How to gain muscle

 How to gain muscle

Ever wondered how to gain muscle? You’re not alone. Every day, thousands of people are searching for information they can use to grow bigger muscles, improve their weightlifting performance, or just look better in a t-shirt.  However, information is only half the battle: it takes hard work and dedication, whether in the gym with comprehensive resistance training machines, at home with the best adjustable dumbbells (opens in new tab), or in the kitchen when preparing your meals. Gaining serious size and strength is no easy task, but it’s worth doing: whatever your gender, ideal size or fitness goal, a little extra muscle is only going to help. More muscle will improve your strength and your fitness, will help you increase your metabolism to lose weight, and even slow down the process of age-related muscular atrophy. Below, we’ll outline a few of the most commonly-asked questions about building muscle, including the different ways to train, how much protein you really need to eat, and how often you should be upping your weights. What are the different ways to train your muscles? (Image credit: Getty) We’re not going to go into the individual exercises you can use to train different areas of your body (our home workout ideas (opens in new tab) cover that), but we’re going to examine how to increase the size of your muscles regardless of which muscle group you’re focusing on.  First question: whether you’re doing push-ups at home or weighted squats in the gym (check out our guide to weightlifting for beginners if you’re keen to adopt that approach), how many reps should you be doing to build muscle? And what is hypertrophy (opens in new tab)? Expert strength coach and personal trainer, Rogan Allport (opens in new tab), says there are three kinds of strength qualities you can train for, and these will dictate the amount of reps you do. Allport says: “There’s maximal strength, the maximum amount you can lift, which you need to train from one to five reps. Then there’s hypertrophy, which occurs when you’re actively trying to cause tissue growth and tissue development. For this, you should train in the 6-12 rep range. Then there’s muscular endurance, which is essentially anything from 12-20 plus reps.  “Muscle can be built in all of these different rep ranges. However, optimally, you should be working within six to eight, 10-12, or 12-20 reps. That’s where you’ll spend the majority of your time when building muscle.” This is backed up by research published in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise (opens in new tab), which states that “increasingly greater gains are achieved with higher training volumes,” according to a study on resistance-trained men.   What role does diet play in muscle gain? (Image credit: Getty) “Diet is actually the most important aspect when gaining muscle”, says Allport. “Unless you have the raw materials to build that muscle, training alone is never going to work.”  Your body needs a balance between protein, fat and carbohydrates to function effectively, but to gain muscle after training, your body requires protein, which is a group of essential amino acids that act as the building blocks of muscle.  Dietary protein sources include animal products such as lean meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. Any and all meat can provide protein, but better-quality, unprocessed meat will always be better for you than processed stuff like fried chicken or burgers, which frequently come loaded with salt, saturated fat and other substances linked to weight gain and diabetes.  However, you don’t have to be a carnivore to get protein: beans, peas, nuts, seeds, oats and soy products, such as tofu, can also provide these essential amino acids, along with the best protein powder (opens in new tab) supplements. But how much protein should you eat? “A really good guideline which I’ve used with my clients is one gram, or 0.8 grams, of protein per centimeter of body height”, says Allport. Eat too much protein and it doesn’t have any benefit other than being satiating, keeping you fuller for longer according to research published in Nutrition and Metabolism (opens in new tab). Also, if you’re looking to gain weight by building muscle in a healthy, sustainable way, you should make sure you’re in a calorie surplus, which means you’re taking in about 200-300 more calories then you’re burning. This shouldn’t be purely protein or just processed junk food to make up the calories, but good, whole foods such as vegetables and whole grains.  How often should you be upping your weights? (Image credit: Getty) Selecting the right weight for you is one of the biggest beginner’s issues when trying to gain muscle. Too light and you’re not working hard enough, while too heavy and you’re exercising with improper form. So how do you tell how much weight you should lift? Allport says you should have a “rep range” in mind when exercising, such as 8-10 reps. Pick a weight you can lift for eight reps. When you can do those comfortably, with good form, you can move on to nine reps, then onto 10. Once you can do 10, you know it’s time to up the weight.  “You need to earn more load on the bar, and the only way to earn it is by mastery and better quality reps”, says Allport. Start off with a light weight you know you can lift comfortably, even if it’s just the bar with no weight on it, and learn the movements with the help of an expert if needs be. Once you know how to perform the exercise safely, under control, you can start adding weight until you feel a lot of resistance towards the end of your set. Slowly progressing over time, eating right and recovering properly with plenty of sleep, is the only way to gain muscle effectively.  Today's best deals on adjustable dumbbells


