How to build muscle

1. Your Macronutrients in Your Diet

that would include all of your

carbohydrates, fats and protein.I do not really pay much attention to the amount of calories that I consume and I do not really follow any online calculators that define how much calories are going to allegedly aid me achieve more muscle growth.

I would recommend keeping a specific amount of protein (1 gram per 1 pound of your body weight, so if you weigh 160 pounds then that means that you need to consume 160 grams of protein).

The amount of carbohydrates and fats I consume is based on personal evaluation

If I wasn’t moving in weight the first month, then that means that I need to increase my overall carb and lipid consumption; if I am gaining too much body weight and there are too fast increases in stored body fat, then that means that I need to lower them.

2) Your Micronutrients in Your Diet

This would include all of the vitamins and minerals that come along with your food.

Not a lot of people seem to pay enough attention on this aspect of their diet.

They primarily focus on their macros and completely neglect their micros. Your resting, training and hormone balance is strongly affected by micronutrients.

If I go into too much detail explaining what are the most important micronutrients that will help you improve muscle growth then I would probably have to write 30-40 pages worth of content.

Vitamin C

when you exercise you damage your muscle tissue creating free radicals, these free radicals are very harmful compounds that we must aim at removing. Antioxidants help cleanup and destroys free radicals, which benefits your energy release and enhances overall recovery;

Vitamin E

helps prevent the oxidation of LDL and is beneficial for recovery and performance;

Magnesium

an essential mineral that plays an important part in maintaining healthy bones and a healthy heart;

Biotin

helps convert carbs and fats into energy (boosts metabolism);

Iron

essential for maintaining high energy levels; and many, many more (Selenium, 

Omega-3/6, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, Copper, etc.

It’s always important to consider micronutrients when constructing your diet.

Meal Timing

I wrote an article quite recently explaining how important it is to time your meals.

In summary,  by successfully timing your meals will lead to benefits such as increasing anabolism and decreasing catabolism.

Helps you maintain a healthy flow of hormones in your body which will help you achieve your body’s potential for massive muscle growth.

Take a look at the article I have linked, there I explain everything in more detail.

When dividing your diet into meals you need to make sure that you are consuming a relatively equal amount of everything, every single meal.

What I mean by this is that you need to supply your body with a steady flow of nutrients, without any strong fluctuations because this will greatly hinder your 

muscle growth and make you gain fat, even if you are maintaining a specific daily macronutrient consumption.

The reason behind this is quite logical – if you have to consume 6 grams of protein (I am just using this number for the sake of this example) and you want to spread it across 6 meals then what you need to do is eat 1 gram per meal, simple.

If you consume 0.3 grams one meal and then 2 grams to compensate you are not providing your muscle with enough protein and energy to properly function, perform and reconstruct, and in the other you are overindulging on protein which will result in increased fat storage because your body will be incapable of using all of the protein.

Whey protein

Whey protein is the quintessence of supplementation, when I say the word supplement the first thing that comes to mind is protein powder.

And the reason why I have placed in the list is because it really helps promote anabolism and assist with overall stimulation of muscle growth.

Not to mention that it is also packed with glutamine and BCAAs and an incredible taste.

Not a lot of people really pay attention to it and take it for granted but the sweet taste of protein has a really powerful effect on your cognitive function of the brain.

Your brain associates the sweet taste of protein as a form of a prize for completing something, this is caused due to the release of endorphins (the hormone that is responsible for making you feel good).

This will alter your overall perspective of working out as something that you must achieve in order to receive your protein powder, it has a powerful sub-contious effect over your performance in the gym, believe it or not

Fish oil

fish oil is rich of Omega-3 which is not naturally released by the body, which means that we need external sources of it.

It assists maintain an overall healthy heart and improves blood flow and helps increase the metabolic rate of the body and also improves insulin sensitivity – facilitating fat loss as insulin is used more effectively by the body.

Creatine 

Creatine will help you push more, last longer, and look more swollen overall. It helps replenish adenosine triphosphate and this in return will allow your muscle to be able to lift heavier for a longer period and help you increase your overall strength.

Creatine also retains liquids, mainly water, in the muscles making them increase in diameter