You walking into the gym eager to workout and wanting to build muscle fast.

You ate one hour before hand, downed your pre-workout, and have your protein powder with you to mix up immediately after you finish. You’re ready to push yourself to the limit, to get closer to your goal. Don’t waste your time like I see so many people doing and read below to build muscle fast.

When you started out, you were making noticeable gains by just showing up and doing anything. As time went on, your routine wasn’t producing that same soreness that let you know you hit it hard. That amazing pump you were once achieving is now a distant memory. You have periodically changed up your routine by:

  • Number of sets per exercise
  • Number of reps per set
  • Exercise choice
  • Exercise order
  • Training split
  • Rep speed
  • Rest Period length
  • Intensity techniques

Still you are no longer making progress. Frustrated, you start to believe that you aren’t working out hard enough. You start to add on set after set, going from an intense 10-15 sets per body part, to 25-30 or even more. Your once 45 minute training sessions are slowly getting longer and are now nearing 2 hours in length. After all this added work, you still can’t seem to build muscle fast let alone add any more size. So what gives?


Training Volume

One factor that frequently gets overlooked when trying to build muscle fast is training volume. When designing a workout routine, many fall into the trap of “more is better.” Unfortunately, that motto doesn’t always apply in fitness, especially when you are trying to build muscle fast.

You have to stop and ask yourself what your goal is and realize that there are certain do’s and dont’s to achieve that goal. Adding set after set, increasing the length of your workouts, or running large amounts of cardio may be great if you’re goal is muscle endurance or to be a marathon runner, but it’s not. Your goal is to build muscle fast; so you have to do the things that build muscle fast.

High volume workouts shouldn’t be utilized for every body part twice a week. Sure you could maintain the routine for awhile, but your body won’t be able to keep that pace forever. You need to give your body time to adapt. If you want to do high volume workouts, you will need to give ample time for your muscles to recover from the large amounts of stress placed on them to conduct such workouts. In order to do twice a week, one would have to greatly reduce the amount of working sets per body part to allow the muscle time to recuperate between workouts.


Make sure to rest

When designing a routine that focuses on muscle size, make sure it allows you to recuperate. Muscles grow when they are at rest, not when they are working out. People will always claim that they are allowing sufficient time to recuperate, but rarely realize what fully recuperating really means.

Fully recuperating doesn’t mean you need a certain amount of rest days, or that you can’t hit a muscle group twice a week. What you do need to do, is stay conscious of how much you are doing during the days that you train. There is no “Best Training Split.” Everyone responds differently to different types of training, so you have to find out what type of training is best for you to build muscle fast by trial and error.

Many look over the fact that muscle groups can become over worked because they are used, even when they aren’t the focus. Biceps are utilized during back lifts, Triceps and shoulders are worked during chest presses, and the list goes on. You need to form a training split that how often and how much each muscle group is being worked.


Don’t do a lot of cardio to build muscle fast

Another activity that may hinder you from building muscle fast is excessive cardio. Doing the Stair Master or running for an hour a day won’t allow your legs to fully recuperate. When it’s leg day, your legs will be already worked from the cardio and won’t be able to function at 100% capacity.

Achieving a fitness goal also depends on more than your workout. Other factors play a vital role on how your body function and ultimately appears.

Eat enough calories

A main reason why people can’t build muscle fast is because they aren’t eating enough. You’ll always hear that the person who wants to gain weight eats more than their buddies do or that they always eat till there full. That’s fine and dandy, but what do your buddies or being full have to do with anything? If you are eating till your full and you aren’t gaining any weight, then your only eating enough to maintain, not to build muscle fast. Once you’re full and normally stop, you have to keep eating to build muscle fast and gain weight. Also you have to ask, what are they actually eating? Are there calories from protein, complex carbohydrates, and fats? Or are they eating junk. When you don’t eat enough to supply your body the nutrients it demands, it won’t grow, ESPECIALLY PROTEIN.


Sleep helps to build muscle fast

If you neglect sleep, you will hinder your ability to build muscle fast. A good night’s sleep (7-8 hours) is vital to add additional muscle. Sleeping is the only time your body is at complete rest and is when recovery and muscle building are happening at the highest rate. A lack of sleep will lower growth hormone levels, weaken the immune system, and negatively impact weight and blood glucose levels.

There are many other factors that can affect if you build muscle fast or not. Everything from drinking too much, stress levels, water intake, your intensity level, etc. can either negatively or positively affect your goals. I recommend focusing on the ones that you are able to easily change before ones that may take time. Remember, just because you may have to do less to build muscle fast, that doesn’t give you an excuse not to go hard!