30 Muscle-Building Tips For Beginners

Building muscle without proper knowledge and resources can be really struggling for a beginner. One of the biggest challenges is figuring out where to start. With so much information available online, it can be difficult to determine what advice is accurate and what is not.

This can lead to confusion and frustration, as beginners may not know which exercises or nutrition plans to follow. Another struggle is the lack of access to proper equipment or facilities. Without access to a gym or proper weights, it can be challenging to perform the exercises needed to build muscle mass.

Even if beginners have access to some equipment, they may not know how to use it correctly, leading to potential injury or inefficient workouts. Additionally, beginners may struggle to create a proper nutrition plan that supports muscle growth.

Without knowledge of macronutrients and proper calorie intake, they may not be eating the right foods or the right amount of food to support muscle growth.

Finally, without proper guidance, beginners may not know how to track progress or make adjustments to their routines. This can lead to a lack of motivation and stalled progress.

Overall, trying to gain muscle as a beginner can be a daunting task. It requires a lot of trial and error, and the risk of injury or inefficient workouts is high. Therefore, here are 30 muscle-building tips you could use to make the process of gaining muscle as a beginner easier. Though they are not hard and fast rules, they sure will help you.

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#1 Not Consuming Alcohol Will Reward You

Drinking liquor hinders your progress greatly when you’re trying to gain muscle. One can even say alcohol and fitness have a negative relationship. Firstly, the consumption of alcohol at any time-of-day messes with your body’s ability to build muscle and repair the broken ones. Secondly, it messes with your ability to sleep at night too. This eventually results in soreness and fatigue that last for multiple days.

So, if you restrain yourself from drinking alcohol, you’ll be steps ahead and have great control over your muscle-building process as a beginner. You’ll connect with your body better mentally and physically. Another perk of not drinking alcohol is that you’ll feel much more energized during your workouts.

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#2 Pre-Workout Is Not The Substitute For Sleep

Working out without having proper sleep is not something you as a beginner should do at all. And taking pre-workout to make up for the hours you didn’t sleep makes things just worse. You might feel pumped and energized for the first 30-40 minutes. But, soon as the pre-workout wears off, you’ll feel energy fade off rapidly from your body. You’ll also struggle to lift the easiest weight and won’t feel much of it either.

So, aim for around 7-8 hours of sleep every day. After putting in the hard work at the gym and breaking your muscle fibers, you need it very much. Having a good night’s sleep not only repairs your body physically but also mentally. If your CNS (Central Nervous System) isn’t recovered fully, it’ll be harder for you to lift heavy weights. You’ll even have a difficult time focusing on your workout.

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#3 Motivation Is A Myth, Be Disciplined

Watching motivational videos on YouTube is all good but you need more than just motivation for building muscle as a beginner. You need to hit the gym and do other necessary things. Take your favorite bodybuilder and the video you consume to hype yourself before a workout. Do you think he has achieved that physique by waiting around for motivation or has he worked really hard for it? It’s the latter.

Motivation doesn’t lead you to greatness, discipline does. You need to be disciplined. Start by waking up early in the morning. Don’t skip your workouts. Go to the gym regularly. Never miss your meals. Go to bed early. Just by abiding by these four simple rules, you’ll be able to build yourself a great physique.

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#4 Diet is Very Important

Putting in hard work at the gym won’t help build muscle as a beginner if you don’t feed your body the way it needs to be. You need to consume the appropriate number of macros. Carbohydrates, Fats, and Protein. You need all of these three macros and a majority of them need to come from nutritious food.

If your diet is not on point, you’ll struggle very much at building muscle. No matter how many years work out, you’ll barely see any difference in your physique. Therefore, understanding diet is crucial to achieving your dream physique. Place your carbs around 45%, Protein around 35%, and Fat around 20%.

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#5 Warm-Up Is Necessary

If you want to perform at the maximum level in the gym and keep going to the gym regularly, you need to warm up. Don’t just step into the gym and jump straight to working out. Sooner or later, that’s going to lead you to some injury that might take days, weeks, or even months to heal. And that period will take away a major time that you could use for building muscle. It’ll also hurt the progress you’ve made so far.

