There’s nothing more apt in the saying “Those Who Fail To Prepare Are Preparing To Fail” when applying to building muscle, burning fat and gaining strength. You can possess all of the inner drive and motivation in the world, but without an, intelligently well structured plan and a blueprint for success, you can’t go anywhere far. It’s no surprise that over 95% of people in the gym end up failing miserably and never reaching their goals. It’s not due to a lack of will power or motivation… it’s because they are simply uneducated

Luckily, you won’t be one of those people! I’m going to get right down to the basics of outlining 8 of the most crucial, powerful steps that should be applied to ANY muscle-building program. They are not highly complex and also not rocket science. Let’s get down to business

Ensure that your caloric intake exceeds your caloric expenditure

You have to constantly provide your body with a surplus of calories. In order to build muscle, you must consume more calories than you burn! If you fail too, you will not build muscle

Consume the proper muscle building food

Your caloric intake is paramount to your muscle building process. If you feast on big macs, ice cream, etc, then you are going to get adverse effect. All calories are not created equally! The types of calories will determine what kind of bodyweight is lost or gained (lean muscle mass, fat, water, etc). Your obvious goal is to build lean muscle mass while keeping body fat gains at a minimum. And the right type of muscle building food dictates that

Increase your daily water consumption

Water is an absolutely critical component to the muscle building process and to overall body health in general. Research has shown that a mere 3 – 4% drop in your body’s water levels will lead to a 10 – 20% decrease in muscle contractions. Water will not only increase your strength but also plays a pivoting role in preventing injuries in the gym

Monitor and improve every single workout

Keep a detailed record of every single workout and always strive for improvement every week. The underlying factor for success in building muscle is progression. Our bodies build muscle because of an adaptive response to the environment. When training, your muscle fibers break down and your body senses and will react accordingly by rebuilding the damaged fibers larger and stronger. Therefore, in order to make continual gains in muscle size and strength, you must focus on progressing in the gym from week to week

Train at high level intensity

To experience appreciable gains in muscle size and strength, you have to train hard. Your body responds to intense weightlifting by increasing the size and strength of the muscles. To see the dramatic response, you must push your body as hard as you SAFELY can

Avoid over-training and provide sufficient recovery time in between workouts

Your goal in the gym is to perform the minimum amount of work necessary to yield an adaptive response from your body. Your muscles will not grow stronger and larger if they are stressed beyond the point of recovery. The actual growth process takes place away from the gym while you’re eating and resting

Say no to dietary supplements

Supplements are not here to do work for you and will only play a small role in your overall success. It can never replace for basic hard work

Consistency is everything

Basically, Knowing is NOT enough. You must APPLY! Building muscle is a result of the cumulative effect of small steps. It is those who are willing to persevere that will succeed

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