Want bigger muscles? Getting stronger and building a more attractive physique is a common goal for many people. It can help you feel more confident, improve your health, and make you more compelling to others.
If you like the idea of becoming even healthier than you are right now – while also looking better than you ever have before – keep reading.
What follows are proven tips to help you get bigger.
You can feel more capable in your everyday life, achieve new goals, and reach new levels of respect in the eyes of others.
Want to Get Lean? Here’s How to Build a Healthy, Attractive Body
There are three main components to achieving a healthy and fantastic-looking physique and bigger muscles you can see: strategic weight training, an anti-inflammatory diet, and an enthusiastic attitude with a growth mindset.
Any one of these components would likely make a positive difference in your life, but when you combine all three, the results are exponential.
1. Get Stronger through Weight Training
Weight training is the best way to build muscle, which will make you stronger and more attractive.
When you lift weights, you create microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. In response to this damage, the body repairs and overcompensates, leading to the growth of muscle fibers.
This process is known as muscle hypertrophy.
Over time, as you consistently challenge your muscles with weights, they adapt by becoming stronger, firmer, more defined, and shapely.
Progressive Overload Helps You Get Bigger
The key stimulus for muscle growth is progressively overloading the muscles with heavier weights, additional reps, or more sets over time. This provides the metabolic stress and micro-tears in the muscle that spur adaptation and growth when the muscles recover.
Lift Heavy
Lifting relatively heavy weights – in the range of 70-85% of your 1-rep max – places significant mechanical tension on the muscles to trigger bigger growth.
Want Maximum Muscular Size Gains?
To get the most out of your weight training, it helps to follow a structured program. This means focusing on compound exercises that engage multiple muscle groups at the same time. Some examples of compound exercises include:
- Squats
- Deadlifts
- Bench press
- Overhead press
- Pull-ups
You should also aim to lift weights that are challenging but allow you to maintain good form. If you can’t do more than 8-12 repetitions of an exercise with good form, the weight is likely too heavy.
Develop your body with a vigilant eye toward symmetry.
Be certain your lower body and upper body are equally developed, paying particular attention to your glute and core muscles.
Weight training promotes muscle growth and strength by causing muscle fiber hypertrophy, increasing muscle tension, triggering hormonal responses, stimulating muscle protein synthesis, engaging multiple muscle groups, incorporating progressive overload, and allowing for proper rest and recovery.
Incorporating a well-designed weight training program into your fitness routine can significantly improve your physique over time. You might find it helpful to opt-in to the free email updates accompanying this site to receive the best workouts each week in your inbox.
2. Get Stronger through an Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Diet is also essential for building bigger muscles and getting stronger.
Chronic inflammation is a prolonged and dysregulated inflammatory response. It can occur when the body’s immune system mistakenly triggers an inflammatory response, even when there are no foreign invaders to fight off.
Chronic inflammation has been linked to various diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer, and autoimmune disorders.
An anti-inflammatory diet focuses on consuming foods that help reduce inflammation in the body.
Promoting a balanced intake of nutritious foods that possess anti-inflammatory properties – and avoiding pro-inflammatory foods – an anti-inflammatory diet helps create an internal environment that supports the body’s natural healing processes and reduces chronic inflammation.
It also reduces puffiness so you can better see the bigger muscles you’ve worked so hard to obtain.
High Protein Intake
Your body needs protein to repair and build muscle tissue.
Consuming enough protein – around 0.7-1 grams per pound of body weight daily – provides the amino acids muscles need to repair and rebuild bigger and stronger after training.
Whey protein isolate, hemp and rice protein powder, eggs, and turkey are excellent protein options.
Additional good sources of protein include:
- Lean meats
- Fish
- Chicken
- Yogurt
- Legumes
- Nuts and seeds
You must also eat a balanced diet with plenty of multi-colored vegetables.
Vegetables provide your body with the vitamins, minerals, fiber, and antioxidants it needs to function optimally.
Finally, to get bigger and grow muscles, you need to eat a calorie surplus. However, don’t overdo it. Consuming about 100 to 150 calories more than you burn in a day will suffice.