So, before starting to work out, perform a 5–10-minute warm-up. Do some low-intensity cardio movement to increase your heartbeat as well as body temperature. Then do some mobility movements, such as rotating your neck, shoulders, lower back, hands, wrists, etc. Now, you’re all set to hit the weights.

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#6 Learn To Use Mind-Muscle Connection Technique

Lifting weights without feeling them won’t help you build much muscle as a beginner. You need to learn to use both mind and muscle while lifting weights. The mind-muscle technique will lead you to gain muscle at a faster rate. Every bodybuilder uses it to get the most out of the effort they put in at the gym.

Here’s how to use it. When you’re lifting weight, don’t just lift it, feel it too. Feel the pain. Feel the blood rushing through your veins. Close your eyes and imagine your working muscle feeling all the stress you’re putting on it. Doing this will change the way you approach your workout. It’ll make them better.

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#7 Recovery Is The Main Key To Grow

Doing an hour-long workout at the gym only breaks your muscle. It’s only after you go home, eat food and take proper rest, your body starts to repair the broken muscle fibers.

You need to feed your body appropriate amounts of calories and give it at least 7-8 hours of sleep at night to let it recover. You also have to pay attention to other factors of recovery.

Stretching after your workout and taking a cold shower, drinking 3-4 liters of water every day, and saying no to tobacco and alcohol, to name a few. Doing these few things will help you recover after a session at the gym and build more muscle as a beginner.

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#8 Limit Using Your Phone While Training

When you’re training, your sole focus needs to be on yourself and the exercises you’re doing. Using your phone too much while working out takes away your attention. It pulls you out of your zone.

Rather than getting back to performing the next set of an exercise, you either forget you’re at the gym to work out or you rush through your sets because you’re so eager to browse through the internet or use social media.

Hence, to get the most out of the time you’re putting at the gym, make sure you aren’t using your phone too much. Do this by preparing your music playlist beforehand, picking up only important calls, and turning off the notifications of the social media apps on your phone. Just go to the gym, do the work, and get out.

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#9 Before Specifics Learn Basics

As a beginner, you first need to build the basic foundation. You need to learn the basic exercises. You need to learn how to perform them. Many beginners do the mistake of going to the gym and doing fancy exercises. They think they need different angles to build muscle or else they won’t make any gains.

News flash. Anyone and everyone who you have seen has achieved their physique by doing the basic exercises. It’s only after they build a great physique, they start to do fancy exercises only to keep their workout regime interesting. However, you don’t have the luxury to do that as a beginner. Therefore, stick to the basics. Only after you have reached the intermediate level, try to do a few of these fancy exercises.

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#10 Do Compound Exercises First

Treat the compound exercises as your workout gods. They’ll help you build a good amount of muscle as a beginner. But, to have their blessings, you have to treat them well. You have to devote the majority of your time at the gym to them. Compound lifts must make up for 90% of your workout as a beginner.

You shouldn’t put them at the last of your workout. You have to do them first. They work on multiple muscle groups at once. This is why they are popular within the fitness community.

Some of the compound exercises are Bench Press (Chest-Shoulder-Triceps), Military Press (Shoulder-Triceps), Barbell Squats (Quads-Hamstrings-Glutes-Abs), Barbell Row (Back-Rear Delts-Biceps), Deadlift (Full-Body).

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#11 Lifting Heavy Won’t Hurt You, Bad Form Will

As a beginner, you shouldn’t be terrified of lifting heavy weights in the gym. Lifting heavy is good for you. It’ll help you build much more muscle at a faster rate. The only thing wrong with lifting heavy is when you do it with a bad form. This is exactly what is called Ego Lifting. And it shouldn’t be done as a beginner.

Whichever exercise you do, first learn about its form. Learn how it’s done. Learn about its range of motion. Starting with lifting light weight on it, then start gradually increasing the weight.

Another important thing to keep in mind is that when you feel like your form will suffer on the next rep, put the weight down. Don’t do forced reps as a beginner. Instead, do an extra set if you feel like it.

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#12 Your Workout Needs To Be Intense

Your workout doesn’t need to be so hard that you can’t walk out of the gym on your own. However, you should at least feel like you put in a great effort during your time in the gym. When it comes to gaining muscle mass as a beginner, the intensity of your workout is crucial. Intense workouts create a significant amount of stress on your muscles, which forces them to adapt and grow stronger over a period of time.

