People in the gym and people I’ve trained come to me with questions about how to get bigger and they have their heads chock full of stuff that’s just misinformation.

There are many correct ways to build muscle, but also many wrong ways.

I’m going to give you the basic principles to build muscle efficiently and correctly.

1. Progressive Overload

Your body is an amazing piece of work and so are your muscles. They will adapt to just about whatever condition you put them in.

So you must overload your muscles to build them. They will adapt by getting stronger and bigger.

So in your weight training regimen, if you plan to build muscle and get stronger, week after week, you should be increasing the load you put on your muscles. And no, this doesn’t just mean adding more and more weight. There are plenty of ways to increase the load on your muscles.

You can decrease the amount of rest in between sets, add more reps, add more sets, etc.

2. Progressive Variation

This doesn’t mean “muscle confusion”. You build neural pathways to your muscles that allow you to perform a movement more efficiently. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

Doing the same exercise every week on the same muscle will increase the weight but not increase growth.

What happened was that your body figured out a very efficient way of firing neural signals to your muscles to complete that motion. So efficient in fact, that it doesn’t require you to grow anymore.

3. Rest

Yes, go to sleep. The mistake I see most people making when building muscle or doing any type of training is Overtraining. When it comes to jumping higher, running faster, or building muscle, less work is better.

You don’t build muscle in the gym. You tear it down there. You build muscle in your sleep and on your days off. While sleeping, your body repairs itself by releasing a lot of hormones it needs to repair muscles.

To build muscle properly, you must get 8 to 9 hours of sleep each night. This is for your muscles, nervous system, and hormonal system to recover.

4. Nutrition

No, this doesn’t mean go and grab the closest “nutritional supplement”. It simply means, eat right by getting the right amount of carbs, fats (yes you need the good kind), and proteins.

Your calorie requirements depend on your age, weight, body fat, and level of activity.

First, find out the calorie surplus you need to build muscle, then make sure you get that amount each day in the right proportions of foods.

If you get these down and implement them correctly and consistently, you’ll see steady growth.

Learn more about how to build muscle. Stop by Mitch Graves ‘s site where you can find out all about muscle building programs and how to completely transform your body.