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?

When it comes to building muscle the one step almost everybody is familiar with is weight training. 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.

Protein and water are the two primary components of your muscles. 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. Consuming a combination of carbohydrates and protein is absolutely critical right after your workout and first thing in the morning. 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. Your muscles need plenty of rest for them to grow and that's why the majority of your muscle growth will occur at night while you're sleeping. 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. Drinking a tall glass of milk and a bowl of cottage cheese right before bedtime has been known to produce immediate results. the casein protein found in these products is ideal for building muscle at night.

Well 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. Make sure you get plenty of carbohydrates to fuel your body and plenty of protein for new muscular growth. And finally rest so you can give your muscles a chance to rebuild. Train, eat and sleep.