It is important to note that while intensity is vital, proper form and technique should not be sacrificed.

That said, a few ways to increase the intensity of your workout are: doing sets of two exercises back-to-back, decreasing the rest time in-between sets, using the drop set technique, and increasing reps or sets. Don’t use all of these techniques at once. Use one or two of them to boost the intensity of your workout.

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#13 You’ll Lose Your Gains If You Do Cardio Before Working Out

Cardio is good for your heart, lungs, etc. However, you should plan to do it at the right time. Doing it before your workout is just something that shouldn’t be done if you want to gain muscle as a beginner. Running on a treadmill or doing some other extreme cardio movement requires a lot of energy. It increases your heartbeat, drains a lot of water from your water, and leaves you exhausted.

If you proceed to work out in this state, then you wouldn’t be able to perform at your highest level because you won’t have much energy left in your body. You would fail to lift even the lightest weight.

So, either do cardio after your workout sessions or perform it at a different time of day to reap the benefits.

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#14 Regularly Do Mobility And Flexibility Drills

When you work out and start to build muscle, your body starts to compress itself. It tightens and tenses up. If you don’t loosen up your body, your range of motion while performing exercises will suffer. When that happens, you wouldn’t be able to lift weight properly. You will also struggle to move your joints around properly. Put simply, you would hit a wall during your journey to build muscle as a beginner.

So, before or after your workout do a few mobility and flexibility movements (you can also perform them when you wake up in the morning) to loosen up your muscles and joints.

Doing them at least 2-3 times a week will help you to work out effectively and reduce the chances of you getting injured during training.

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#15 Train Abs Like Any Other Muscle

Though training abs will lead you to build six packs, it’ll also help you to gain muscle mass as a beginner. It’ll help you to put on some size on the mid-section of your body, which will make your body look whole. Hence, you have to treat your abs just like any other muscle of your body. You have to progressively increase the resistance and intensity of your ab exercises to stimulate muscle growth in your midsection.

By training the abs with the same frequency and intensity as other muscle groups, you can improve your overall body composition and appearance. However, it’s important to note that targeting the ab muscles alone won’t necessarily lead to visible six-packs. A combination of proper nutrition, overall body fat reduction, and consistent training of all muscle groups is required to build visible abs.

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#16 Your Workouts Shouldn’t Be 2-3 Hours Long

Your workouts do not necessarily need to be 2-3 hours longer to build muscle as a beginner. Instead, focusing on the quality of your workout should be your focus than the length of time spent in the gym. Shorter, more intense workouts that last around 45-60 minutes are generally more effective to gain muscle as a beginner. Whereas, 2-3 hours long workouts can actually hinder the muscle growth process.

When you lift weights, your muscles undergo stress and damage. To repair and rebuild the broken muscle tissues your body requires adequate rest and recovery time. If you work out for too long, you risk over-training, which can actually decrease muscle growth and increase the risk of injury. Therefore, as a beginner, it’s important to prioritize quality over quantity of your time in your workouts.

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#17 Cardio Won’t Help You Lose Fat, Diet Will

As a beginner, you may be tempted to rely solely upon cardio to lose fat. But, here’s the truth: Cardio can be a helpful tool in your weight loss journey, but it won’t be enough on its own. The reason is that losing fat requires following a calorie-deficit diet, which means consuming fewer calories than your body burns.

Cardio may help you burn a few extra calories during your workout, but it’s not enough to create a significant enough deficit to lead to fat loss.

Only a calorie-deficit diet, combined with strength training, can help you lose fat by reducing your overall calorie intake and building muscle mass as a beginner.

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#18 Carbs Are Not Bad For You, They Are Great

As a beginner, eating carbohydrates is crucial for building muscle. Carbs are the primary source of energy for your body. They are essential for fueling intense workouts that promote muscle growth. While exercising your body needs stored carbs (glycogen) to push enough blood into the muscles to help them work and lift weights properly. Without sufficient carbs intake, your body struggles to perform properly.

