How to Get Muscles

 You may have clicked on this article because you are new to the fitness scene and are browsing the web for tips, or you may have been working out for a while now and are reading for ways to improve your training. I hope this can help you. The first thing you need to know is that in order to build the most amount of muscle in the least amount of time (which I’m assuming you want to do)  you need a consistent training program along with a consistent diet. Your diet will determine over 50% of the way your body is shaped. I’ve seen so many ‘regulars’ at the gym, and they always look the same as the months go by. Some of them are smoking outside after their hard workout, while I see others walking around campus carrying McDonald’s bags. If you eat properly consistently, you will get your results twice as fast. I explain eating properly in detail in my article Nutrition. If you haven’t already, read that as a first step to building muscle. This section will now focus on the actual training half of the battle. First of all, especially if you have any injuries or health problems, you should consult your doctor before beginning a training program. Secondly, you should have a goal. What do you want? Do you a woman want to get slim and toned? Or a male want to get lean and strong? Do you an athlete want to add muscle for endurance? Or do you simply want to get into shape? This is important because it determines the type of workout you will be doing. I know you don’t have a lot of time to read everything, so I’ll divide this section into two sections: shaping and toning / size and strength.

1) SHAPING & TONING

First of all, muscle will always look better and more toned if it isn’t covered up with fat. For tips on getting leaner, read both my ridding fat and nutrition sections. For toning your muscles, you want to do a program where you lift moderately light weights for high repetitions (15+). Between sets, have short rests (under a minute) then get right back to it. Its the constant breaking down of muscle fibers that causes the repairing and building the muscle (which is done by protein and nutrients). You can do split workouts (where you specifically train different muscle groups on different days) or full body workouts (where every part of the body is targeted lightly). When lifted a weights, always remember to stretch or warm-up first. This gets the blood flowing, the joint warmed up, and is less likely to cause an injury. Make sure you have good form, that is, you complete the full range of the motion. Don’t cheat! Its not going to build muscle. Under control, raise the weight, exhaling. Pause slightly, and then inhaling, slowly lower the weight about twice as slow as you raised it. I commonly use the ‘1 second up, 2 seconds down rule’, or some similar time (2/4, etc). Remember of course to eat curbs and protein after any type of workout, and eat small frequent meals throughout the day. For a few examples of programs and popular exercises you can do to tone your muscles, check out my article on programs. Because my training experience is more for size, strength, and fat burning, I’m not too familiar with toning and can’t provide too much more information. I suggest typing ‘toning muscle’ in a popular search engine to get the more detailed information you want.