3 Things I would do add 10 pounds of muscle

It seems that everyone has a new innovative way to reach your goals, some being good and some being bad. I am all for innovation, but sometimes it is best to rely on proven methods as well.If my goal was to add 10 lbs of muscle, the three things that will have the most impact are going to be training, nutrition, and recovery.

Training: Lifting heavy and with a purpose

When adding muscle, each work out is important to challenge yourself. Muscle growth comes from progressive overload, which is consistently challenging your muscles to do more over time. That could mean lifting heavier weights, doing more reps, improving your technique, or increasing training volume.

It is key to track the weights and reps that you are performing for each exercise to ensure you are increasing the difficulty in your lifts in one of the ways listed above. It is also important to track because we want to be celebrating our wins and tracking the progress you are making is a great way to do it!

Nutrition: I would eat in a calorie surplus

You cannot build new muscle tissue without giving your body enough fuel.

If I wanted to add 10 lbs of muscle, I would aim for a small calorie surplus, enough to support growth but not so much that I gain unnecessary body fat.

My overall approach would be to plan on eating 250-500 calories above maintenance per day while prioritizing protein intake. Having 0.7–1 gram of protein per pound of body weight daily is absolutely key to supplying your muscles with the building blocks they need to recover and grow.

Recovery: Giving my body proper fuel and rest

Most people focus on what happens inside the gym, but muscle is actually built during recovery.

Training creates the stimulus. Food and sleep create the growth.

My priorities would be as follows:

• 7–9 hours of sleep every night
• Protein at every meal (Protein intake double important)
• Staying hydrated
• Managing stress
• Taking rest days seriously

Let’s build that muscle together!

To be honest with you, this article is a little ironic because muscle gain is actually my goal. I have always had a hard time keeping weight on so I do feel that muscle gain has been my goal for a long time. I saw a lot of success at first and have since plateaued a little bit. Why? Because I haven’t been the best with the things I highlighted above. So let’s change that together!

Hit the comments below if you want to build muscle with me!