Building muscle is achieved by 3 things: Overload, caloric excess and rest/recovery. The proper combination and integration of these three keys will greatly increase your muscle mass and strength.
Overload
Overload is achieved by either increasing weight lifted (for the same amount of reps and sets) or by lifting the same weight for more sets or reps. Think about it; if you're lifting the same weight for the same reps and sets every workout, do you think you're going to get bigger and stronger? Of course not, your body has no reason to grow by doing this. Lifting more weight however, or increasing reps/sets will give your body a good reason to grow. The ultimate goal would be to increase reps/sets AND weight lifted. Even if you only increase your weights by 1 pound a week, if you do this over a year this is 52 pounds, overload for sure! There are also no special exercises that will magically put inches on your arms, chest, legs etc. The basic compound exercises (squats, bench presses, barbell rows etc) are best for gaining mass with isolations (flys, leg extensions etc) thrown in for good measure.
Caloric excess
To gain muscle you must gain weight. Muscle is weight so therefore weighing the same is not going to put inches of muscle on you. To gain weight you need to eat more calories. Good calories mind you. It's no good eating cheeseburgers/pizza etc to get more calories in as this will only lead to more fat gain than muscle gain. Milk, eggs, cheese, fish, meat etc will do the job as they are high in protein.
Also, don't be afraid if you put on a bit of fat when increasing your calories. It's pretty much a given when eating more calories but remember you'll be gaining muscle as well so when you reach your goal weight you can always drop the fat later.
A cheat meal every once in a while is not going to completely ruin your efforts, it will, in fact help you by giving your taste buds a break and relieving boredom of eating the same foods all the time.
Muscle gain without weight gain is possible, but very difficult. If you want as much muscle as possible then you have to gain weight.
Rest and recovery
When do muscles grow? When you are resting not when you are training. Training only STIMULATES muscles to be primed for growth, resting is when they grow. To put it into perspective, if it were the case of more is better wouldn't it be as easy as training for 10 + hours a day every day? Not many people (if anyone) who do this grow, trust me. The fact will always remain; muscles grow when you're resting not when you're training.
To conclude:
- Aim for lifting more weight whilst increasing your reps/sets.
- Eat more calories from good sources (meat, eggs, cheese, fish, milk etc) and don't be afraid of putting on a bit of fat or having a cheat meal now and then.
- Ensure you are resting well enough to grow. Remember, your muscles grow when you are resting NOT when you are training. There you have it. No fancy workout routines, no "special exercises/foods" just the proven basics which work.
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