Build Large Muscles

What does it actually take to build large muscles? Often experts try to make the concept of building muscle sound incredibly difficult and complicated. I want to try to make it a little simpler. On top of this building muscle is also incredibly expensive. Too many gurus have you taking one supplement after another. I am not saying that you should avoid supplements all together but for the most part you can build muscle without them.

So what do you need to build muscle? The first thing that you need to understand is that your body is very happy the way it is. It doesn’t want to build muscle. Muscle requires your body to expend more energy to maintain. So your body is content to do without it. So you are going to have to persuade your body that you need muscle.

So how do we convince our body that it needs to build muscle? Well very simply put we need to give it a reason to grow. Let’s look at a couple of ways to do this.

Overfeed Your Body

If you are going to gain muscle then you are going to have to eat more. Some of you are thinking that the last time you ate more you gained weight and that it wasn’t muscle that you gained. Well we are going to combine our extra calorie intake with a bit more muscle building activity. We are going to require more of our body so we need to provide it with more energy.

Now when I say that you need to eat excess calories to build muscle I am not talking about eating a box of Twinkies each day. You need to be smart and eat healthily. You just need to eat more healthy food than your body requires to maintain its current weight and musculature. Eat lean proteins, healthy fats and complex carbohydrates.

Progressive Overload

Now that your body has been provided with the extra fuel necessary to build muscle you need to “stress out” your muscle so that it is forced to get bigger.

We are going to try to force your body into hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is a fancy term for building muscle. We are going to do this through weight training and a principle called progressive overload.

Progressive overload means that we are going to lift a weight heavier than your body is accustomed to. Don’t get hung up on which program that you use to do this. Any program will work. Just stick with it. What occurs when you lift heavier loads of weight than your body is used to is that muscle is torn down. As a result your body will come along and rebuild that muscle but make it bigger and stronger so that it is able to handle that same type of stress in the future.

I know that this sounds overly simplistic but it is really that simple in reality. You need to continue to stress your muscles by overloading them with heavier weight and volume training. They will in turn respond by growing stronger and larger.

Now you need to make sure that you get enough rest, however. You are tearing your muscle down and as a result you will need to give your body proper time to heal. If you don’t provide time for rest and recovery then you will not grow like you want.

Now everyone will have different genetic potential. Not everyone will be able to bench 500 lbs and squat 700 lbs. However, you will be able to grow into the full potential of your genetics.