Are you a beginner, want to start to building muscle mass and do not know where to start? What to eat, how to train, what supplements to take? Look no further, this guide was made for you, solving your most important questions. We will highlight the most important things so you can start gaining mass the correct way!

Nutrition | The most important factor in muscle growth

If you seriously want to build muscle mass,  the first and most important thing you should focus on, is of course your diet. No matter how much time we devote to our training or how properly we execute each exercise, our Diet is 70-80% of the entire process.

How many calories should I eat?

In order to build muscle mass, we need to be in a caloric surplus. Put simply, we must consume more calories than those that our body needs.

Generally, an active adult male weighing 75 kg who wants to build muscle, should consume around 3000 calories, while an adult active woman weighing 50 kg, around 2400.

When you want a more accurate calculation, you must first find your metabolic rate (BMR) and the overall day-long your caloric expenditure (TDEE). Then in order to achieve muscle growth, add 400-500 calories to your TDEE.

You can calculate your calorie needs in this link.

We must mention that every person is different, as there are three kinds of body types.

• Ectomorph: If you’re naturally skinny, with narrow shoulders and waist, you may be an ectomorph. This means that you may have faster metabolism and as a result should consume more calories, especially from carbohydrates.

• Endomorph: If you are naturally big in size and have broad shoulders and waistline, you may be an endomorph. Usually endomorphs have a slower metabolism and need fewer calories, so in order to avoid excess fat storage, they should consume less carbohydrates.
  
• Mesomorph: If you are lucky, have broad shoulders and q narrow waist, you may be a mesomorph. This body type has a normal metabolism and puts on muscle mass  easily while keeping a low body fat percentage.

Note, that the bodytypes are not 100% absolute. There may be combinations like a meso-ectomoprph or endo-ectomorph. Also TDEE calculation programs, give you a starting point but each body is different. So you need experiment and find the calories you respond better. Watch your weight progress and adjust as necessary.

Macronutrients

Now that we got our calories in check, it’s the time to mention the second most important thing in our nutrition, which are the macronutrients aka. macros. Our food consists of three key things: protein, carbohydrates and fats. To maximize our results, there should be a balance of these three components, since each has numerous benefits. In order to maximise our results, we need to give our body the macronutrients it requires.

Typically an active adult 75 kg male should consume the following macros:

• Calories: 3000
• Protein: 2 x body weight = 160 g protein and 640 calories.
• Fat: Approximately 20-30% of the daily calorie i.e. around 700 calories and 77 g fat.
• Carbohydrates: The remaining calories, i.e. 3000-700-640 = 1660 calories or 415 g carbohydrates.

This way the body will have everything it needs to fully recover and build muscle mass.

Vitamins, minerals, fiber, water

Another important thing is the consumption of fiber, vitamins and minerals. These regulate our metabolism and help maintaining a healthy body making sure everything runs properly. Also very important is the water intake. You should drink at least 2-3 liters of water every day in order to perform well and avoid dehydration. Let’snot forget that our muscles consist of 77% water!

How many times a day should i eat?

The next thing you should look at is meal frequency. Typically you should eat from 4-6 meals per day, every 3-4 hours so that our body has the essential nutrients it needs any time of the day.

What should I eat?

To make things simpler, make sure each meal contains a large portion of protein, carbs, preferably wholegrain, healthy fats and vegetables and fruits.

• Start your day with a full breakfast (eg oats, milk, honey, egg whites).
• Continue your day with frequent and balanced meals (eg brown rice, lean meat, olive oil, salad, fruit).
• After training prefer a combination of fast absorption protein and carbohydratewithout fat (e.g. protein shake with honey and 1 banana or a protein shake with dextrose and protein).
• Continue with balanced meals, but decreases the amount of carbohydrates as the day passes.
• Before bedtime, limit carbohydrates and choose a combination of protein and healthy fats (e.g., Greek yogurt 2% fat, almonds and a fruit).

What foods should I eat?

Below, we have some very good healthy food choices

• Protein: Eggs, lean meat (beef, chicken, lean pork, fish), strained yogurt, and vegetable sources such as legumes, soy and nuts
• Carbohydrates: wholemeal products (brown rice, pasta, wheat, oats, grains), seeds, legumes and other plant foods.
• Fat: Olive oil, seeds, nuts, coconut milk, fish. Also we need saturated fat in our diet which we find in animal sources such as eggs meat and milk

Should I take supplements?

Unfortunately there is too much misinformation in the fitness industry about supplements.

In all the years i’ve been into fitness, I have heard many absurd things about supplements. Unfortunately, even today there are still many myths and wrong perceptions about what supplements are and what they actually do.

Supplements are what their name suggests. Their purpose is to supplement any deficiencies we have in our diet that we cannot get from real food.

For example, whey protein can be used as a protein supplement, if we cannot consume our recommended protein intake  from normal foods such as eggs and meat. Also a multivitamin is in my opinion essential, because it is very difficult to get all the required vitamins from natural food.

