Well, my friends, this one isn’t so straightforward to answer.
As with most of the topics I write about there’s not always a one size fits all answer for questions like this.
But if you’re only training once a week and eating shit it’s going to take to you a very long time to get close to building muscle.
In saying that you don’t have to do as much as you might think based on my last sentence, that’s a bit mean of me right.
So just to get straight into it.
You can build muscle by training 30-40 minutes times a week.
But by training, I’m not talking about going for a run.
Get to the point! Ok, Ok.
Resistance training my friends.
If you want to build muscle you need to give your muscles some resistance.
Lift some weights or use some resistance bands.
I go on about resistance bands a lot.
But they really are a great way to get a workout away from the gym.
Check my article on resistance band training.
So, some form of resistance training once a week.
Next, you want to make sure you are in a calorie surplus.
This means eating 200-300 calories more than your maintenance calories.
Your maintenance calories are the number of calories your body needs to fuel you through your day.
Remember even before you start doing any exercise your body is using energy just getting shit done.
There are plenty of apps you can use to figure out your calories and come up with a plan of attack for your muscle gains.
But if you start with these 2 things, for now, you should be starting to see your new gains within 6-8 weeks.
Judging by half the guys you see walking around the gym, I say legs. In saying that, I don’t ever see those guys training their legs…
The hardest muscle to build is the one you should spend more time on.
In all seriousness, it can vary from person to person but some of the most common muscles people have trouble training are.
Unfortunately, the muscles fibers in your calves are a little different from other muscles and because of this are more resistant to hypertrophy training.
And because of this, they need to be trained more intensely than they often are.
Stop making your calves a quick finisher at the end of a leg session and get them the same one-on-one time that biceps gets.
It’s worth giving them bigger reps per set as well.
Think 20+ as opposed to the usual 10-12.
Trying doing sets seated and standing, instead of one or the other.
Another muscle group that is known for being hard to build is your shoulders.
And I feel like it’s often how we put shoulders in a workout that’s to blame.
It’s often put at the end of a push session, after doing a lot of chest movements that are using the shoulder joint we tend to brush over them.
After all, they tend to be tired after training your chest.
A good rule to go with when training your shoulders is working back to front.
Start with rear flys, followed by lateral raise, and then finish off with seated press.
The tricky thing with Lats is they can be hard to isolate.
Most movements you train on are compound and it can be very easy to put more stress on other muscles in the back.
Maybe swap out big heavy lat pull, with slow controlled reps with a lighter load.
And play around with your elbow position on the pull.
Keep them wide to train the upper lats and narrow to train the lower lats.
Firstly you’re going to need to download your FREE copy of my E-Book ‘Train Wherever The F*ck You Want.’
It’s my complete guide to all things resistance bands and training wherever you want!
Secondly, you need to understand that muscle growth doesn’t happen overnight. But stick with it because it will happen.
So let’s start by talking about volume because volume is what builds muscles.
More reps, more sets, more than once a week.
So maybe it’s time to put a second arm session in every week.
Maybe even a stand-alone arm session.
Another thing to think about is supersets.
I love to follow a bicep movement with a tricep movement.
When the bicep is tensing the tricep is stretching.
So by going back up another armed movement you’re sending the blood flow and nutrients to your arms in a big way.
The last thing you need to do is eat more.
Are you sick of me talking about food yet?
I can’t stress it enough, whether your goal is to gain weight or lose weight, neither will happen if you don’t get your food right.
Failing that you can give one of my workouts a try.
Why not try this one first.
