cardio and strength training are key for meeting your weight loss or muscle growth goals.

Is one form of exercise really better than the other? Cardio and strength training offer different benefits and can be combined for the greater good —…. Mmmmmm, oatmeal goodness. Cram it in before the workout. Does exercising on an empty stomach boost your bod? Strengthen your legs at home using weighted objects, your body weight, or a resistance band.

Is pilates better for your body than gym workouts? Read on to find out! The steam room isn't just super relaxing — it may have some pretty legit health benefits, too.

But, it's important to know how to use a steam room so…. Hip mobility stretches are a great way to reduce hip pain, enhance mobility, and increase flexibility. Here's a roundup of the 10 best to try at home…. The Russian twist is a workout that targets the core, hips, and shoulders.

Here's a step-by-step guide on how to perform this exercise. We also have…. Medically reviewed by Danielle Hildreth, RN, CPT — By Lianna Bass on April 29, How to gain muscle. Aim for muscle fatigue with each workout.

Eat plenty of calories to keep up with your calories burned. Get enough protein especially 1 to 2 hours before exercising. Prioritize your sleep.

Use a fitness app for tracking your workouts. Stay hydrated. Mix in plenty of isolation exercises to your routine. Give yourself plenty of recovery time.

Get into a good schedule for your workouts. Was this helpful? Pump it up. Why it works. Fuel up. Be pro protein. Top protein picks. Some smart choices include: tofu lentils grilled chicken poached salmon low fat Greek yogurt low fat cottage cheese high quality protein powder.

Muscular hypertrophy describes an increase in muscle mass. People can achieve muscle hypertrophy by correctly performing certain exercises and consuming sufficient amounts of the right foods. Skeletal muscle is one of the three major muscle types.

Tendons attach these muscles, which contract and cause movement, to bones. In this article, we look at how to develop the skeletal muscles, including what types of exercise to engage in, which foods to eat, and when to rest and stretch.

Muscle size increases when a person continually challenges the muscles to deal with higher levels of resistance or weight. This process is known as muscle hypertrophy. Muscle hypertrophy occurs when the fibers of the muscles sustain damage or injury.

The body repairs damaged fibers by fusing them, which increases the mass and size of the muscles. Certain hormones, including testosterone , human growth hormone, and insulin growth factor, also play a role in muscle growth and repair.

A variety of factors — including genetics and the levels of estrogen and testosterone in the body — can affect how rapidly a person can develop muscle. Regardless of biological sex, muscle grows at different rates for people with different body types.

Both males and females can have the following body shapes, and each requires a different approach to muscle building:.

However, in an interview with Australian news service ABC, sports scientist Dr. Tony Boutagy points out several traits that are more pronounced in males and support faster muscle growth. These include a larger muscle mass, higher testosterone, and tighter joints.

People build muscle at different rates depending on their age, sex, and genetics, but muscle development significantly increases if exercise is:. The best type of exercise to build muscle is strength training, although cardiovascular activity can also provide benefits.

It takes several weeks or months of consistent activity and exercise before muscle changes become visible. According to the Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans — , adults should engage in muscle-strengthening exercises that involve all major muscle groups at least twice weekly.

A review looked at the effects of resistance training on the conditioning of crew members preparing for spaceflight. Its findings suggest that resistance training with three weight sets was generally more effective than performing one set. However, older adults should try to meet adult exercise guidelines if they can.

If they are unable to do this, they should remain as physically active as their physical limitations allow. Cardio is vital for overall health. Current guidelines recommend that adults participate in at least minutes of moderate intensity or 75 minutes of vigorous intensity physical activity each week.

While some people believe that aerobic exercise does not help build muscle, recent research disagrees. Regular cardio can support muscle growth and function.

It also increases overall fitness levels, which may help reduce the risk of injury. For optimal muscle building, the authors of a review suggest that people carry out aerobic exercise:.

Rest plays an integral part in building muscle. By not letting each of the muscle groups rest, a person will reduce their ability to repair. Insufficient rest also slows fitness progression and increases the risk of injury. According to MOVE! Department of Veterans Affairs, people should not carry out strength training on the same muscle group on 2 consecutive days.

Getting enough sleep is also important for the process of muscle growth. The researchers behind a study hypothesize that sleep debt decreases protein synthesis, contributes to the loss of muscle mass, and inhibits muscle recovery.

However, many further studies are necessary to confirm the link. A study found no direct correlation between sleep and muscle gain.

However, the study authors do suggest that sleep deprivation can increase the amount of cortisol that circulates the body after exercise. Cortisol is a stress hormone. Reducing stress may help a person build muscle , as the hormones that the body releases during periods of stress have a negative effect on muscle development.

