Authored by Andy Chasse’ in Exercise 
Published on 06-16-2009

Muscle doesn’t come easy for most, and especially mass muscle. It is a long and arduous road to gain even five or ten pounds. Here’s the thing, though – it shouldn’t be that difficult. Believe it or not, the majority of both male and female gym enthusiasts looking to add muscle mass are doing nearly everything wrong. What does everything entail? Keep reading.

There are three key ingredients necessary for muscle gain. The most important of those is diet. Closely following are program selection and cardiovascular activity. Each of these important pieces will be separately broken down and analyzed.

1. Diet. What you eat is the most influential part of gaining quality muscle weight. Most people simply do not take in enough calories to pack on the pounds. In fact, they aren’t getting anywhere near the right amount of calories.

Let me phrase that thought in a different way. The general public takes in a bus load of food. Unfortunately, that food just doesn’t contain the right macronutrients. Uh oh, here come the big words. Macronutrients is just a complicated word to describe protein, carbohydrates, and fat. Generally, people lack protein and have excess amounts of carbohydrates and fat. Without a lightning quick metabolism, muscle will not be gained and fat will.

Here’s what needs to be made clear and what needs to be done. Eating whatever, whenever is not going to build quality muscle. A sliver of muscle gain will not be noticed next to an abundance of body fat. Body fat is obviously not desirable to most. So how is one expected to eat? Keep the metabolism up by eating five to seven small meals throughout the day. Throw out the breakfast, lunch, and dinner mantra. That is straight out the window in this generation. Take in a large amount of calories from protein because this is the muscle builder. Experiment with the remaining calories to discover what works best. Some people respond better to high carbs, while others respond better to high fat. Most importantly, being skinny does not entitle anyone to eat junk on a daily basis. Quality calories build quality muscle.

2. Program Selection. The program is simply the training routine followed in the gym. Repetitions should be kept higher than normal to emphasize hypertrophy, or muscle growth. Sets may be in the medium range at two, up to as high as four. Understand that what is done in the gym only supplements what comes out of the kitchen. The best program in the world running off of only 1000 calories won’t get anybody anywhere. On the other hand, the worst program in the world working with 4000 calories just might accomplish something.

3. Cardiovascular activity. This particular aspect should be kept to a minimum when trying to gain mass quickly. All that work in the kitchen is only hindered by running five miles five times a week. Cardio should not be cut entirely, of course. To ensure a healthy body one must maintain a healthy heart. A light amount of low intensity cardio a couple times per week probably won’t do much in preventing muscle gain. In fact, it will also function to reduce the amount of fat that you are sure to gain when eating a calorie surplus.

So here’s the quick route to muscle mass – consistently do everything right. It really is that simple.