You Too Can Build Muscle With The Correct Training And Nutrition

Hello and welcome to my blog, todays post is going to teach you what you need to know to get big and strong. A lot of people underestimate how important diet is in gaining muscle mass, therefore I will be covering both training and nutrition (without boring you with too much detail).

Nutrition

Firstly we will be looking at your nutrition, you need to be consuming more calroies than you burn in order to gain weight. However, too many excess calories and you’re looking at fat rather than muscle gain. In order to prevent this follow the reasonably simple formula or click the button at the end if ghis article​ to have this done for you!

1. Use myfitness pals Baseline metabolic rate (BMR) calculator. Note: I am not part of their company this is merely a recomendation to a useful free tool! http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
2. Our BMR calculator will calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate, or the number of calories your body would burn if you stayed in bed all day.
3. Multiple your BMR by your physical activity level (PAL). This is 1.2 if you’re immobile, 1.4 if you have an inactive job e.g. office worker, 1.7 if you have a reasonably active job e.g. shop assistant or 2.0 if you have a highly active role e.g. bricklayer. For example my BMR is 1,162kcal and I have a reasonably active job so 1,162 x 1.7 is 1,975kcal.
4. To minimise fat gain we will be conserative with our extra calories and add 10% to our calculated value. E.g. for me this is 1,975kcal x 1.1 which is 2,173kcal. This is the amount of calories I will consume on the average daily whilst on a muscle gaining phase.

Of course the quality of the food consumed is important as 2000kcal of chocolate and crisps will affect your body differently to 2000kcal of chicken, rice and vegetables. Follow these basic guidlines to maximise your success in gaining muslce:

• Aim for 30g of protein per meal
• Aim for vegetables (at least one portion) with every meal
• Swap white bread, pasta etc for brown as these have a lower GI value (more about this in another article).
• Eat 90-120 minutes pre workout.
• Eat 30-60 minutes post workout.
• Aim for two litres of water per day.

You can also have your macronutrients calculated (link here) to ensure you are having the correct amount of protein, carbohydrates and fats. This will allow you to gain maximum muscle mass with minimal fat gain.


Training

For size gains (which is understandably what the majority of indivduals are after) training in the 8-12 rep range works best. Three to four sets (depending on the size of the muscle group) for 8 to 12 reps is a good starting point. For someone starting out with weight training compound movements (which require movement at multiple joints) work best for fast results.



See this sample beginner workout below:

• Goblet Squat (3 sets of 10 reps)
• Bench Press (3 sets of 8 reps)
• Pull ups (3 sets of 8 reps) *
• Deadlift (3 sets of 10 reps)
• Dumbell shoulder press (3 sets of 12 reps)
• Plank (3 sets of 60 seconds)

*Assisted if necessary. Please visit my youtube channel to see demonstrations of all the exercises.


This workout should be done three times weekly with at least one day in between. To prevent boredom and maximize progress a workout should be repeated six times. For further beginner workout programmes or a custom plan visit the 'Fitness Services' icon at the top of the page.

Calculate my macros >>

Three Bonus Tips To Gain Muscle:

1) Progressive Overload
Moving heavier loads over time, you can also increase the reps and sets.

2) Protein
To build muscles after 'damaging' them in the gym. Shoot for 2g per kg of body weight.

3) Sleep
A tough one I know, but aim for 6-8 hours per night.

By Laura Ciotte PT
Laura is a personal trainer from Worthing, she specialises in fat loss for busy people.