
Failing to plan is planning to fail. If you want to accomplish just about anything, you’re more likely to succeed if you have a roadmap telling you where you need to go. This applies to fitness, especially gaining muscle.
In order to add lean tissue to your body frame, you need to combine the proper amount of strength training at the appropriate intensity with the necessary diet to fuel muscle growth. I’ve strength trained for 20+ years of my life and can promise you that I saw the most results when I had my training perfectly synced with my nutrition.
To help you succeed where others fail, let’s go over a few key points to help you create your muscle gaining plan.
*Always consult a healthcare professional before starting any exercise or nutrition plan.

Establish Your Baseline
You can’t get where you’re going if you don’t know where you are. In order to find our starting point, you need to take 1-2 weeks to track and understand the way you currently eat so that you can pinpoint your areas for improvement.
I recommend downloading the MyFitnessPal app and logging EVERYTHING you eat for 1-2 weeks. This will highlight those days where you’re working constantly and existing solely on black coffee and air, or those days when your BFF brought over wine and cheesecake and you’ve eaten enough sugar to last six months.
Logging food before we change our diet will also help establish the habit/routine of tracking calories and macros (Proteins, Carbs, Fats) that will be paramount to our successful muscle gain.
Remember: weight loss and weight gain is MATH and you need data to do that math. Start tracking your intake to create your data baseline and you’ll have a great jumping off point.

Clean Calorie Surplus
Once you have your baseline, it’s time to choose a goal. Think of the baseline as your home base and the goal as your destination. If you want to add 10 pounds of lean muscle to your frame, you’re going to need to know a few things.
How many calories do you need on a daily basis to maintain your current weight?
How many calories do you need to add to that amount to gain 0.25% to 0.5& of body weight per week?
That’s where having a calorie plan and a calorie surplus come in. When I first start training a client, I collect their weight, listen to the goals, and create a custom program to help them reach that goal that focuses not only on consistent strength training, but also proper nutrition.
In order to gain lean muscle and not just fat, you need to eat mostly healthy foods. Lean proteins like chicken, ground turkey, white fish, etc. will help you reach your protein macros while fibrous carbs like broccoli and other vegetables will help keep your energized and satiated.
When it comes to fats, it is okay in a surplus phase to have a little junk. After all, the point is to GAIN weight. You’re almost always going to gain a little fat while adding for muscle growth. We just want to be careful that we’re not going overboard in that direction.
Focus on clean proteins and fibrous carbs and you’ll add the proper amount of calories to your diet while avoiding excess fat.

Progressive Overload
Progressive Overload means slowly increasing the amount of weight you are lifting over a long period of time. I understand that a lot of people can be intimidated by heavy weight. There is a mental barrier to grabbing 15s and 20s instead of your familiar 5-10 lb dumbbells.
But, at some point, we need to challenge our muscles if we want them to grow. A good rule of thumb is the 15-20 rep rule. Say you’re doing an exercise with dumbbells and you can pretty easily get to 15-20 reps. That is a sign that you are not properly challenged and can potentially go a bit heavier, maybe increasing the weight by 2.5-5 lbs. This process will allow you to add strength and increase the likelihood of adding lean muscle to your frame.
Caveat: DO NOT be that person who walks into the gym on Day 1 and grabs the heaviest weight they can find. Safety first. Only use weight that you can control as you raisw and lower. No dropping weights. Good form only. Please and thank you.
These 3 tips are a great start to creating a plan to gain muscle. To create the perfect plan for you, book your free consultation today and work with a fitness expert.
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