Effective muscle building

Build muscle in the long term with the optimal diet and training plan.

Long-term muscle building with health and fitness at any stage of life and at any age is the goal of numerous athletes. Because not only studies showed that sport protects against diseases and maintains mobility in old age, but also beginners and advanced athletes report a higher self-confidence and a stronger satisfaction with themselves and their body. Thanks to a suitable training plan and effective muscle building, many athletes also sustainably pursue their goal and maintain their training routine.

We explain what is important for effective and sustainable muscle building and how beginners and advanced athletes can build muscle in the long term.

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How long does effective muscle building take for long-term success?

Strength training is not just about gaining defined muscles and building muscle quickly, but also about being physically fit and improving health and posture. People who do sports also have a higher level of self-confidence than people who do not do sports.[1],[2] For this reason, many athletes not only strive to achieve a summer figure, but also want to do something good for their body and mind in the long term by building muscle.

Beginners can already see the first successes after a few weeks: : Probably stand out a little more muscle and maybe a kilo or two more muscle mass on the scale. However, it usually takes around three months before others notice any external changes. For advanced athletes, it takes longer because they are slower to effectively build muscle mass - however, they are already benefiting from larger muscles and the physical fitness that comes with training and proper nutrition.

How intensively should you train for effective muscle building?

Short, regular training sessions are suitable for beginners - advanced users can also train longer and more intensively. As a rule of thumb, the stronger you are, the more demanding your workout can be. Beginners should pay particular attention to the correct execution of the exercises in order to avoid injuries and to be able to build muscles in the long term.

Instead of one long and intense workout per week, focus on short but regular workouts - two to three sets should be enough in the beginning. If an exercise is new to you and you don't know how many clean reps you can do, just start and do as many as you can. For example, if push-ups are too difficult, try them on your knees or against the wall. Once you can do twelve clean repetitions, you can repeat the same exercise in a more difficult variation. Or you can train a new exercise that will further strengthen the same muscle groups. Progressive training is the key to effective muscle building!

Advanced exercisers should increase the load if they are not progressing and, if necessary, check beforehand if they are overtraining. If this is the case, it helps to cut back for a few weeks to allow the body and muscles to recover. Then it works again with the long-term muscle building! Three to five sets are considered ideal. Be progressive with weights as well: Adding half a pound of weight can make a significant difference, especially with multiple reps! Also, any exercise becomes more difficult when performed slowly. Without momentum, your muscles have to work even harder to accomplish their task.

Tips for long-term success in effective muscle building.

For effective muscle building to work, in addition to the best basic muscle building exercises, there are two other important pillars to consider: Nutrition and Recovery. In the following, we will go into these aspects in more detail so that your training is not short-lived, but long-lasting.

Effective muscle building: Nutrition

Abs are made in the kitchen - there's some truth to that. Because anyone who wants to effectively build muscle mass will surely hear that 70% of muscle building takes place in the kitchen - so nutrition is at least as important as strength training itself. In particular, the right distribution of micro- and macronutrients plays a crucial role here.

Because if you want to build muscles effectively, you need to know what they are made of - namely proteins. The body can therefore only build muscles in the long term if it has sufficient proteins available for muscle building. And not only that: if it lacks important amino acids (parts of the proteins), it sometimes falls back on the proteins present in the muscles - and thus simply breaks down the hard-earned muscles again. Between 1.6 and 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight[3] are recommended daily. Depending on weight, that would be about 50 grams of protein per meal, which should be consumed through a high-protein diet.

In addition to sufficient nutrients, it is important for effective muscle building to consume slightly more calories than the body would need. Optimal is between 100 and 200 kilocalories on training days. If you want to lose fat afterwards, you can eat about 100 to 200 kilocalories less per day during the definition phase while you continue to train. In this way, your muscles will remain intact despite fat loss.

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The best basic exercises for effective muscle building

A sustainable and effective muscle building means that strength training and sports become your routine. Therefore, instead of long training sessions, short but regular workouts are recommended. In terms of mini-habits, you can start with the three basic exercises that almost everyone knows:

• In the gym: squats, deadlifts and bench presses.
• At home: squats, push-ups, crunches and pull-ups.

These basic exercises have become established because they work several muscle groups at the same time, i.e. they strengthen several muscles at the same time. If athletes were to train only one muscle at a time, there would be too few days in the year to train all of them at all - in other words, the opposite of effective muscle building!

So it's worth starting your training plan with these exercises to build your muscles in the long run. Once you've mastered pushups, you could try your hand at one-arm pushups, lifting one leg or something similar. When doing deadlifts and bench presses, slowly increase the weights. When doing squats, make sure you do them cleanly to avoid knee injuries and pain!

Conclusion: long-term success with effective muscle building

If you want to build muscle effectively and above all sustainably, you need a consistent training and nutrition plan. Because muscle building only succeeds when beginners and advanced users establish routines, develop progressive training plans, eat a balanced diet and give their bodies enough recovery breaks to let the muscles grow. Because otherwise, even the most effective muscle-building workout won't do any good. Both during training and in the recovery phase, high-quality supplements can also help you build muscle, absorb all the necessary nutrients and optimally supply your muscles.