3. Get Healthier by Adopting a Growth Mindset
A positive attitude is a mental and emotional state characterized by optimism, hope, and a generally favorable outlook on life and its challenges.
It involves having a constructive and hopeful approach to situations, focusing on opportunities and solutions rather than dwelling on problems or obstacles.
A person with an enthusiastic attitude tends to view the world, themselves, and others in a positive light.
Positive individuals acknowledge negative feelings but choose not to let them dominate their outlook on life.
Cultivating a positive attitude often involves self-awareness, self-reflection, and intentional efforts to focus on the positive aspects of life, even in challenging situations.
Positive people tend to demonstrate gratitude and resilience. They are solution-oriented, open-minded, empathic, and have a growth mindset. They choose to believe that their abilities, intelligence, and talents can be developed and improved with dedication, hard work, and learning.
People with a growth mindset tend to embrace challenges, persevere in the face of setbacks, see effort as a path to mastery, learn from criticism, and find lessons and inspiration in the success of others. These qualities help them greatly in achieving fitness goals.
Tips for Getting Stronger and Building a More Attractive Physique
Perhaps the most crucial key to getting a healthier, better-looking, and powerful body is understanding the difference between health-span and lifespan.
Lifespan measures the entire duration of a person’s life, health-span measures explicitly the duration of a person’s life spent in good health.
Good lifestyle choices aim to increase the overall lifespan while enhancing health-span, ensuring that people live longer lives and experience those additional years in good health and with a high quality of life.
The current average health-span in a modern, developed country sits at approximately 66 years of age, while the current average lifespan is 77. This means that if you want the last decade of your life to be highly enjoyable – and not painful and depressing – then the steps outlined in this article would likely be extremely beneficial for you.
Here are some additional tips for getting stronger and building a more attractive physique:
- Be consistent. The key to getting results is consistency with your workouts and diet. Aim to train 3-4 times per week and eat a healthy diet daily.
- Be patient. It takes time to build muscle and get stronger. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t see results immediately. Just keep working hard, and you will eventually reach your goals.
- Listen to your body. Don’t push yourself too hard, especially when first starting. If you’re feeling pain, take a break.
- Find a workout buddy. Having a workout buddy can help you stay motivated and accountable.
- Get enough sleep. Muscles grow during rest, not just during workouts. Aim for 7-9 hours per night. Additionally, manage stress levels as chronically high cortisol can negatively impact muscle building. If you want to grow bigger muscles, it helps to be well-rested.
Conclusion: Mastering the Art and Science of Getting Stronger and Healthier
Sure, genetics plays a key role in one’s natural muscular potential. But you can get bigger if you follow the tips above.
Getting bigger muscles and achieving a stronger and more attractive physique involves a holistic approach that encompasses strategic weight training, an anti-inflammatory diet, and an enthusiastic attitude with a growth mindset.
Combining these elements can significantly impact your overall well-being and fitness journey.
Strategic weight training, focusing on compound exercises and maintaining good form, promotes muscle growth and strength.
An anti-inflammatory diet, rich in proteins, colorful vegetables, and anti-inflammatory foods, supports the body’s natural healing processes and reduces chronic inflammation.
Furthermore, cultivating a positive attitude and a growth mindset are essential. Positive individuals who are grateful, resilient, solution-oriented, open-minded, and empathic tend to overcome challenges and achieve their fitness goals more effectively.
Understanding the distinction between health-span and lifespan is crucial:
- While lifespan measures the entire duration of a person’s life,
- health-span specifically measures the duration spent in good health.
- Making healthy lifestyle choices can increase both your lifespan and health-span, ensuring not only a longer life but also a higher quality of life.
Lastly, consistency, patience, self-awareness, and adequate rest (including sleep) are vital in your fitness journey.
Listening to your body, finding support through workout buddies, and prioritizing rest are key factors in your pursuit of a healthier, stronger, and more attractive physique.
If you want to get bigger, you can get bigger! Remember, your fitness goals are achievable through dedication, hard work, and a positive mindset.