Well, who doesn’t want an aesthetic body nowadays, who doesn’t want to look sexy in anything you wear, who doesn’t want to look hot in every Instagram photo, and who doesn’t want to have that confidence you were lacking for?
What’s an aesthetic body?
Whenever we think about an aesthetic body, we imagine a muscular physique that is symmetrical and very balanced and morely looks very artistic and appealing.
Building muscles and having an aesthetic body isn’t an overnight miracle that is gonna happen somehow; it involves a lot of dedication, the right workouts, great nutrition, good natural supplementation, and patience obviously.
To build up those muscles, I have gathered these 8 real ways to build muscle :)
I have researched and tried it all personally for almost a year now!
Have a good workout split
Bro-split workout for building muscle?
If you are following the traditional bro-split workout which is hitting a particular muscle on a particular day, it will be hard to get those extra gains and also won’t build up the muscles you wanted.
90% of beginners follow the bro-split routine at the gym because they don’t know anything about proper workouts, will follow anything blindly and they will just see their newbie gains and think that they are doing everything great but they aren’t.
What is a good workout/training schedule?
To build muscles as you wanted, you should at least intensify your training by hitting each muscle twice or thrice a week to get the gains you were looking for.
Most of the intermediate and professional bodybuilders follow a PPL (Push-Pull Legs) or Upper-Lower body workout schedule to maximize their muscle building.
You can also experiment and try any other workout schedule as per your satisfaction, just try to have a combination of hitting a big muscle (chest, back, and legs) with any smaller muscle (bicep, tricep, and shoulder) on a specific day.
Also, stick to a schedule and don’t change it every other day like a lot of beginners.
Be clear about what you will train at the gym, and what will be your exercises, sets, and reps range, and perform it all with good intensity and dedication.
Most people including me, follow a rep range between 8–15 reps to maximize intensity and gains.
Improve your diet
No matter how hard and intense you train at the gym for hours, if your diet isn’t balanced and does not include the vital nutrients your body needs; you won’t be able to build up an aesthetic body nor a healthy body.
Training is just 40% of bodybuilding, 60% relies on a good diet which builds up your body!
Generally, it is a popular misconception in muscle building that you have to only eat a lot of protein for muscle gain.
Though you do have to eat protein to build up mass, most people try to only rely on protein and avoid carbs, fats, and other essential nutrients because of it.
Just try to have a balanced diet full of all macros and micros, and do increase protein along with carbs and fats to get some really good results.
Also try to avoid processed foods that usually contain sugar, trans-fats, nitrates, corn syrup, sucralose, etc. And eat more whole foods which are unprocessed and not refined like fruits, vegetables, rice, meat, fish, etc.
Have a good sleep
Why sleep for muscle growth?
Your training sessions will create small tears in your muscles which will recover when you will be sleeping through protein synthesis and growth hormone release which will make your muscles stronger for the next day to push even more.
Will not sleeping affect my muscle gains?
Sleeping less or not sleeping for an entire night will make your body experience different changes and will affect your overall gains and continuing this habit will lead to muscle loss and weight gain and your health obviously. Also, the primary male hormone “Testosterone” is also affected by it.
How much sleep to build muscles?
7–9 hours of sleep at night is crucial and very efficient for you, your muscles, and your health. It is very optimal for overall muscle development, functioning of your body, good testosterone levels, and also a fresh morning.
Training with proper form and technique
This may have happened to you when you are performing bench-press (or any other exercise) and your lower back feels uncomfortable or your shoulders are getting more involved than your chest.
This happens a lot with many people because most of them don’t really focus on having a proper form and technique.
Performing exercises without the knowledge, proper form and technique leads to serious lifetime injuries, muscle imbalances, and not letting you push your limits.
You can always learn about any exercise form and technique by reading a blog or watching youtube videos for free, also if you are a beginner or not sure about the form, do take help from your trainer regarding the exercise to prevent injuries.
Correcting your form and technique takes a lot of time, but once you master it you can surely feel each rep to that dedicated muscle, prevent injuries and see your muscle size grow.
Train to failure for muscle growth
Once you get the basic knowledge about form and techniques, you can increase the intensity of a set (preferably the last set of each exercise) to fatigue that specific muscle entirely and force that muscle to grow more.
To get the failure, you will need to take less rest between the sets, perform the exercise with good form, and during the last set just perform the reps non-stop till your muscles won’t be able to rep more.
This will fatigue the muscle completely and force the muscle to grow. It will be repaired with your diet and sleep and will grow the muscle to handle the weight and push it even more next time.
Progressive overloading for muscle growth
To force muscle growth, you will need to force the muscle to push more than the last time you trained it.
Progressive overloading can be anything like performing one extra set or rep or adding a lil bit more weight to increase the intensity of the entire set.
It will help us get extra gains, increase our muscle size and improve our strength and endurance.
To get bigger and stronger than the last time you will need to progressive overload!
Calorie Surplus and deficit for muscle building
Most people surplus their maintenance calories to grow their muscle mass, though it doesn’t matter whether you are in a calorie surplus or a deficit.
Most of the Pro-Bodybuilders surplus their calories for muscle growth and a lot of people take inspiration from them and just surplus their calories blindly without knowing anything about their body and end up getting fat.
There’s a reason they are called Pro-Bodybuilders and they know what they are doing!
If it works for someone might not work for someone else.
If you are skinny, you will need to be in a surplus to gain muscle. Most people end up getting fat during calorie surplus because they will add up a huge amount of extra calories like 400–1000. For good results and gains, you should add up anywhere between 100–200 extra calories and should increase it by 100 calories gradually after every 4–5 weeks.
You can be in a calorie deficit if you have some fat or your main goal is to build muscle and lose fat at the same time. The extra fat you have stored is just the extra calories you have consumed, so your body doesn’t need to be in a surplus to gain muscle and you will still get better results staying in a deficit. [you can be in a deficit of 200–300 calories and gradually increase the deficit by 50–100 calories after every one or two months.]
If you have already some muscles and want to build some more muscles, rather than being in a surplus to gain muscle and lil fat, and by progressive overloading and a good diet, you will still be able to build up muscle, though it takes some time, unlike being in surplus, your physique won’t be affected.
You will look the same and still build muscle; it is also called lean muscle mass building.
Improve muscle-to-mind connection
If you follow all these tips, your muscle-to-mind connection will surely improve.
The muscle-to-mind connection will be improved when your form and technique are really good also to focus on your muscles, you can concentrate on your working muscles during an exercise and completely feel the tension between the muscles.
The focus/concentration on your muscle will help it to indulge in the exercise and feel all the tension leading to muscle growth.
Some of the ways to improve muscle-to-mind connection -
- Close down your eyes during a set and try to focus on that working muscle.
- Have some warm-up sets to activate the muscle.
- Slow down the reps and feel the tension.
- Flex and pose after the set.
- Performing unilateral exercises and touching the muscle for better mind connection & feel.
- Being consistent!
TL;DR
- Don’t follow the traditional bro-split workout schedule; instead, try a workout split that trains each muscle twice a week.
- Have a well-balanced diet.
- Sleep well for better muscle recovery.
- Use proper form and technique in each exercise.
- Progressive Overload each week.
- Add natural supplementation.
- Understand calories better.
- Improve muscle-to-mind connection.
I hope I have delivered something valuable and helpful for you all!
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