5 things you need to be doing if you’re looking to build muscle (Beginners)

1. Count your calories: Each individual is different. If you’re a 150 pound male and you’re skipping breakfast because you’re not a morning person, having a sandwhich for lunch, and then eating one solid meal in the evening you’re likely eating to few calories per day. You can’t expect to lift weights and not fuel yourself. Your body would have nothing to create muscle with! You need to eat in a caloric surplus (Eating more calories than your body burns in a day). You can simply search for a calorie calculator to get a rough idea of how much you need to eat in a day to start gaining weight.
2. Count your protein: Alright so you’ve starting counting your calories and you’ve noticed you’re putting on weight. You’re off to a great start. When you eat in a caloric surplus and strength train you’ll gain muscle and fat at the same time (you can’t gain muscle and lose fat at the same time unless you’re overweight or a beginner) to minimize the amount of fat and maximize muscle growth we need roughly 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. Protein is essential for muscle growth!

3. Train every muscle group…yes legs…: Hitting every muscle group is essential. There are so many different workout splits to make sure each muscle group is trained at least once a week from full body workouts to hitting individual muscle groups each day. A personal favourite for beginners, people who have tight schedules, and experts is a Push/Pull/Leg split. For example: Monday you would train all of the muscle groups that push such as chest, shoulders, and triceps. Tuesday you would train Back and biceps, and Wednesday you would train your legs. Training each muscle group like this will give each muscle group a chance to rest in between each day and give you the option to train each muscle group up to two times per week!!

4. Compound movements: Focus on the big heavy lifts if you’re training chest then start with your Benchpress, if you’re training shoulders then start with shoulder press, and if you’re training legs start with Squats etc. They utilize the largest parts of the muscle and will result in increased strength and size while eating in a caloric surplus.

5. Consistency: Be consistent!!! There are beginners that stay beginners for years because they simply can’t eat consistently or train consistently. You can’t have one without the other! If you can do both you can expect to realistically gain 1-2 pounds per week. In a few months you’ll have a mini transformation.