Eating a balanced and healthful diet is key to staying fit. For people who wish to build muscle, protein intake is especially important. Current guidelines recommend that adult males and females consume 56 grams g and 46 g, respectively, of protein every day.

The timing of protein intake may also be of importance. A paper belonging to the Nestlé Nutrition Institute Workshop Series suggests that consuming 20 g of dietary protein during or immediately after exercise helps stimulate muscle protein synthesis, reduce protein breakdown, and promote more effective muscle reconditioning.

A fitness professional can advise people on the correct form to use when lifting weights and using other gym equipment. Using the right technique reduces the risk of injury and enhances the potential to build muscle. People should consult a doctor before embarking on any new exercise regimen if they have underlying health conditions or concerns about injury.

Otherwise, a personal trainer or gym employee can provide safety guidance. Light to moderate exercise is safe for those with ulcerative colitis. To build muscle with ulcerative colitis, a person can try strength exercises, such as lifting weights, squats, crunches, and push ups.

If you are patient, focused, and consistent with your workouts and recovery, you will see results. Around 80 grams of protein per day or four meals containing 20 grams of protein each is about right for most people.

If you want to calculate the optimal protein amount for you and your goals, Beachbody recommends 0. If you have ambitious muscle-building goals, shoot for the higher end of the range by adding one or two protein-rich snacks to your day.

In addition to consuming more protein, there are a number of nutritional steps you can take to bulk up responsibly. To find out how many more calories you should consume to gain weight, determine how many calories you need to maintain your current weight — your baseline — then add Whether your calories come from carbs, fat, or protein goes a long way in determining whether your weight gain comes from muscle or from fat.

Using this method, you only have to focus on one thing at a time — building, then getting lean, versus trying to increase mass while simultaneously limiting fat gain. The bulk of that fat should come from unsaturated sources such as avocado, olive oil, and salmon.

One way to get the right mix is with Beachbody Performance Recover , which combines time-released proteins and phytonutrients to aid recovery and reduce muscle breakdown.

These are the main criteria dictating increases in muscle size or hypertrophy — and two of them are outside your control. The male persuasion unsurprisingly has a decided advantage when it comes to building muscle. You also want to use enough weight, so the last few reps are a challenge.

If you can't lift the weight at least eight times, use a lighter weight. When you can comfortably perform eight reps without completely tiring the muscle, increase the weight. Two days is plenty. Ideally, you should do weight training at least twice a week. You often can feel results after four to six weeks of consistent training.

Give it a rest. Always allow at least 48 hours between sessions for muscle recovery. Some people prefer to break their workouts into two parts: upper body and lower body. In that case, you can perform upper-body exercises one day and lower-body the next.

Always raise the bar. Does consuming more protein help you make more muscle? The answer is yes for younger people, and some evidence suggests that the combination of higher protein intake plus resistance training also can build muscle mass in older men.

How much extra protein is enough? Weak arms? To do them, get a partner to help you lift a weight — or jump to the top of a move such as the chin-up — and then take five seconds to lower it. For his roles in Thor and Avengers Assemble, Chris Hemsworth warmed up with heavy Turkish get-ups.

They teach your body to move as a unit, and force your stabiliser muscles to grow. Add them to your warm-up. Team up with a partner and alternate 30m carries until one of you admits defeat.

To get Sylvester Stallone the monumental forearms he has in both Expendables films, his trainer Gunnar Peterson added one simple trick. For his role as Wolverine, Hugh Jackman constantly hit his muscles from different angles. This is also possible with a TRX.

Superset them with ring press-ups to supersize your pecs. If you're struggling with your technique then Bulgarian split squats are nearly as effective. Do reps at the end of your regular leg sessions if you want them to grow.

Change your foot position for best results. Other moves will let you hit your back muscles more directly, but none will let you shift as much weight as this classic move.

Another strongman staple that taxes every muscle in your body is the truck pull. Go for maximum distance at the end of your workout. Keep it simple and build up gradually. Starting with four to six 15m sprints with as much recovery as you need.

More microfibre tears mean more muscle gains. Rest two minutes, then repeat. Incorrect breathing will result in poor posture and increased chance of injury. Try , or for subsequent sets. Try one set of curls to near-failure with an empty barbell, aiming for 30 reps.

Science agrees: Compound exercises cause the greatest increase in testosterone , a key muscle-building hormone, according to researchers at the University of Connecticut.

When you lift heavy weights or do explosive exercises like sprinting, you target the type II muscle fibers we discussed earlier. Once every week or two, target those type I fibers with low-weight, high-rep work e.

Shoot for a minimum of 7 hours a night. Getting less than that on a regular basis can cause you to rack up sleep debt, which can put the brakes on protein synthesis aka muscle growth and increase protein read: muscle degradation, according to a study by Brazilian researchers.

