How Do I Grow Muscle?

The secret to growing muscle: you've got to use steroids. There is no other way. Just go to your local drug dealer, buy some steroids, inject them into your arm, and watch the results happen. I've never endorsed anything more in my life. There are no harmful side effects of using steroids. I don't know why anyone keeps complaining about them! Plus, if you don't use them, you actually have to have a strategy in the gym in order to build muscle.

I hope you figured out I was kidding. Yea, you should never use steroids (they're illegal). For the average natural person, the muscle building process isn't that easy. However, it is not complex. In this post, I'm going to lay out the foundational knowledge needed in order to build muscle.

1) To build muscle, you must achieve progressive overload. 
Progressive overload is exactly what it sounds like. Over time, if you lift heavier and heavier weights, your body will respond by growing muscle. It's best to do this slowly, making sure that your form stays intact even as the weights get heavier and heavier. If you try to achieve progressive overload too quickly, you might develop muscular imbalances. Eventually, imbalances can lead to injury, so it's best to pace yourself with progressive overload!

2) To build muscle, you must have time under tension (TUT)
TUT, like progressive overload, is exactly what it sounds like: the amount of time (uninterrupted) that your muscles are under tension in a given exercise. If you have at least 60 seconds of TUT for a given set, you will create the muscle-building stimulus. Many people talk about rep ranges, saying that 1-6 reps should be followed for strength gains, and 8-12 for muscle building. There is a correlation between higher reps and higher amount of muscle, but the causal factor is the TUT.

3) To build muscle, you must eat.
 It's common sense, but people seem to forget this: if you're not eating enough protein and consuming enough calories, your body simply can't build muscle regardless of how well you train in the gym. Each fitness website will say something different as to how much protein should be consumed. I'm no nutritionist, but what I know is that everyone is different. Some people can get by consuming less protein than others. In general, however, having 1 gram of protein per pound of bodyweight per day tends to work best.

4) To build muscle, you must perform compound movements.
A compound movement is one that involves multiple muscle groups, such as the bench press, squat, deadlift,  or overhead press. An exercise that involves a single muscle group is called an isolation movement. Both types of movements should be used; however, compound movements are the bread and butter of lifting weights. Since they work multiple muscle groups, they're a "two birds with one stone" type of deal.

I am no kinesiologist. Nevertheless,  I know that these four principles, if strictly adhered to, will produce muscle gains. At the end of the day, building muscle takes a long time, but the process doesn't require a lot of complex research. It's simply a matter of discipline, patience, and hard work.