If you want to build up your muscles, you may think it'll take months to years of rough gym workouts. The truth is that building muscle is as much mental work as it is physical. You need to know how muscle is built so that you will make the right decisions and use the best methods to get your results. These tips will help you learn how to build muscles.


While building muscle generally corresponds to an increase in weight, you should not be surprised if your overall weight does not increase. Your lack of net weight gain can easily be attributed to weight loss caused by a decrease in body fat offsetting your muscle gain. There are various tools and techniques that track body-fat loss. You can utilize them to account for this.

Stay active on your rest days. Being active increases your blood flow, and will help you to recover more quickly. The activity can be as simple as going for a walk. You can also go swimming, biking, or even get a massage. Engaging in these kinds of activities is significantly more effective than simply lying in bed all day.

Massage your muscles regularly. You can do this on your own by making use of a foam roller, tennis ball or any other tool that will help to relieve the stiffness of sore muscles. You could even consider going for regular massages at the parlor. Whatever means you use; you must be sure to relax those muscles regularly.

Try doing real stairs instead of the stairs that your gym has. This can help change the perspective that you have for working out, give you an additional amount of motivation, burn more fat, and build more muscle. The additional scenery could also help you workout for a longer period of time.

In order to build muscle, it is important to maintain detailed records of your progress, and how you got there. By taking the time to jot down a few notes on the exercises and repetitions performed in each workout session, you will be able to consistently build upon what you have already done, and continue to grow stronger and build more muscle.

It is difficult to lose weight and build muscle at the same time. You have to have a high-protein diet to support your muscle growth, but reduce your fat intake at the same time. Eat foods that are high in protein and low in fat and refined carbohydrates to reduce weight and gain muscle at the same time.

If you do extreme cardio workouts or want to train for a marathon, don't try to build bigger muscles. While doing cardio is great for fitness, too much of it may negate your attempts to build muscle through strength training. Focus on a healthy balance between cardio exercise and weight training.

Rest days are as important as workout days. If you are working on your muscles 7 days a week, not only will you get mentally burned out, but your body will stop responding properly. It is important to rest at least two days a week and allow your muscles to relax.

As you become more experienced in working out, it's very important that you make sure to adjust the amount of weight you lift. Once you get stronger, you are either going to have to increase your weight or your reps in order to get that pump you need for achieving additional muscle growth. Try to increase gradually the amount of weight you lift to ensure that you don't overexert yourself.

Your workout routine always needs goals, so set a new goal as soon as you have achieved an old one. Reaching a goal feels great, and you deserve to feel proud of your accomplishment. Just remember that building muscle is a process that you can keep working at indefinitely, as long as you have a fresh goal to aim for.

Measure body fat, not body weight. Do not get discouraged if you are attempting to build muscle and you do not see a change in your weight. You can lose fat while here you gain muscle, resulting in a weight that does not change. A better indicator is measuring your body fat. If your weight is holding steady (or even increasing) while your fat levels are dropping - you are gaining muscle.

It is important for you to wait to do any cardio workout until after you have lifted weights if you are trying to build muscle. Cardio workouts are important for burning calories but they can cause you to push less when you are lifting weights. Lifting weights before doing cardio will help you to be able to truly burn out your muscles.

Always try to mix up your workouts when trying to build muscle mass. Every few weeks completely change your routine and throw your body off course. Your body will grow much faster when you change the routine and catch it off guard. This will keep your workouts interesting, and also build muscle.

Hopefully, you will find the advice from this article to be inspiring and helpful in reaching your bodybuilding goals. You are surely going to get far better results by taking the advice that you have found here and applying it to your everyday life during your muscle training sessions.