Tom Hardy's workout he used to gain muscle fast for Batman's Bane - rapid training plan 

The Batman: Robert Pattinson stars in trailer Tom Hardy is arguably one of Britain's most well known actors, having starred in huge blockbuster films and TV programmes over the course of his successful career. And what adds to his talent is his ability to transform his body to suit whatever character he is playing. His most prominent transformation that is still being talked about today is his appearance as Bane in 2012's The Dark Knight Rises. The actor managed to gain over 30lb (two stone) for the role as Batman's arch-nemesis. But how did he bulk up in a short space of time? He is said to have used a range of body weight exercises to build muscle on his chest, arms and shoulders. Hardy hit a four-round circuit, going from 10 reps in the first round, to seven, to five, then to three. READ MORE: Diet: Expert warns against common mistake How Tom Hardy gained muscle fast for Batman's Bane - rapid workout plan (Image: GETTY) According to Men's Health, the workout is as follows: The square: 10, seven, five, three reps Position hands so they’re ‘square’ with the shoulders. Keep elbows tucked in, moving alongside the torso to detonate the triceps. The rectangle: 10, seven, five, three reps Set hands wide apart, so that a rectangle is formed by the chest, arms and the floor The eagle: 10, seven, five, three reps Set hands wide apart and spread fingers while lowering the body and turn them outwards. The kong: 10, seven, five, three reps Assume a press-up position on the knuckles, with arms kept at shoulder-width. Lower chest to the floor, letting the elbows bend back like a grasshopper’s legs. DON'T MISS...Diet: 5 myths of Military Diet that could have adverse effects [LATEST]Dr Michael Mosley shares 3 alternatives to help cut down on carbs [ADVICE]Fitness: Best way to warm-up for strength training [HEALTH NEWS] While this workout alongside a food-laden diet did the trick for Hardy, he admitted previously that he was actually "overweight", weighing in at a hefty 14 stone (90kg) during filming. But the transformation is not one that will be forgotten lightly, especially by the actor himself. He said at the time: "If you really study the photographs [of Bane], I was really overweight, actually. "I ate a lot and I wasn't much heavier than I am now, but I just ate more pizza. "They shoot from low to make you look big." READ MORE: Michael Mosley weight loss: Remove three foods to stay slim The actor managed to gain over 30lb (two stone) for the role (Image: GETTY) He continued: "That's the magic of lighting and three or four months of lifting and training and eating lots of pizza. "It wasn't great for my heart. The point was to look as big as possible," he said. He also told the Daily Beast that morphing his body for roles has taken a toll on him over the years. "I think you pay the price with any drastic physical changes," he said. Calorie burning tips (Image: EXPRESS) “It was alright when I was younger, but I think as you get into your 40s you have to be more mindful of the rapid training, packing on a lot of weight and getting physical, and then not having enough time to keep training because you’re busy filming, so your body is swimming in two different directions at the same time. "I haven’t damaged my body, but I’m certainly a bit achier than I used to be! I certainly have joints that click that probably shouldn’t click." He added: "And carrying my children is a little bit harder than it used to be - but don’t tell them."


