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Home » Health Articles » Muscle Building Made Simple The Essential Framework For Building Muscle Simply Efficiently

Muscle Building Made Simple: The Essential Framework For Building Muscle Simply & Efficiently

People tend to make muscle building a lot harder than it should be. I can't say I blame them. With a plethora of muscle building magazines, stores full of hard to pronounce supplements, and advertisements promoting the latest fitness fad it's pretty easy to get overwhelmed quickly.

The truth is...the basic concept of muscle building is actually pretty simple. To gain muscle you must do two things:

1. Eat more calories than you expend

2. Break down muscle fibers through physical exertion in order to grow them back bigger (usually through weight-training)

These 2 critical principles are the foundation for any sound muscle building program.

Now...here's where things can get tricky. If you don't already know how to eat or weight-train properly then you must to learn how to do them CORRECTLY.

To tell you the truth, this is hard part. It takes many hours of research and many, many grueling weeks and months of real live application to master nutrition and weight-training.

The reason that it is so hard is because nutrition and weight-training for muscle growth have many in-depth intricacies, rules and best practices.

So rather than try to teach you everything, I will provide you the essential framework for muscle building in a simplified fashion.

Eating Made Simple:

* Determine Your Daily Muscle Building Calorie Intake Level. There are many advanced formulas to do this. A very basic one is to multiply your body weight by 20. (So if you weigh 140lbs eat around 2800 calories a day)

* Eat 5-6 Times a Day. Yes it's possible. Initially it will be hard, but your body will adapt if you are disciplined enough to make yourself eat every 2-3 hrs.

* Eat Well-Balanced Meals. Feed yourself the right way. Just because you are eating more calories does not allow you to eat unhealthy. NO JUNK FOOD. You should eat balanced portions of complex carbohydrates, proteins, and essential fats.

* Consume Plenty Of Protein. Protein is an essential ingredient for muscle building. An old rule of thumb is to consume at least 1g of protein per lb of bodyweight a day (If you weigh 140lbs consume 140g of protein).

* Drink A Lot Of Water. It cannot be overemphasized how important water is. For a very basic calculation drink a minimum of ½ your bodyweight in ounces. (If you are 140lbs drink at least 70 ounces a day)

Training Made Simple:

* Develop A Weight-Training Routine. Weight-Training Routines are widely available through books in print and on the internet. A weight-training routine will outline which exercises need to be performed, when they should be performed and how many times they should be performed.

Any sound muscle-building weight-training routine will require you to...

* Weight-Train INTENSELY. Place your muscles under stress far above and beyond normal circumstance to promote growth. This means train with maximum effort every repetition of every exercise.

* Lift Heavy Weights. Lift HEAVY weights to achieve maximum muscle fiber break down.

* Progressively Increase. Systematically increase the difficulty of your workouts to continually challenge your muscles. This means increase weight or repetitions performed (or both) for each workout.

* Allow Adequate Time To Rest. Muscles need time to FULLY RECOVER after being subjected to intense stress. Do not work out a single muscle group directly more than twice a week. (Working a muscle group directly only once a week is often the recommended standard)

* Limit The Length Of Your Workouts To 60 Minutes Or Less. Prolonged intense physical exertion beyond one hour can lead to increased muscle loss.

* Workout No More Than 3-4 Days as a Beginner. Over-training is a fundamental error of many beginners. To reiterate your body needs time to FULLY RECOVER from previous weight training sessions.

* Workout All Of Your Muscles. Incorporate weight lifting exercises to stimulate muscle growth throughout your ENTIRE body for maximum overall muscle growth and to keep muscular symmetry.

* Be Safe. Exercises performed with free weights can be very dangerous if not performed properly. If you are inexperienced it is highly recommended to do adequate research on the matter to perform the exercises safely and correctly.

Where To Go From Here:

Remember what I have provided is just the essential framework for building muscle in a basic simplified format. If you follow the key points here you WILL gain muscle, however, you still should continue researching to gain a FULL understanding of the principles I have laid out.

There are many great guides on the internet that will give you an in-depth, comprehensive review of the basic information I have provided you.

Just remember everything you learn about muscle building going forward should relate back (in some fashion) to the two the simple overarching principles outlined here (Nutrition & Training).

Good luck on your muscle building journey!

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Pay Off Debt Now: 5 steps to getting your finances in order

In our world of dizzying change, nothing is more true than the time honored statement that circumstances always change.

No where is this more true than with financial issues.

Have you ever borrowed money, or charged up the VISA card at Christmas, all the while telling yourself that you would pay everything off with a coming tax refund or bonus?

Sound familiar. And then what happens when the bonus money arrives?

Let me guess....circumstances changed, the car needed brakes (or the kids needed braces, etc), and the VISA debt and interest charges keeps piling up.

Unless you have a plan, you will always be caught in the unpredictable grip of "changing circumstances".

This is a slippery slope that can very quickly become serious financial stress. Consider the fact that Americans are declaring bankruptcy at record rates. One in every 100 families is affected by a bankruptcy.

I was on this slope 10 years ago. Declaring personal bankruptcy and filing for divorce went hand in hand.

One of the most insightful moments of the process was preparing a written log for the trustee of all of our spending for the 5 years leading up to bankruptcy.

While all of the individual decisions made sense in the moments that they were made, they looked totally foolish in the context of the "bigger picture".

In other words, constantly changing circumstances drove us off our financial roadmap.

Consider this five step plan for getting on, and staying with, your financial roadmap.

Step No. 1: Make a list of what you owe & prioritize: Put all your bills in a pile. Then list your debts in order, starting with the largest balance first. Then prioritize your repayments (ie paying down the highest interest rate first).

Step No. 2: Eliminate credit cards and don't roll over balances. Once paid off, notify the company that you want to close the account.

Step No. 3: Make a spending plan. Change your free-spending ways. Track the money that's coming in and going out. Use a debit card instead of your credit card. Download your bank transactions into a computer program for easy categorizing.

Step No. 4: Be careful about the equity in your home. Billions of dollars worth of equity has been withdrawn from millions of homes in the last few years. But many people pay down credit cards only to charge them up again - and then you don't have the safety net of the equity in your home.

Step No. 5: Get help. For some people, the problem of overspending is a psychological one. Spending can become a habit that's as difficult to kick as alcohol, drugs or gambling. Sometimes, it's due to circumstances they truly could not avoid: medical bills or divorce or loss of a job.

You can talk with a credit counselor on a private basis. It only appears on your credit report if you enter their debt repayment program.

During this holiday season, as you consider your finances, remember that Americans are now carrying $683 billion in revolving credit card debt. 47% of the people who paid less than the full amount on their credit card bills in a recent month, made only the minimum payment due.

The good news is that planning and professional help will definitely help you turn things around.

Case in point: I went from bankrupt with zero assets living in a boarding house, to gainfully employed, running my own home based business, with 2 houses and excellent re-established credit.

In other words, it can be done.

By Drew Harris
http://tinyurl.com/4bbum

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