Step 1 – Slim down
No matter where you look, the first thing you have to do to gain muscle mass is always slim down. This gives way for your body to show lean muscles. People who venture into building muscles without going through this will only look bulkier and not any leaner. Try achieving 10-15% body fat to see the changes happen.
Step 2 –Plan a diet
To slim down or gain mass, you will still need to form a diet to match it up. Avoid using diets that have very low calorie intake as you will not have the energy to do your day-to-day workouts sustainably. Moreover, make sure you don’t exceed the calorie intake, too. Doing so will cause the excess to be stored as fat.
Step 3 – Protein
The moment that you already slimmed down, you can proceed to taking in different types of protein. You can take it in form of shakes and bars. Protein is needed to help hasten the building of muscles as they contain the amino acids needed to regenerate torn muscles. They also help generate new muscles to make you look leaner.
Step 4 – Supplement - If you cannot have adequate protein from your normal meals, supplement with protein shakes. If you want more strength so that you can lift heavier weights to grow bigger muscles, take Creatine supplement.
Step 5 – Weight Training - You must lift with heavy weights and to add on more weight consistently to progressively build your muscles. But it is very important not to sacrifice correct lifting techniques and form for the sake of lifting heavier.
Step 6 – Lift Free Weights - Use free weights like dumbells and barbells to recruit more muscle fibers so that more muscle fibers can be worked on.
Step 7 – Compound Exercises - Work with compound exercises like bench presses, squats, barbell rows, chin ups and dead lifts to build big muscle mass. If you concentrate on working your puny muscles like your biceps, then you will only have puny muscle growth.
Step 8 – Plan a workout
Plan a holistic workout that targets the whole body. This avoids making you look like a weird wrestler. Make sure to adjust your workouts accordingly. Do not take workouts you cannot sustain or you cannot bear at the moment. You can easily stop and never come back to doing it again because of injury, making you lose all that you have gained.
Step 9 – Get Enough Rest - Have rest days in between your workout days and do not work the same muscle group more than twice a week. Your muscles need to recover from your workouts in order to grow big.
Step 10 – Get Enough Sleep - Sleep at least 8 hours a day. More even better. Your muscles grow when you sleep.
If you practise the above 10 steps consistently, your muscles will grow fast and big. Of course there are many more things you can do to achieve a competitive bodybuilder's physique of which I cannot cover in just an article here. So do research for more knowledge.