Gaining muscle mass is something that will not just benefit your appearance by giving you an enviable physique.
It will also benefit your health tremendously.
This is because having additional muscle mass automatically speeds up your metabolism.
It means your body will be able to burn fat more efficiently.
You know that when you reduce your body fat, you also reduce your risk of succumbing to various illnesses.
To gain muscle mass, you need proper weight training, proper diet and proper sleep.
Weight training in general means resistance training.
Resistance can be provided by free weights, weight training machines or even your own body weight.
Examples of free weights are dumbbells and barbells.
Examples of body weight exercises are push ups, pull ups, chin ups and dips.
Weight training machines have cables and pulleys that assist you in lifting weight.
While all these are effective for strength training and toning, the maximum amount of muscle mass can be gained more quickly by focusing your efforts on free weight workouts.
Rapid muscle growth can also be achieved by using heavy free weights with low repetitions.
The appropriately heavy weight is one that you can lift for not more than four to eight repetitions.
This gives your muscles and nervous system the necessary stress challenge to stimulate muscle building.
To be able to build muscle mass, you need to eat enough calories.
These have to come from the right kinds of food, though.
You have to cut out unhealthy fats and simple carbohydrates that are mainly sugar and starch.
These will just turn into stored fat.
You should instead eat more of lean protein, healthy fats like Omega 3 fats and unsaturated fats, and complex carbohydrates with high fiber content.
You should also have six small meals a day, made up of these recommended foods.
This means eating approximately every three hours but stopping three hours before bedtime.
This will feed your body at regular intervals to keep your metabolism and muscle building efforts going.
Do not forget to drink enough water throughout the day to keep your body well hydrated and to enable you to efficiently flush out the metabolic wastes produced by your workouts.
Finally, supplement your diet with multivitamins and anti-oxidants to support the body.
Sleep is also a necessity in gaining muscle mass.
The body can only repair and build muscles during deep sleep.
Without enough sleep your weight training and your eating patterns can not be translated into maximum muscle mass building.
It is worth your while to do proper weight training, follow the proper diet and get proper sleep to gain muscle mass.
Even if you want to do this just to look good, you will still gain all the health benefits associated with it.