7 Ways to Build Muscle Fast for the Regular Guy

Different people have different reasons for working out. For some, simply a toned look will do. Others want to bulk up. Learning Ways to build muscle fast and gain strength is helpful no matter your fitness goals. Here are some tips to help gain muscle quickly:

1. Start with the mind: Visualize both in and out of the gym, the kind of body you want. See yourself as having already accomplished your dream body; as though it is real. This is also helpful at times low motivation and despair.

2. Eat like an athlete: No matter what you do, you will not build muscle on a hamburger and fries diet; at least not quality muscle. To build muscle you should eat approximately 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight. However, don't get caught up with calorie and nutrient counting. Simply eat a well-balanced meal that contains plenty protein about every three hours of your waking hours and you should bad okay.

3. Divide up your workouts: Beginners can get away with training the whole body in one workout. But even beginners should split their workout into two; upper body workout one day and lower body workout the next for better results as this allows increased intensity. The third day you should rest and then begin the cycle again on the fourth. However this strategy becomes impractical as you progress and you may have to split your workouts farther. Try a three or four day split and see what works best and fits your lifestyle.

4. Get adequate rest: Inexperienced people often skip rest days believing this is the best way to make faster muscle gains. Not so. Doing this leads to over-training. This in turn leads to less intensity in your workouts. This can lead to a point of diminishing returns. Also your body adapts and builds up strength and muscle while you're resting.

5. Use progressive resistance: Your muscles grow from increased resistance. It is that last workout where you increased the weights or sets beyond what your muscles had been accustomed to that stimulates growth. Aim at progressively increasing the weights without losing form. It will seem harder, even impossible, at certain points. This are called training plateaus and everyone including that professional bodybuilder or fitness model you admire has had to deal with them. As with almost anything else, victory comes with perseverance.

6. Resist both ways: You have perhaps seen the gym showoff that jerks a ton of weight up and then lets it drop and repeats. Don't do it. You should resist both on both the positive and the negative motion. In the bench press, for instance, you should fill the resistance as the weight is going up as well as when the weight is coming down.

7. Set realistic goals: It is nice to want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger at his best. Maybe you have the genes, but unfortunately most of us simply don't. Even if you do, you should not expect to reach that point in a few months. It just won't happen. Set realistic goals based on your body type, metabolism and lifestyle. Small, reachable progressive goals will eventually lead to the main goal.