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How To Gain Muscle Naturally

Updated on December 7, 2014

Gaining Muscle Mass Naturally

In recent years, steroids and other performance enhancing drugs have become a scourge. It used to be mostly professional athletes and bodybuilders who were using them. Nowadays however, more and more average people are doing steroids and other PEDS to gain muscle mass and strength. There are even a lot of teenagers using them.

The fact is - anabolic steroids work, and work well. However, using them puts you at higher risk for many health problems and they are illegal to posess. They also cause the natural levels of your testosterone and other muscle building hormones to decrease, so if you've taken them for a while and quit using them you will lose a lot of muscle size. Because of these things you have to ask yourself a question - is it worth it?

Fortunately, there are still many of us who want to know how to gain muscle naturally. Doing this will give you a sense of accomplishment and you won't have to worry about the health risks and other bad things that can happen to your body if you do steroids. You'll also build real muscle strength and size that will stick with you. Weight training and bodybuilding should be activities that improve your health and well being. Now's the time to learn the best ways to gain muscle naturally.

Intense Weight Training

Weight training with high intensity is a must when you want to know how to gain muscle naturally. Building muscle naturally isn't easy - if it was, more people would do it. Just go to the gym and you'll see guys who weight train every single day and do the same things over and over, yet never get any bigger or stronger. To increase the size of your muscles you need to constantly push your muscles to do more than they've done before. This means that during every workout you should attempt to use a little more weight or do extra reps with the weight you used during your last workout. To get more weight or reps you'll need to train with all out intensity. Eventually, the small strength and size gains that you get from doing this will add up to big gains.

Getting Enough Recovery Time

Another big part in learning how to gain muscle naturally is to give your muscles enough time to recover after training them intensely. When you weight train vigorously you basically break your muscles down. It's when you rest that your muscles actually grow. Because of this, you need to make sure that you get enough recovery time between training each muscle. Splitting up your routine will help with this since you'll be training different muscle groups during each workout.

When you want to know how to gain muscle naturally you also have to avoid doing too much during each workout. If you weight train intensely for 2 or more hours during a workout you're going to end up overtraining and getting burned out. If you weight train for too long per workout you won't really be mustering up enough intensity anyway. Try to keep your workouts between 45 minutes and an hour to avoid overtraining. Just work hard when you get to the gym, get out, and you'll get what you want out of weight training

Best Natural Muscle Gaining Exercises

If you want to learn how to gain muscle mass naturally you must perform certain exercises as part of your weight training routine. When you first start out on your quest to build muscle you need to perform the exercises that will allow you to use the most weight. This means that the best exercises to help you gain muscle size naturally are compound ones that involve multiple muscles. When you want to know how to gain muscle naturally you should always start off your workouts with compound exercises and keep isolation movemnts to a minimum. The best natural muscle gaining exercises are as follows:

Chest - bench presses, incline presses, decline presses, and dips

Upper back - pull-ups, cable pulldowns, and rows

Lower back - deadlifts and good mornings

Shoulders - military presses and dumbbell presses

Traps - shrugs

Biceps - barbell curls, dumbbell curls, and hammer curls

Triceps - close or reverse grip bench presses, triceps extensions, and cable pushdowns

Quadriceps - squats, leg presses, and hack squats

Hamstrings - stiff legged deadlifts and leg curls

Calves - standing, seated, and leg press calf raises

Abs - crunches, leg raises, and twisting incline sit-ups

Eating To Gain Muscle Naturally

Your diet plays an important role when you want to know how to gain muscle naturally. Not only do you have to take in enough calories for your muscles to grow, you also have to take in the right kinds of calories so you don't gain a lot of body fat as well. This means that you need to stop taking in too many empty calories and go on a muscle building diet.

If you want to succeed at gaining muscle size naturally you need to consume a lot of protein. Some weight trainers take in as much as 2 grams of protein per pound of body weight to build more muscle mass. Protein is the building block of muscle tissue so be sure to have some during every meal. The best sources of protein are lean red meat, chicken, fish, egg whites, and milk. If you feel that you're not getting enough protein from your food you can use protein supplements in between meals.

You also need to have enough carbohydrates and fats in your diet when you want to figure out how to gain muscle naturally. Carbs are required to keep your energy levels high throughout the day and fats are needed for your body's systems to function properly. Of course you need to consume the right carbohydrates and fats to build muscle, avoid getting fat, and stay healthy. This means that you should avoid sugary snacks and saturated fats.

To gain muscle mass naturally you should eat more often throughout the day. Try to consume 5 or 6 meals every day instead of the usual 3 meals. Doing this will allow you to eat enough without overstuffing yourself during each meal. Since you'll be taking in a lot of protein, your body will be able to assimilate it better when it's spread out over more meals. You'll also keep your level of energy up throughout the day.

How To Gain Muscle Naturally Based On Your Body Type

When you're learning how to build muscle naturally you also need to take your body type into account when it comes to your diet. There are 3 main body types - ectomorphic, endomorphic, and mesomorphic. Each of them requires a different approach to natural muscle building.

Ectomorphs are naturally skinny and long limbed people. They will have the toughest time building muscle and should eat as much as possible to gain size and strength naturally. They also need to do shorter weight training workouts to get enough recovery time and perform their sets for lower reps.

Endomorphs tend to hold extra body fat. They should avoid eating too many carbs and fats, especially later in the day. Endomorphs should also perform their sets for higher reps and do cardiovascular exercise regularly.

Mesomorphs are naturally athletic people. They will have the easiest time building muscle mass and staying lean. If your mesomorphic, you should keep your diet clean and work out with various rep ranges to get the most out your weight training.

Most people are a combination of the 3 body types. When you want to know how to gain muscle naturally you should figure out which one, or ones, you are and set your diet and exercise program up appropriately.

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