This, subsequently, hinders your progress and greatly limits the amount of muscle you can gain as a beginner. Therefore, consume enough carbs. Choose healthy sources of it, such as whole grains, fruits, and vegetables, as they also provide important nutrients and fiber that support overall health.

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#19 Aim For 1-1.5 Grams of Protein Per Pound of Bodyweight

One of the most important macros for a beginner to consume is protein. When you exercise, you create micro-tears in your muscles, and consuming protein helps to repair and rebuild these muscles, resulting in increased muscle size and strength over a period of time.

As a beginner, to maximize muscle growth potential, you need to consume enough protein to gain a good amount of muscle mass.

The amount of protein needed varies depending on various factors, such as age, weight, and activity level, but a general guideline is to consume 1-1.5 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day. You have to consume enough protein from a variety of sources to support muscle growth and recovery. Some good sources of protein are fish, eggs, dairy, and plant-based sources such as beans, nuts, and tofu.

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#20 Junk Food Isn’t Just Bad For Your Health, But Your Gains Too

Junk food is not just bad for overall health, but it can also be detrimental to someone who’s new to fitness trying to build muscle. Junk food is typically high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats, and low in nutrients that are essential for muscle growth and overall health.

As a beginner, it’s important to consume a diet that supports muscle growth, including lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats.

Junk food, on the other hand, can lead to weight gain and excess body fat, which can negatively impact your potential to gain muscle as a beginner. It can also cause inflammation in the body, which can hinder muscle recovery and lead to fatigue and poor performance during workouts. Junk food is also responsible for causing nutrient deficiencies, which are essential for overall health and muscle growth.

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#21 Start Prepping Your Meals If You Want To Grow

Preparing meals in advance is important for building muscle as a beginner. When trying to build muscle, it’s important to consume enough calories and nutrients to support muscle growth and recovery. However, busy schedules and lack of time can make it difficult to consistently consume healthy meals throughout the day. By preparing your meals in advance, you can build muscle easier as a beginner.

It’ll ensure that you have healthy, nutrient-dense meals readily available when it’s time for you to consume your meals. This way you won’t have to rely on fast food when you’re short on time and you’ll be able to gain muscle quickly.

By preparing your meals in advance, you can ensure that you’re consuming enough calories and nutrients to support muscle growth and recovery, even on busy days.

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#22 Sunlight Is A Great Testosterone Booster

Testosterone is a hormone that is essential for muscle growth and repair, and low levels of testosterone can hinder muscle-building efforts. Getting sunlight each day can help boost the levels of testosterone in your body.

See, when the skin is exposed to sunlight, the body produces vitamin D, which increases testosterone levels in the body, which can have a positive impact on muscle growth for beginners.

Additionally, exposure to sunlight can have a positive impact on overall health and well-being, which can help beginners stay consistent with their fitness goals. Therefore, aim to get 15-20 minutes of sunlight exposure each day, or consider taking a vitamin D supplement if you live in an area with limited sunlight.

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#23 Supplements Aren’t A Replacement For Nutritious Food

While supplements can be helpful for some people to reach their fitness goals, beginners should not rely solely on them instead of nutritious food to gain muscle.

They should focus on eating a balanced diet of nutrient-dense foods to boost muscle growth and use supplements as a complement to their diet if needed. Relying solely on supplements is not a sustainable or effective approach to building muscle.

Supplements such as protein powder, creatine, and pre-workout can be beneficial in situations, such as when you are unable to meet your protein needs through whole foods or need an extra boost of energy before a workout. However, supplements should be used as a support to a well-rounded diet, not a replacement for it. It’s only whole foods which provide a wide range of nutrients essential to gain muscle.

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#24 Creatine Is The Best Supplement For Gaining Muscle

Creatine is the best supplement for a beginner trying to gain muscle. It is a natural compound found in the human body, and also in foods such as red meat and fish. Creatine has been shown to boost strength, power, and muscle size by providing extra energy to the muscles during workouts. This help beginners lift heavier weights and do more reps, leading to improved performance and increased muscle growth.

Additionally, creatine is safe to consume. It is not a hormone or stimulant. It does not have the same potential side effects as some other supplements.

