Gain Muscle & Strength

Bodybuilding Basics

Building muscle takes time, knowledge, and commitment. When all is said and done, diet and exercise are crucial to your ability to meet your muscle building goals.

Meeting Your Bodybuilding Goals

In order to bulk up you must create a caloric surplus, meaning that you eat more calories than you are able to burn off. A good diet should include plenty of protein, complex carbohydrates, fruit and vegetables, and good fats. If you don’t eat you won’t get big, and those who are serious about building muscle should eat at least five or six times per day. As a general rule of thumb, continue to increase your caloric intake until you see the numbers on the scale moving up.

Weight lifting exercise, about three times a week with days off between workouts for muscle regeneration and repair, should be sufficient to gain muscle. Focus on compound exercises—those that exercise several different joints and muscles at the same time, such as the bench press—instead of isolation exercises, such as barbell curls. In addition, focus on the following tips:

5 Bodybuilding Tips to Building Muscle

1. Get plenty of sleep. You are asking a lot of your muscles, and deep sleep is absolutely necessary for them to repair.
2. Increase workout intensity. Try techniques such as forced reps, dropped sets, and super sets to beef up your workout.
3. Get plenty of protein. Eat protein at every meal, as well as before and after every workout. Protein is absolutely necessary to build muscle, and if you don’t have enough of it your body will actually steal it from your muscles.
4. Be consistent with your training. No matter how gung-ho you are, it won’t make a difference if you go long periods of time without training. When you take breaks, you lose what you’ve gained. Training consistently is the best way to make steady gains.
5. Set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. You’ll have a much better chance of meeting your goals if you spell them out.

Bodybuilding Supplements

In addition, there are a variety of supplements on the market in Canada designed to help you build muscle. Choosing the right bodybuilding supplement is easy if you have the right information. Just follow the two simple steps below:

1. Read about each supplement, and how it contributes to building muscle.
2. Once you’ve identified the bodybuilding supplements that best suit your needs, click on the links to shop.

Weight Gainer Supplements

Weight gainers are protein powders that have the high protein and calorie contents needed to gain bulky muscle mass and get huge. Weight gainers are ideal for those who can’t consume enough calories through food alone to build the desired muscle mass. Depending upon your level and goals, weight gainers can be taken in the morning, between meals, pre- and post-workout, and at bedtime.

Creatine

Creatine is a combination of three amino acids—methionine, arginine, and glycine—that is stored directly in the muscles. Creatine powder has been shown to allow faster muscle gains, increase lean body mass, boost power, increase agility, and improve strength.

Glutamine

Glutamine is a non-essential amino acid that improves and accelerates muscle recovery and repair, and also enhances human growth hormone.

Vasodilators also called nitric oxide boosters

Vasodilators, also called nitric oxide boosters, increase nutrients and blood flow to the muscles, reduce inflammation and help muscle recovery, and “pump” muscles up and increase the prominence of veins.

Testosterone boosters

Testosterone boosters increase strength and muscle mass, as well as energy.

HGH release supplements

HGH release supplements increase muscle mass, bone strength, and energy.

ZMA

ZMA is a combination of zinc monomethione aspartate, magnesium aspartate, and vitamin B6. ZMA increases testosterone levels, increases strength, reduces muscle damage, and contributes to the type of deep sleep necessary to repair muscles.

Multivitamins

Multivitamins are necessary to ensure that bodybuilders get all of the vitamins and minerals necessary to make certain that their bodies respond optimally to training. Whether the goal is to gain size or strength, multivitamins or vitamin packs are key to meeting overall training goals. Without a good foundation of vitamins and minerals, the body will be less willing to respond to the demands put on it, and may not make gains as quickly, or as dramatically.

Building muscle not only takes a lot of time, energy, and commitment, it also requires a good diet, consistent training, and the right supplements.