People in the gym and people I’ve trained come to me with questions about how to get bigger and they have their heads chock full of stuff that’s just misinformation.

When it comes to building muscle, there are many ways to do it right, and many more ways to do it wrong.

I’m going to give you the basic principles to build muscle efficiently and correctly.

1. Progressive Overload

Your muscles will adapt to whatever conditions you put it under.

Because your muscles adapt, you must continue to overload them. They will adapt by getting bigger and stronger.

Making gains week after week means you must continue to increase the load on your muscles in various ways.

You can do this by adding more reps, decreasing rest, increasing weights, etc.

2. Progressive Variation

This isn’t “muscle confusion”. Your body builds neural pathways to your muscles to do the same motion efficiently. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Doing the same exercise every week on the same muscle will increase the weight but not increase growth.

Your body has found an efficient way of doing the exercise without adding more size.

3. Rest

Most people don’t sleep enough, or get enough rest and thus they overtrain. When it comes to building muscle, less work is better.

Muscle isn’t built in the gym. It’s built when you sleep and the next day when your body repairs itself through the release of hormones.

To build muscle properly, you must get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. This is for your muscles, nervous system, and hormonal system to recover.

4. Nutrition

You need the right amount of carbs, proteins, and right kinds of fats.

Your calorie requirements depend on your age, weight, body fat, and level of activity.

You need a calorie surplus to build muscle so found out how many calories you need to do this. Then consume that amount with the right proportion of foods.

Implement these strategies for consistent muscle growth in your routine.

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