Have you been going to the gym regularly for months and haven’t been able to put on any serious poundage? Building muscle isn’t rocket science. There are four key factors that will mean the difference between building muscle and staying skinny.

Ask yourself these four questions.

Is my diet optimized for building muscle?
It’s time to get out of the “3 meals per day” mentality. If you want to gain (or lose) weight you need to feed your body whole foods, six times per day. This means splitting your large meals up and eating about once every three hours. Not only is this good for your metabolism, but your body will use the foods instead of storing them as fat.

Your six meals per day should consist of mainly complex carbohydrates and protein. You should aim for at least thirty grams of protein per meal. High protein foods include lean meat, chicken, fish, egg whites, cheese and milk products. Complex carbohydrates are found in brown rice, brown bread and potatoes. Stay away from foods high in salt and sugar

Should I be using supplements, and when should I be taking them?
If you can afford supplements you should be using them. The basic three you should be considering are protein, carbs and creatine. Whey protein supplements are the fastest known way to deliver quality protein to your muscles. This makes shakes particularly effective after your workouts, when your body is craving protein for muscle re-growth.

There are three key times that supplements should be taken. First thing in the morning, after your workout and before bed. If your diet is up to scratch you shouldn’t need supplements at any other time. Don’t use supplements to replace meals. Supplements are supplements, not meal replacements.

Am I training hard and not smart?
The biggest mistake the new lifters make is thinking that the more they workout the bigger they’ll get. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Two basic rules you must remember when it comes to weight training. First, quality is better than quantity. Second, compound exercises are the kings of building muscle.

Compound exercises require at least two joint movements. Big compound exercises are the squat, bench press, wide grip pull up and seated row. These movements recruit many more muscles fibers to use to move the weight. This means more muscle groups are worked, the exercise is more challenging and the potential for growth is much greater.

Generally you should be doing three compound exercises for one isolation exercise. For example your back/biceps workout might consist of wide grip pull ups, seated row, bent over row and standing bicep curl. You might think this is not enough work for your biceps? Wrong. Your biceps are worked heavily in all over these exercises; the bicep curl just finishes them off.

The length of any training session should not exceed one hour. And you only need to train one muscle group once per week. This means a split routine should only need to be three days per week. In fact, most professional bodybuilders only train four times per week. Remember, it’s quality not quantity.

Do I get enough rest and recovery time?
When you workout you’re not building your muscles, you’re breaking them down. The reason why you looked “pumped up” when you’re in the gym is because your muscle tissue is swollen and damaged. Your muscles actually grow when you are resting. So in simple terms, no rest equals no muscle growth.

So take it easy when you’re not working out. Ease up on the cardio. And make sure you get plenty of sleep. Sleep is the body’s number one time for building muscle. This is also why it’s important to eat before bed, so your body has the fuel to repair muscle in your sleep.

Simple isn’t it?
So you can see that despite what you read in magazines or on the web about building muscle, it’s surprisingly simple. If you get the four aspects I have mentioned in this article right, you will build muscle. If you’ve got any questions, I’m available on the forum on my site. See links in my bio.

The benefits of a good strength training program are almost endless. Better health, happiness and most importantly, showing off your muscles at the beach.

Strength training should be part of everyone’s routine. Even if you are low on time, strength training only needs to be done 2-3 times per week with each session lasting no more than one hour. For 2-3 hours per week, huge benefits can be realized.

Regular strength training will:

• help you in day to day activities around the house and in your yard. It will keep you independent which is especially important in the older population. Imagine not being able to lift a 5 pound bag of flour or take the garbage out by yourself.
• lower the risk of osteoporosis, hypertension and diabetes.
• help you avoid lower back pain.
• increase bone density which is important for post menopausal women.
• increase muscle mass which burns more calories throughout the day than an equal amount of fat.

Even with all these benefits, many people are reluctant to start training with weights. Concerns include injury, incorrect form and for women; not wanting to grow muscles and look like a man.

When beginning your strength training program, the risk of getting hurt can be greatly reduced by starting out with machines rather than free weights. As you become more comfortable with the machines, slowly learn to use free weights. If you want to stick with the machines, know that they will give you the same benifits as free weights.

As for the concern that women will look like men, it won’t happen without the help of steroids, which you shouldn’t even consider using. Heck, it’s hard enough for men to develop big muscles.

Sometimes when we think of being healthy, we think of eating properly and cardio. While these are important, strength training should never be left out. Strength training provides benefits to your health that cannot be found with any other mode of exercise and shouldn’t be forgotten.

Here are 10 tips to help you build muscle quickly. Sometimes we all lose sight of the important aspects of training. Hopefully these tips will get you back on track.

Squat: Squats are a great exercise to build muscle quickly. If you’re going to squat, learn how to do it properly to avoid injury and to improve its effectiveness. You should be squatting down until your thighs are AT LEAST parallel to the floor.

Learn to Deadlift: Deadlifting is one of the best ways to train the muscles you can’t see in the mirror. It hits the lower back, traps, lats and hamstrings all in one exercises. Learn how to do it properly to avoid injury.

Supplement Wisely: Supplements can be a great addition to your muscle building strategy but they are not magic pills. Supplements can’t compensate for a lousy diet and training. If you are not making any gains, your diet and training are the likely culprits. If your training and nutrition are sound, supplements can give you that extra boost.

Get 1 Gram of Protein per LB of Bodyweight: If you weight 200 lbs, you should be getting at least 200 grams of protein per day. You can get your protein through whole foods and protein shakes. Don’t be afraid to experiment with higher protein amounts but don’t go overboard.

Train the Whole Body: If you want to build muscle quickly, you need to train the whole body. Many trainees make the mistake of training their beach muscles: chest, arms, and abs. You need to train the body parts you can’t see in the mirror (your back) to build muscle.

Focus on Compound Movements: Compound movements are exercises that use two or more joints. Choose exercises like the squat instead of leg extensions. The squat uses the hip and knee joint as opposed to leg extension, which only uses to knee joint. Compound exercises target the most muscle.

Sprinkle in Some Isolation Exercises: Although compound exercises should make up the majority of you training, you need isolation exercises to maximize growth in certain body parts. You can build biceps with rowing exercises but you need to hit your biceps directly with curls to maximize their size.

Add Healthy Supplements: These are supplements that don’t directly build muscle quickly but are good for your health. If you want to train for a long time, you need to stay healthy. Supplements such as a Multivitamin, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, and Fish Oils should be part of your supplement stack.

Train with a Partner: This is not a necessity but a good training partner will help you build muscle quickly. Partners hold each other accountable therefore you won’t miss a day of training. Training partners also push each other and encourage you to squeeze out that extra rep. Are you going to let your partner out do you? I don’t think so!

Recovery: Recovery is an underrated aspect of weight training. Your muscles don’t grow in the gym; they grow while recovering in between sessions. Recovery can include many things such as getting enough sleep, waiting a few days before training a muscle again, eating enough to fuel your training, massages, hot showers, etc.