Supplements will not magically transform your body. They will not make you put on 5 pounds of muscle in a week , nor will they make you lift twice the weight in the next workout.. In reality, supplements are just food in the form of powder. Our body can not understand if the protein comes from chicken or from Whey protein!

 Remember that if you do not have a properly structured diet plan and workout, taking supplements will be a waste of your money.

List of the most important supplements

• Whey protein (Whey):

Of course the most popular supplement in the Fitness industry is whey protein. The rapid absorption and high biological value, make it suitable for consumption after training. Thus we achieve faster recovery after a hard workout. It is also ideal for breakfast, because our body is in need of valuable amino acids immediately after waking up.

Recommended dosage: 20-30g in the morning and 30-40g after training.

• Creatine:

Creatine, the most studied supplement in the world. It has been proven to slightly increase our strength at maximum effort and cause fluid retention inside the muscle cells, causing them to appear larger and more full. These two combined might increase hypertrophy in the long run. It is also very safe and cheap.

Recommended dosage: 5g after workout.

• Multivitamin:

A good multivitamin is necessary for better function of our metabolism so that we can be sure that our body works to its full potential without risk of deficiencies.

Recommended dosage: A serving size depending on the brand

• Fish oil:

Omega-3 fatty acids can not be created by your body. This means that we must get them from our diet by eating fish or by taking a fish oil supplement. Unfortunately our diet today lacks of fish, making omega-3 a necessary supplement. There have been numerous studies that have demonstrated the multiple benefits of omega-3 fatty acids in our organism, such as the increase of brain activity, prevention of cardiovascular disease, reducing bad cholesterol, and many others.

Recommended dosage: 4-6g soft gels daily.

Training

Now that we learned how to build our diet to maximize our results, it’s time to talk about training. Of course training is an essential part of muscle growth in our body. Before we start it is helpful to understand how the workout causes our muscles to grow and strengthen.

During the training, we do damage to our bodies. Lifting weights, create small lesions in our muscle fibers. In fact the purpose of training is to ” destroy ” our muscles. So after training, just rest, our body starts a repair process of damaged muscle fibers, resulting in activating protein synthesis. So during recovery our muscles are repaired and made stronger and great, so that they can meet the tough workout we do. Put simply, the process is as follows: Training-Disaster-Recovery-repair.

Before we begin it will be helpful to explain the three types of muscle contraction, so below to understand how to maximize the effectiveness of training.

The types of muscle contraction

There are three types of muscle contraction:

Concentric contraction (concentric or positive)

The weight “rises”, that the muscle is shortened by overcoming the gravity, or the external resistor.

isometric contraction

The weight remains stationary, i.e. the muscle is contracted (shortened), but no movement in joints produced. The muscle can withstand a greater load than the positive phase.

Eccentric contraction (eccentric or negative)

The weight “down”, i.e. the muscle lengthens controllably retreating to the force of gravity or external resistance. The muscle can withstand loads from 20 to 40% higher than the loads used in positive phase.

How to perform the exercises?

Few people know that the gym is not enough to lift the weight. We must keep permanent tension in the muscle during the duration of the movement to bring down the load slowly and controlled. So maximize damage that we cause and multiply the gains in strength and hypertrophy. To lift the weight to the body means and to drop it, not efficient. Research has shown that the negative part of the exercise or else the ‘downloading’, causing up to 3 times more damage to the muscle fibers of the positive phase. So more damage = more hypertrophy.

Always emphasize the strict and proper execution of the exercises and not lift more pounds than they can handle your body.

How many repetitions should I do?

The next thing to know is the repetitions set option. Upon our goal is hypertrophy, we need to move within the frame of 8-12 repetitions and the duration of the set must be of 40-60 seconds. To achieve this, the duration of the positive phase, should be about 1 seconds and the negative 2-3 seconds.

A very good example of exercise hypertrophy is:

Excercise	Set	Reps	Load	Rest
stooped rowingwith bar reverse grip	1 heating4	1512 10 10 8	Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5	60 ”90 ” 90 ” 90 ”

How much weight should I lift?

You must choose a weight that allows you to correct technique to perform the set of repetitions. Should be the last repetition, you reach failure, that is not able to perform another iteration.

Do not overdo the weight and do not try to lift weight above than what you can. The lift more weight with the help of the body, is not only dangerous, but makes the exercise less effective.

How many exercises and how many sets should I do?

Unfortunately the biggest mistake most beginners is that overdo the number of exercises and sets. On the Internet we can find numerous programs that are too large training volume and appeal to very advanced practitioner rather than a novice. In fact a novice no need for example to do six exercises with 4 sets to hit every possible corner of the breast. Making just two exercises of 3-4 sets each for each muscle group, will give much better results. This is because the body of a beginner does not need so many sets to meet and begin to build muscle mass. When a novice overdoes it, will do more harm than good.