However, it’s important to note that creatine is not a magic pill for muscle growth and should be used in conjunction with proper nutrition and consistent exercise. Consume around 3-5 grams of creatine each day to maximize its benefits.

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#25 Log Your Every Workout To See If You’re Making Progress

As a beginner, you should log your workouts to track progress and ensure that you are making gains in terms of muscle and strength. By tracking your workouts, you can see how much weight you are lifting, how many reps and sets you are completing, and how frequently you are exercising in the gym.

Keeping a workout log can help you identify areas where you may need to improve, such as lifting heavier weights or increasing the frequency of your workouts.

It can also help you stay disciplined by seeing the progress you have made over time. Additionally, tracking your workouts can help you avoid injury by ensuring that you are not overtraining or pushing yourself too hard during your workouts.

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#26 Don’t Skip Gym Just Because You Don’t Feel Like Working Out

Consistency is key when it comes to building muscle, and skipping the gym just because you don’t feel like working out can have a negative impact on your progress. While it’s okay to take a rest day to allow your body to recover, regularly skipping workouts can lead to a plateau in your muscle growth process. Hence, skipping the gym isn’t something as a beginner you can afford to do if you want to build muscle.

As a beginner, it’s important to understand that gaining muscle requires challenging yourself through training, consistently lifting heavier weights, and doing more reps. Skipping workouts can hinder your muscle-building process, which can make it harder to continue making gains in muscle and strength.

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#27 Going To The Gym Will Build Your Mindset Strong Too

Going to the gym as a beginner not only helps build physical strength and muscle but also strengthens the mindset. Developing a strong mindset is important for long-term success in fitness and other areas of life. Regular exercise, including weightlifting, requires discipline, dedication, and perseverance. These qualities are also essential for success in other areas of life, such as work and personal relationships.

By building these qualities through regular exercise, beginners can develop a strong mindset that can help them overcome challenges and achieve their goals of gaining muscle quickly. Additionally, going to the gym and making progress in terms of strength and muscle can boost self-confidence and self-esteem.

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#28 Gym Is A Great Place To Let Out Your Emotions

For beginners, the gym can be a great place to let out emotions and channel that energy toward building muscle. Exercise has been shown to have a positive impact on mental health, reducing stress and anxiety and boosting mood and energy levels. By releasing pent-up emotions through working out, beginners can improve their mental and emotional well-being, allowing them to focus more on their fitness goals.

Going to the gym can be a great way for beginners to connect with their bodies and build a greater sense of self-awareness. By paying attention to their physical sensations and the way their body responds to exercise, beginners can gain a greater understanding of their own needs and limits. This can lead to a more effective and efficient workout routine. Furthermore, the gym is a better place to let out emotions than adapting to negative coping mechanisms, such as substance abuse or other harmful behaviors.

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#29 Don’t Sell Yourself Short By Comparing Yourself To Others

Beginners shouldn’t sell themselves short by comparing themselves to other people in the gym who have built their physiques through years of hard work and training. Doing so can limit the progress in the gym, particularly for a beginner trying to build muscle. It’s necessary to understand that everyone has their own starting point and journey. Comparing oneself to others can create feelings of inadequacy.

Instead of comparing themselves to others, beginners should focus on their own progress and triumphs, and celebrate their own successes, no matter how small. This can help to build confidence, motivation, and a sense of accomplishment, leading to greater progress in building muscle and achieving fitness goals over time. Remember that progress is a personal journey and varies greatly from person to person.

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#30 Have A Workout Partner or A Personal Coach For Guidance

Having a workout partner or a personal coach can be extremely beneficial for beginners looking to gain muscle. A workout partner can provide encouragement and support, making workouts more enjoyable and helping beginners to push past their perceived limits. Whereas, a personal coach can provide tailored guidance and instruction, ensuring that beginners are performing exercises correctly and staying safe.

Another benefit of having a workout partner or a personal coach is that they can help you learn things faster that are essential for you to gain muscle as a beginner.

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Also Read: 10 Most Searched Fitness Questions On The Internet, Answered

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Whereas, if you have no guidance and embark on your fitness journey alone, it’ll take you a lot of time to learn those things and you’ll achieve your fitness goals at a slower pace. Therefore, you should consider having a workout partner or a PT.