There are five steps to successful muscle building in any training program. There are two steps for physical workout planning, one step for nutrition, and two steps for mental fitness. Without these five steps, you won’t see the results you want from your training program. Let’s look at each step in depth.
Physical Workout Planning Steps
The two steps for physical workout planning are consistency and progression. These steps are essential to finding success in muscle building at the gym.
Consistency
Missing workouts is one of the top ways to miss out on muscle building. Consistency doesn’t mean overloading your schedule. If you need to drop a day or two to stay consistent, do that. You’ll still see results as long as you stick to the schedule you create. Stop finding excuses and start making training happen.
Progression
Progressive overload is something all bodybuilders should know. Your body will adapt to the challenges you throw at it. To make your muscles grow, your body needs to be continuously challenged. Once your reps become easy, you need to add weight. Strength matters. You can add reps and drop rest time, but adding weight is necessary to build muscle.
Nutrition Step
In terms of nutrition, there is one step – “eating well.” But what does eating well actually mean?
Eating Well
When we say “eat well” it’s not just about eating clean. It’s about maximizing the foods you eat to match your workout plan. Don’t just cut out calories without thinking about it. You need to research your macronutrients and calories needed for bulking. When talking about muscle building, adding calories in healthy food can help you gain the bulk you want.
If you’re on the skinny side, add calories by adding more nutritious food – protein, carbs, veggies, and healthy fats. If you’re overweight, cut out junk and sugar and replace it with nutritious food. Your caloric change shouldn’t be major, just cutting out the crap will make a big difference.
Mental Fitness Steps
In every workout training plan, mental training is just as important. These steps focus on the things that you need to work on in your mind. You can’t go into training without having the determination and focus to be patient and to listen to your body.
Patience
Patience is an important part of any training program. Workouts are meant to build on each other. You’re not going to see results overnight. This is also an excellent time to look at how you feel about your workout plan. If you don’t enjoy it, you’re going to be less likely to show patience and continue working out even when you don’t see immediate results. When you want to see results, make long term, yearly, lifestyle goals.
Listen to Your Body
Listening to your body is one of the most overlooked parts of training. Nobody should train the exact same way. For one thing, your body type, whether ectomorph, endomorph, or mesomorph, makes a difference in the way you train. You also want your training to be positive and enjoyable. While one person might find high volume to be the best option, another might find high weight, low reps to be better.
In addition to actual physical preferences, everyone needs to consider their own physiological needs. Sleep, work, and stress can all affect your training plans. It’s important to listen to what your body is telling you about your workout programs. Do you need to tweak something or change your program entirely? It’s okay to do something else if you can tell something isn’t working – just don’t hop from program to program continuously.
Devin Dalton
