When we work out, we tend to have a specific goal in mind for our bodies. Some may want to shed some weight from around their mid-rim, some might want to increase the distance they can run, and some might want to bolster the amount of muscle they have to improve their strength and stability.

If the latter is something you align your goals with, you might wonder how to do this quickly and effectively to maximize your results in as short a time as possible. While there are ways to increase the efficiency of your workouts, you need to understand that something like this still requires dedication and the commitment to weeks and months of training and exercise before you start to see results. Here are some essential steps to take when finding the quickest way to build muscle mass.

Planning Stage

You might want to just jump straight into a workout and do a load of hammer curls until your arms feel like they’re going to drop off, and while that is your prerogative to do so, having a plan in place first is going to help you to really hit those targets. If you’re not new to exercise, then you’ll be well aware of a number of important things. Firstly, your muscles need to rest after you exert them so that they can repair stronger and healthier. Secondly, it’s important to do a number of different workouts, hitting different muscle groups as well as isolated muscles too. And finally, you need to be eating the right foods, which will act as fuel for your body to build that muscle up. To do these things effectively, it’s worth creating your own muscle-building plan. This will allow you to plan your
exercises, which days you’ll do which workouts, and even create some meal plans to follow, to help you ensure you get the right nutrients as well as balance your exercise to allow every part of your body to be strengthened.

Use Compound Exercises

While you might be more concerned about certain muscles that you want to build up, such as your biceps, pectorals, or abs, isolating those muscles too much will result in other muscles falling behind in terms of growth. This can both be detrimental to your overall strength and your appearance. If you want to gain substantial mass all around, you’ll want to focus on compound exercises in your routines that incorporate many different muscles and joints, such as bench presses, push-ups, and squats. There is something to be said for isolated exercises as these will technically use more of the muscle you’re focusing on, making it work much harder than if it was working alongside other muscles. This will strengthen that muscle much faster and can be used if you feel as though a particular muscle isn’t getting the same level of exercise as others during your routine.

Consume More Protein

It’s not always easy to eat the right amount of protein for your body to maximize its muscle growth. There are a few nutrients that support healthy growth, but protein is undoubtedly the most important. You can increase your intake of protein if you’re struggling to get enough from your diet by taking protein supplements, which can be added to meals or turned into protein shakes. Two main types of protein are whey and casein, which come in powder form. You can find out more about the differences between casein and whey via this article by Ingredient Optimized. Essentially, the differences come down to absorption rates making certain choices better than the others depending on when you work out and when you intend to consume foods and protein supplements.

Trim Down Body Fat

It’s now been scientifically proven that someone who has a higher percentage of body fat will put on even more body fat when consuming calories than someone who is skinnier. The skinnier individual will put those calories to use for muscle mass growth when combined with strength workouts, much more than someone that is obese.

This is why it’s likely a better option to first focus on losing weight before committing to a muscle-growth plan if you’re overweight. Of course, you can still gain muscle mass when you’re overweight, but it’s going to take much longer. It’s also worth noting that the more body fat you have, the harder it’s going to be to see the results of your muscle growth anyway.

Combine your strength workouts with some good cardiovascular exercises to get the most out of your routine. Try to minimize your consumption of high-calorie, unhealthy foods too.

Choose The Right Reps

One of the biggest mistakes that people make when building muscle mass is not completing the right amount of reps or using the right weights for their goals. It essentially comes down to what you’re working out for. If you want stronger but not especially bigger muscles, then you want to be doing fewer reps between 1 to 5 with heavier weights. For those looking to strengthen their muscular endurance, you’ll a low weight with 12 or more reps is ideal. This can also function quite nicely as cardiovascular exercise too. In the middle ground, you have those looking to build up the overall size and power of their muscles, which, as you’d probably guess, requires a mixture of a medium weight allowing you to complete between 6 and 12 repetitions.

Improve Testosterone Production

One of the key components in the muscle growth process is the hormone known as testosterone. This hormone boosts the number of neurotransmitters in your body, which encourages muscle tissue growth. As well as this, testosterone also directly communicates with our DNA causing something known as protein synthesis. The more testosterone you have in your body, the easier it’ll be for strenuous exercise and weight lifting to build muscle. You can increase the amount of testosterone in your body by adding specific supplements to your diet or by increasing your consumption of certain testosterone-boosting foods. This includes things like salmon, sardines, spinach, kale, cocoa, avocado, eggs, and even strawberries.

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