If you’re new to the gym you might be wondering how to build muscle fast. There are many ways to gain muscle mass, and as you progress through your fitness career its best you play around with different training styles. Gaining muscle in theory is easy as long as you know the core principles. Solid results usually boil down to consistency and proper training. This is GYMCADDY’s advice on how to gain muscle fast!

Gaining muscle boils down to proper nutrition and a sound workout out routine. A proper workout routine that will add muscle to your frame should consist of compound exercises and a rep range of 8 to 12 reps per set. First lets talk about compound exercises, a compound exercise is one that activates multiple muscles simultaneously. A few good compound exercises are the chest press, shoulder press, rows, dead lift, squats, and the list goes on. If you’re truly trying to gain muscle fast, then your workout routine should mostly made up of compound exercises. On the other end of the spectrum are isolation exercises, or exercises that only activate one muscle when you do them. A lot of the time people don’t see results in the gym is because they are doing to many isolation exercises. They think if they only focus on their chest muscles while they workout then they will grow faster. Sadly this is not true. Isolation exercises like the chest fly, dumb bell curl, or tricep extensions should be done in the tail end of a workout. Isolation exercises are great for muscle stimulation, but not over all muscle growth. 

Another factor to consider when trying to gain muscle mass is volume. The volume of a workout routine can heavily effect your results. If your volume is too low then you’re simply not working out hard enough in the gym. Volume can be calculated by multiplying your sets by your reps per set. So if I did a total of 30 sets over the course of my workout and each set was 10 reps then my volume will total 300. Or 300 contractions. But keep in mind, volume should be correlated to your workout intensity. If you're doing a workout with high intensity then its only normal for your volume to be lower. 

But no matter how much you workout, if you’re not eating right you will not gain muscle. Simple as that. Sure there are some genetics freaks out there that can add muscle by eating just about anything, but thats not usually the case. In order to add muscle you need to make sure you are getting enough protein in your diet and you’re in a slight caloric surplus. Now a caloric surplus doesn't mean you go out and start eating anything you see. There is no real need to bulk or “dirty bulk”. If you’re tracking your calories then simply taking in 200 more calories than your maintenance caloric need will give you the needed nutrients to add muscle. 

And finally, frequency plays a huge part in gaining muscle. If you’re only working out once or twice week then sadly your results will be very hard to come by. In order to gain muscle you should be working out at least 4 times a week. Without proper frequency you wont get the proper stimulation you need to grow muscle on a regular basis. So in conclusion, in order to gain muscle mass you need to do workouts that focus on compound exercises, you need to have the right amount of volume and frequency, and you need to be getting the proper nutrition.