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Method 3: Building Muscle for Adults
1. Consult a physical trainer and/or a doctor. Before you start your muscle-building workout season, consult a doctor. Muscle-building exercises are highly demanding on your body, and people with some chronic illnesses (such as cardiac conditions, high blood pressure, or stroke) may not be candidates for this type of workout.
If you have high blood pressure (hypertension),you should not do heavy weightlifting without consulting your doctor. If your blood pressure is above 180/110 mm Hg, do not lift weights until you have normalized your blood pressure with medications.
2. Plan your strength-training workout. Strength training engages the muscles in your body and makes them work against resistance. When you make your muscles work against resistance, you are forcing your muscle fibers to respond to the added stress, which leads to enhanced muscle size and definition. In order to build muscle, you need to add strength (also called resistance) training to your weekly routine.
Typical strength training programs use free weights (dumbbells, barbells), exercise machines, elastic tubing, or even just the body weight (pushups, pull-ups, crunches).
Plan a balanced, total body strength training program to build the muscles in your body (see third section).
You don't need lots of gym equipment to get an effective workout. "There's so much you can do with bodyweight alone. The basics always come up for a reason: sit-ups, planks, push-ups. They'll always give you results. The way to take it up a notch is to compound the basics to work multiple muscle groups at once."
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3. Do not overdo cardio. Muscle building is not fat burning. The best way to add muscle mass is weight training, while the way to get rid of muscles is extended cardio (you've never seen a Marathon runner with big muscles, have you?).
However, you should not forget cardio exercises entirely, as these strengthen your cardiorespiratory system and have numerous other health benefits, including improving bone strength, reducing blood pressure, reducing risk of chronic illnesses (diabetes, cancer, cardiovascular conditions), and improved mood.
Also, keep in mind that reducing overall body fat with cardio can cause muscles to "pop," and your body can look leaner and stronger.
The key when planning cardio routine during muscle-building season is to do shorter sprints instead of long, aerobic workouts. Focus on 20-minute high-intensity exercises with 30 to 60-second high-intensity sprints followed by 1-minute rests.
Do your cardio separately from your weight training workout. Never do your cardio after the weight training workout, but reserve it to a separate day.
Limit the amount of cardio workouts to 20-minute workouts 3 to 5 times a week.
4. Rest, rest, and rest. Weight training actually causes the muscles to go to a catabolic state (breakdown of muscle proteins). In response, your body has to repair the muscle tissue, and during this repair, you are actually "building" the muscle mass. Thus, your hard muscle-building workouts need to be balanced with adequate rest.
Limit your strength-training workouts to 3 to 4 days a week and do not work the same muscle groups on consecutive days.
Ensure you get a good night's sleep every night; it is recommended that adults get at least 7 to 9 hours a sleep each night.
5. Learn the correct techniques and know the risks. Lifting weights is not only straining to your muscles but your joints and bones as well. If you do not perform each exercise correctly, you may risk an injury.
Always consult a trainer and take time to learn to do each exercise correctly before adding heavy weights.
In this section, I discussed how to build muscle mass for adults. Thank you for reading.
Artemus Vazhui