If you want to build bigger and stronger muscles, you need to stimulate your muscle fibers and damage them for bigger growth. Muscles grow bigger when they are depleted and repaired afterwards by means of proper nutrition high in protein and sufficient amount of rest and recovery. While training is the first step to work your muscles in the hope of getting bigger ones, it's not the answer to it. You can train very hard everyday but not achieve any significant muscle gains. For sure, your muscles will be toned up but they won't get any that bigger. What is more important if you want massive gains is to pay proper attention to high quality nutrition and of course having proper rest. But we will focus on nutrition in this article. Nutrition is key to your body building gains. I would say training is only 20 percent, nutrition 60 percent and the rest goes to sleep.

In my experience, I've seen that even if I haven't trained for weeks after having gone through intense workouts before, but still eating properly, I can still keep my muscle gains and mass. You can train only twice per week for only 1-1.5 hour per workout, eat big and you'll get bigger. So only 2-3 hours per week. This is how nutrition is that crucial. You don't need to train like mad to get these so desired muscle gains. But of course, the more training you do say like 4 days per week targeting different muscle groups per workout, you'll get to focus more on specific muscle groups and reduce your training time. Focusing too much on training can also lead to overtraining which won't do any good to muscle growth and will hinder it. During the time you aren't training, you also need to pay attention to eating and not just on your training days.

If you want to get big, you need to eat big, it's that simple. Eat like 4-6 meals per day spaced out every 2-3 hours to keep your metabolism high and to lower fat storage. But not eating just anything, you need the right kinds of food. High quality protein meals are the way to go. Muscles are made of protein and that's the key ingredient for muscle growth. To give you an idea how much protein intake you need, it's about 1 gram per pound of body weight. So if you weigh 175 pounds, you'll need about 175 grams of protein per day divided in several meals. So if it's 5 meals, you only need 35 grams of quality protein per meal(175/5).

Breakfast is fundamental if you're training. Don't skip it. It gives you the energy to start your day and in your workouts. I would say breakfast is one of the most important meals of your day along with your post workout meals. Also, you should eat most of your meals during the day including the complex carbohydrates and lighter at night with more protein and vegetables. Here are some good sources of protein ie egg whites, egg white powders, whey protein powder, skinless chicken breast, skinless turkey breast, lean steak, lean ground beef, fish like haddock, halibut, herring, salmon, tuna, trout, lean cuts of pork, red lentils, low fat milk, cottage cheese. Go for complex carbohydrates like oatmeal(a top choice for breakfast), wholewheat pasta, brown bread, brown rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams and fibrous carbs like broccoli, green beans, asparagus. Eat fruits as well like banana, orange, apple, peach, kiwi, papaya and drink lots of water.

So don't underestimate nutrition. Follow at least a month of proper nutrition along with your training and adequate rest and I guarantee you will get the so coveted muscle gains. Your body will reward you for that. Happy eating.

About the author

Jean Lam is the webmaster of Body Building Resource which provides articles on weight training, nutrition and fitness, body building book and DVDs.