Struggling to gain muscle? Then stop wasting your time doing stuff that you heard or read in a magazine. To successfully build muscle you should follow a program based on sound scientific principles.

In this article I’m going to outline a quick and easy way to build muscle. A way that allows you to eat whatever you want, not have to worry about protein consumption and spend only 90 minutes a week at the gym.

And most importantly…this article will help you grow a hell of a lot bigger!

DO THESE EXERCISES

Dips, Chin Ups, Bench Press, Rows, Squats, Lunges, Deadlifts. These exercises are the most efficient exercises to build muscle. They use more than one muscle, enable you to lift a lot more weight and they stimulate the release of our powerful muscle building hormones, Testosterone and Growth Hormone.

You may notice that I didn’t include any arm exercises. This is because exercises like bench press, dips and chin ups build bigger arms much faster than bicep curls or triceps kickbacks.

DO ONLY ONE SET TO FAILURE

Once you have taken a muscle to complete failure, there is no need to do any more work. You have done all that is necessary to stimulate muscle growth. Now all you have to do is give your muscles enough time to recover and grow stronger. Doing any more work, is then pointless and can interfere with your recovery.

I should mention that if you can do another set with the same weight, for the same or more reps, then you obviously didn’t do the first set hard enough.

GET STRONGER

Strength gains directly relate to muscle gains. Each week you should strive to lift more weight or do more reps. This progression forces the body to adapt and grow bigger to better handle the stress we are subjecting it to.

So it isn’t the amount of work that determines your results, but how strong you get. Strive to lift as much weight as possible in the 6-10 rep range.

TRAIN ONLY ONCE A WEEK

Never train a muscle more frequently then once a week. Muscles do not grow with training. Yes training is the stimulus for growth, but if you don’t give your muscles enough rest, recovery and food, you will never gain a pound of muscle.

After going to failure, your muscles need 48-72 hours to recover and regain the condition they were in before the workout. They then need another 2-4 days to overcompensate, adapt and grow stronger. Statistics show that muscles are still growing stronger up to 21 days after a workout! This is more common in hard training elite athletes, but for building muscle once a week is perfect.

EAT, EAT AND EAT SOME MORE

The main reason so many fail to gain muscle, is because they struggle to eat enough. This is crucial. Don’t waste all of your hard work at the gym by neglecting your food intake. A good starting point is to eat 16 calories per pound of bodyweight.

Focus entirely on eating enough food everyday. Forget about the excessive protein requirements that are recommended. Large amounts of protein (more than 1 gram per pound of bodyweight) are simply recommendations and have no backing in science. Several studies show that there is no benefit in increasing your protein intake to build muscle.

Don’t take my word for it though. One of the greatest natural bodybuilders of all time, Bill Pearl recommends that any more than half a gram of protein per pound of bodyweight will simply go to waste. There are many other athletes that eat very little protein and are extremely muscular. Guys like Mike Mentzer, Andreas Cahling and Carl Lewis are just a few I can name off the top of my head.

The reason protein powders work is because it is a convenient way to get in enough calories. Protein won’t help you build any muscle if you aren’t eating enough total calories.

MEASURE YOUR PROGRESS

Before you start, measure your biceps, chest, thighs, and any other muscle you wish to increase in size. After 2 weeks of consistent training and eating measure again. If you haven’t added at least ¼ to ½ inch to any measurements, increase your daily caloric target by 500.

So just remember, train hard with the big lifts, eat a lot of food and give yourself plenty of rest. In no time you will have to go and buy some new shirts to fit into!