How to Do the Concentration Curl to Build Your Biceps Peaks 

If you stride through the gym straight to the dumbbell rack, grab the first set of weights you see and immediately get to curling, your biceps-building workout is probably too rushed. To really emphasize the exercise's full range of motion and muscle contraction, through which you'll reap the most muscle-building benefit, you need to focus on form. One of the best ways to do that is to concentrate. By that, we mean that you need to try concentration curls. The concentration curl is the antithesis of sloppy, rushed reps performed directly in front of the weight rack mirror. Instead of racing to the end of each set and piling up junk volume, your aim is to isolate the biceps, putting yourself in a position that eliminates and cheating or body English from taking the focus off the muscle. There's more to the concentration curl than just jamming your elbow into your thigh and dialing down your reps. The move is a bodybuilding classic, but going through the motions won't get you the gains you're hoping to achieve. "When I see people do it in the gym, a lot of times these days they're not really executing it well," says Men's Health fitness director Ebenezer Samuel, C.S.C.S. The major focus should be on getting that muscle contraction, but your posture on the bench should be totally on point in order to reap the benefits. Watch Samuel guide MH fitness editor Brett Williams, NASM-CPT through the cues you need to perfect the concentration curl. Benefits of the Concentration Curl The concentration curl allows you to really isolate your biceps muscle—the ultimate aim of all curl variations—more effectively than other versions of the exercise. Your position forces you to move only at the elbow joint, allowing you to emphasize the muscle contraction without your shoulders or momentum aiding in the lift. The exercise also helps to target the peaks of the biceps, since you're able to really home in on that contraction. The position is an excellent tool to help harried lifters to slow down and really emphasize form and the mechanics of a curl. Story continues Photo credit: Men's Health How to Do the Concentration Curl Follow these form cues to learn how to do the concentration curl. Once you've read the step-by-step directions, follow along for some higher-level tips from Samuel to dive deeper into the exercise. ●Sit on a bench, with a dumbbell between your legs. ●Grab the dumbbell with one hand, then place your upper arm (your triceps muscle) against your thigh. Your goal should be to keep your arm perpendicular to the ground throughout the whole movement. ●Tighten your core and engage your shoulder blades to create tension and reinforce posture. ●Make a fist with your off hand and extend your non-working arm out to the side. This allows you to use your core to balance and remove any leverage that would take away from biceps engagement. ●Curl the weight up with control, keeping the wrist in a neutral position. Emphasize the squeeze at the top of the rep; avoid any backwards lean or shoulder movement, keeping the focus on the biceps. ●Perform 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps per arm, or 3 minutes alternating 30 seconds of work per arm. Arm to Thigh Eb says: The most common mistake you see with the concentration curl comes in the initial setup: Many people try to wedge their elbow into their thigh. But doing basically lets you use both knee and elbow as one big fulcrum, essentially making the curl easier and taking tension off the biceps. Avoid this by wedging your upper arm into your thigh, thinking of driving the meatiest part of your triceps in there. You'll have to hinge your waist forward a bit more to do this, but you'll get more out of the entire curl. Upper Arm Perpendicular Eb says: Once you're in this position, you're responsibility is to maintain this position. Your upper arm should, for the life of each set, be perpendicular to the ground and stay perpendicular. You'll be tempted to lean back as you curl, just as you are on nearly every curl. But fight to keep your upper arm perpendicular to the ground the entire time. Watch yourself in a mirror if possible to check technique. Don't Overcurl Eb says: One of the biggest problems guys have with the concentration curl (and any curl, really) is a tendency to chase an arbitrary endpoint. You may think you have to get the dumbbell to touch your shoulder, for example. Don't do that. Curl up only as high as you can before you start to feel your triceps losing contact with your thigh. As long as your forearm is higher than parallel to the ground, you'll be engaging your biceps. If you try to go beyond this point and your elbow starts shifting forward, all you're doing is taking stress and focus off the biceps. Want to master even more moves? Check out our entire Form Check series. You Might Also Like