Six fitness hacks to build muscle faster 

By Carol Williams

Building muscle to the point where you've got noticeable results takes a lot of time, commitment, and dedication. You could give your best effort in lifting the weights at the gym, never missing a session, but still not see satisfactory results. 

Many people going to the gym, athletes or otherwise, have a common goal in mind — gain muscle. Conventional muscle growth or hypertrophy needs to train under specific recommendations, such as 30-90 second resting periods between sets, 8-12 reps each set, and choosing the appropriate load for each set.

These are great principles to abide by, but they're also additional tips or hacks you could use to increase your muscle growth within a short period exponentially. If you're looking to leave the gym confident, well-built, and more prominent, you've come to the right place. 

Here are six fitness hacks you could use to build muscle much faster:

1. Take It Slow To Allow Your Body To Recover

Building new muscle, or hypertrophy, only happens when you put your muscles under stress for a long time, resulting in you being sore after the workout. This is because you're tearing up your muscles with the hope that when they repair, they will be more prominent.

Instead of pumping iron all day 24 hours a week, try and get some rest in between your workout sessions. Working out after healing from soreness is much better and safer. You also won't cause damage to your body. Creams and inflammatory medication can remedy the soreness you feel after working out, but you could also use cannabis. Don't worry about getting cannabis, as you can get your daily marijuana in Canada from various trustworthy vendors.

2. Eat More, Especially Protein, Not Less

It may sound counterintuitive, but building muscle needs you to eat more food portions than you usually do. Your body needs more calories to build new muscle. Muscle building burns more calories in your body than fat, so you need to have more energy to help with new muscle growth. 

Cutting back on your calorie intake to lose weight will not be favourable for your muscle gain because our body will sense it and respond by shutting down new muscle cell production. You must keep your energy up by giving your body enough fuel to build muscle. Eating small portions of food every three hours is most advisable. One must also ensure that there is plenty of protein in your meals.

Ideally, you want the protein amount to be equivalent in your body weight but in grams. For example, if you weigh about 150 pounds, you would like to take 150 grams of proteins daily when you're building muscle. When you're building muscles, it's also advisable to consume around 250 to 500 calories on top of what you would typically eat. Don't go above this amount because your body may store all the extra calories as body fat if they're not used during your workout.

3. Choose the Best Time to Workout

Your workout time matters and can make a significant difference in maximizing your muscle growth potential. According to fitness experts, working out in the morning is the best for weight loss. This is due to your body's hormone composition during that time. Additionally, losing weight effectively needs you to be on an empty stomach.

Besides, if your goal is building more muscle, you'll want to consume a little something first. Thus, an afternoon session or an evening one spent lifting weights will do your body justice since you'll have the required amounts of nutrients for all the heavy lifting.

4. Know the Correct Amount of Time for Your Workout Sessions

Research has indicated that working out each muscle group at least twice a week is the best way to gain muscle quickly. You're going to see some gains when you work on a muscle group once a week, but doing it twice, although demanding, will get you there faster.

Additionally, spending two or more hours in the gym for each session isn't practical. You need about 30-45 minutes of strength training and weightlifting, and you'll see a great increase in muscle mass. If you still want to exercise for an hour, try switching it up with various workout routines to prevent overworking one muscle group.

5. Try and End Your Work Out with A High-Rep Blowout 

When you're training, you're pumping more blood to the working muscles. It's commonly referred to as the "pump," and it's when you feel your muscles engorged, nearly bursting out of your skin. During your last set, you should try and give it all.

Resistance bands are a great way to utilize this hack. Using them on your bicep and triceps exercises will give you the best results. Try your level best to complete each set without stopping, but it should be less than five seconds if you must.

6. Increase Your Weights Gradually

When lifting weights, try and increase them by at least 5% weekly. If you bench press 70 pounds in one week, for instance, the next week, try and do 75 pounds. This gradual increase of weights will help you reach the muscle-building results you want without necessarily straining your body.

Building muscle is an excellent way of boosting your esteem and confidence. It's a goal worth pursuing because training instils discipline, and you'll also get a healthy lifestyle out of it. Not to mention the bursts of energy you'll get. Use the above hacks and see a significant improvement in your muscle-building journey.

(Carol Williams is a content analyst who commits herself to continuous learning and focuses on sharing ideas and techniques. She is a passionate writer who loves writing about health and wellness.)

(Edited by Ladiangti Rani)

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