Have trouble sleeping? Try these natural tips on how to get good sleep tonight. You need to challenge your muscles to trigger growth, but you also need to be smart about how you go about it.

So how do you strike a balance? Muscles grow between workouts, not during them, so make recovery a priority. In practice, that means eating healthier, consuming more protein , and not overtraining.

Your move: Take at least 1 to 2 days off per week to allow your muscles to fully recover, and maximize the effectiveness of your downtime by doing light cross training e.

To make it eccentric-only, you would lower to the floor, and end the exercise there. Physiologically, muscles are far stronger moving eccentrically than they are concentrically.

If you touch your phone between exercise sets, it better be to set its timer to 30 to 90 seconds. When lifting for hypertrophy, rest periods of 30 to 90 seconds encourage a quick release in muscle-building hormones including testosterone and human growth hormone while also making sure that you really, truly fatigue your muscles, according to Fitzgerald.

Research published in the Journal of Applied Physiology last year suggests that, irrespective of rep and set scheme, fatiguing your muscles is a prerequisite for hypertrophy.

Strength training breaks down your muscles, and protein builds them back up. The more difficult your lifting workouts are, the more important muscle-building foods become when weighing protein intake to solidify recovery, Fitzgerald explains. Related: How Much Protein Do You Really Need to Build Muscle?

According to research from the University of Stirling, for optimal muscle growth, weight lifters need to eat 0. For a pound person, that works out to 20 to 24 grams of protein at every meal.

This can be a hard one to get used to, especially for those who are used to counting calories in the hopes of shredding fat. But when it comes to how to gain muscle mass fast that means weight gained, not lost , you need to consume more calories than you burn each day.

Aim to eat roughly to extra calories per day. To make sure that any weight gained is from muscle, Fitzgerald recommends that the bulk of those calories come from protein.

Long popular among bodybuilders, casein protein absorbs slowly into the bloodstream, meaning it keeps your muscles fed with amino acids for longer compared to other types of protein, such as whey and plant proteins. To get some pre-bed casein, try cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, and milk. For smoothie lovers, casein-based protein powder works like a charm.

Muscle recovery requires more than the right nutrition. Patience and consistency are the most important tools for sustainability.

Follow these tips for better consistency:. Restrictive dietary fads go in and out of style and are often not the best choice for building muscle. Nourishing your body with a variety of nutrient-dense foods, especially protein and carbohydrates, is important for meeting your muscle building goals.

If you need help in putting together an appropriate diet plan for muscle growth, speak to a registered dietitian or qualified sports nutritionist. The International Society of Sports Nutrition recommends consuming 1.

An emphasis on leucine-rich protein sources is ideal and can consist of whole foods and supplements. The best plant-based protein sources include soybeans, tempeh, green peas, quinoa, beans, lentils, chickpeas, broccoli, tempeh, potatoes, and sweet potatoes.

Keep in mind, you generally have to eat a larger portion of plant-based proteins to reap the same amount of protein as one serving of animal proteins. Aragon, A. et al. International society of sports nutrition position stand: diets and body composition. J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 16 Jäger, R. International Society of Sports Nutrition Position Stand: protein and exercise.

J Int Soc Sports Nutr 14, 20 doi Van Vliet S, Shy EL, Abou Sawan S, et al. Consumption of whole eggs promotes greater stimulation of postexercise muscle protein synthesis than consumption of isonitrogenous amounts of egg whites in young men. Am J Clin Nutr. Hoffman JR, Falvo MJ. Protein: Which is best?

J Sports Sci Med. Paul G, Mendelson GJ. Evidence supports the use of soy protein to promote cardiometabolic health and muscle development. J Am Coll Nutr. USDA nutrients: Leucine.

Kerksick C, Harvey T, Stout J, Campbell B, Wilborn C, Kreider R, Kalman D, Ziegenfuss T, Lopez H, Landis J, Ivy JL, Antonio J. International Society of Sports Nutrition position stand: nutrient timing.

J Int Soc Sports Nutr. Volek JS, Forsythe CE, Kraemer WJ. Nutritional aspects of women strength athletes. Br J Sports Med. Liu AG, Ford NA, Hu FB, Zelman KM, Mozaffarian D, Kris-Etherton PM.

A healthy approach to dietary fats: understanding the science and taking action to reduce consumer confusion. Nutr J. Published Aug Lambert CP, Frank LL, Evans WJ.

Macronutrient considerations for the sport of bodybuilding. Sports Med. Hertzler SR, Lieblein-Boff JC, Weiler M, Allgeier C. Plant Proteins: Assessing Their Nutritional Quality and Effects on Health and Physical Function.