Imagine so just go for our first swim in the summer, and only a few minutes in the sun enough to redden. So sit for a shorter duration. Upon sitting down most of the time we burned together, which is bad and not good. The same goes for training. Here’s what comes

How long should I workout?

The duration of the training is another very important part. Remember, our goal in the gym, not to get down to chat with our buddy, but do workout. Let the conversation for after exercise in a cafe. The time to take a break between sets is very important. Upon our goal is hypertrophy, should not let the break to overcome one or two minutes,

Nor should the duration of the workout to exceed one hour. This is due to the fact that the longer the workout, and both cortisol levels rise in our blood, which is a catabolic hormone, and we want to keep it low.

When to go back to training?

As we mentioned above, going for coaching do damage to our muscles. They in turn, to be repaired, it takes some time. This depends on the size of the muscle group. Typically, however, it takes from 48-72 hours to be sure that we have recovered and fully recovered.

This means that the ideal frequency of training each muscle group at least twice a week.

How do I divide my schedule and how many sessions should I do a week?

In order to exercise each muscle group at least two times a week, we can use several methods. The most popular methods are split and full body workouts.

Split

At the split, exercising every muscle group on separate days, so that the train a muscle group, while the other rests. This allows us to devote more time to training each muscle group. Here we have two very good examples of split.

Split program 1

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	Thursday	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Chest, shoulders,triceps	Back, biceps	Legs, abdominals	Relaxation	Upper body	Lower body	Relaxation

Split program 2

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	Thursday	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Chest, shoulders,triceps	Back, biceps	Legs, abdominals	Relaxation	Chest, shoulders,triceps	Back, biceps	Relaxation
Legs, abdominals	Relaxation	Back	Chest, shoulders,triceps	Back, biceps	Legs, abdominals	Relaxation

Full body

When you have five days available for training, do not despair. Here is what you can use full body workouts that will exercise all your muscle groups in one day.

The full body workouts have proven to work better than the split level for novice practitioners. So you can make your workouts every other day with one day break between workouts.

Full body program

MONDAY	TUESDAY	WEDNESDAY	Thursday	FRIDAY	SATURDAY	SUNDAY
Relaxation	The whole body	Relaxation	The whole body	Relaxation	The whole body	Relaxation

When will I see results as a beginner?

The first thing you need to have a beginner, it is patience and put in his mind, that building a body, is not a matter of a few weeks, but many months and years.

Results certainly will not see next week. You will see differences, but month after month. And the more you train and eat properly, so your body will improve.

The road is certainly not easy nor quick and not short trails. But if you put the discipline and tenacity stay faithful to proper diet and workout, that is where you will start to reward your efforts and you will get results that will be yours for life.

How much weight should I put every month not to put and fat?

Based on numerous studies that have been done, the maximum you can put a man naturally in lean muscle mass in a month is from 500-1 kg.

Do not hurry to get fast results. I have seen many beginners who are over their haste to put weight overdo their calories, they see the scale going up 3-4 pounds per month and while they think that these weights is hypertrophy gains are really just useless fat which later is very difficult to lose.

How should I stay in the volume of time?

Naturally when creating a caloric surplus, so would indeed build muscle, but also will put and fat. This is completely normal and necessary in order to maximize our muscle growth.

Now we should pay attention for how we will keep the volume period. Generally we should not let the fat levels to overcome much ideal.

I suggest two ways to achieve parallel and muscle growth and keep fat levels low.

The first way is to keep the volume of time for four six months 4 6 or 8 months.

Then move one period lineage from 2 to 3 months and then a maintenance period to get back to the next volume period.

The second way is to keep the volume period for a shorter period, such as two to three months and in between put a Program mini lineage lasting two to three weeks to lose the fat that we put.

Both ways are correct and you can choose what suits you most. The point is to keep fat levels low, so as not to reach large levels and find it difficult to lose.

Summary

Congratulations. You now know the most important things, when your goal is to build muscle mass quickly, correctly and safely. We will make a very brief summary of everything you need to know. You can note on a paper or print them so that you know at any time what to look for.

• Increase the calories you consume.
• Monitor your weight. You should gain about 1 kg a month. If the progress stops, add more calories.
• Your diet should contain a balance of protein, carbohydrates fats.
• Choose whole grain foods, lean meat and healthy fats.
• Add plenty of vegetables in your diet and consume lots of water.
• Eat 4-6 times a day, every 3-4 hours.
• Supplements only work if we have a proper nutrition.
• Fill the gaps in your nutrition with supplements.
• Emphasize on executing the exercises with good form.
• Do not lift more weight than your body can handle.
• Give more emphasis to the negative portion of the exercise.
• For hypertrophy, perform 8-12 repetitions per set.
• Do not do more exercises than you need and do not exceed 1 hour of training.
• Be patient. You will start seeing slow but steady result in months by month and not just in weeks.