Aside from looking fantastic and boosting your confidence, having a well-developed, muscular physique provides other great health benefits - such as a faster metabolism, stronger bones, and better hormonal balance. Unfortunately, many people struggle with building muscle because of poor, bro-science information. This often leads to discouragement as well as injury. Don’t fret though, building muscle is simple as long as you follow a few, science-backed recommendations; like the ones found below. To build muscle, you need to place enough stress on your muscles to force them to adapt; and lifting weights is the perfect solution. While resistance training can be done with your bodyweight, it’s best completed with weights - especially if your goal is to build muscle. This is because weight lifting places your muscles under a high degree of stress, allowing for more micro tears in the muscle fibres. Besides the muscle boosting benefits, lifting weights also makes you stronger, strengthens your immune system, builds stronger bones, protects your joints, and increases your anabolic hormone production.

When you’re focusing on gaining muscle, you want the weight to be heavy, but not too heavy. Light weight won’t build muscle effectively, but lifting weight that is too heavy will focus more on building you strength and less on building mass. The best recommendation is as follows: make sure the weight is heavy and light enough to keep you in the 8-12 rep range. The weight should be light enough for you to get 8 reps but heavy enough to not allow you to go past 12 reps between each set. The human body is a marvellous piece of machinery, and excels at adaptation. It’s one of the main reasons we can live in so many different environments without issues. However, this is a big challenge for muscle growth since it means you need to consistently increase the weight to continue to see results (3). This is known as the progressive overload principle.

Each workout you should try and add a little more weight or a few more reps to each set. Even 1-2lbs is enough. While it seems inconsequential, over time this compounds into massive muscle and strength gains. Low volume training is excellent performance enhancer for men building muscle when you start out. However, once you’re an advanced lifter, increasing your volume is imperative to get past any plateaus. You want to be wary not to use too much volume though, or you risk overtraining. The volume should be enough for you to make progress, but not to the point of injury. For example, if you usually do two sets of bicep curls, increase it to three sets, not five or six sets. Compound lifts are multi-joint movements, such as squats and bench press, that work multiple muscles and target the larger muscles in your body. If you’re a beginner it shouldn’t affect you much. If you’re an advanced lifter, it’s important that you place an emphasis on the big movements, such as barbell flat or incline bench press, barbell squats, and barbell deadlifts (all forms).

Calories are the energy for our body, helping to determine how much weight we gain or lose. Eating more calories than you burn can cause you to gain weight. When you combine a slight caloric increase with weight lifting, the gains can be turned into muscle, and not a spare tire around your waist. The key here is a slight caloric surplus, as research shows the going too high in calories can add a layer of fat on you that will cover up your hard-earned muscle (7). 300-500 calories above your caloric maintenance is a good starting point to build muscle and avoid gaining fat. Protein is the building block of muscle, and you need to consume an adequate amount of it to maximize muscle growth and support recovery. This can be a struggle for many. However, contrary to many popular belief, studies show that you only need 0.82 grams of protein per pound of bodyweight for maximal muscle growth (8). This is around 150g for a 180 pound male.

Your muscles grow when they’re resting and recovering, not when they’re being worked. That’s why you must take plenty of days off to make sure your muscles are fully rested and recovered between lifts. This is why training too often will only hinder your progress in the gym. This is especially true if you’re a beginner. Sleep is the cornerstone of rest and recovery. Without adequate sleep (7-8 hours each night), your body will suffer, and it will be hard to pack on muscle. Creatine is the king of muscle building supplements. It works by increasing your ATP production, which supplies your muscles with more energy. This extra energy allows you to squeeze out a few extra reps, leading to an increase in strength and muscle mass over time. Casein is a form of protein that’s beneficial to gaining muscle. Studies show it doesn’t matter when you take casein, just as long as you take it consistently. Unfortunately, not all casein protein is made equal.