The next time you visit your gym we want you to ask a Fitness Instructor how many times they are quizzed on how to build muscle by gym members who are lost. You'll be shocked at the answer. It seems the advances made in science over the last twenty five years or so have not made a speck of difference to most people, who are still completely lost on this subject.

Today we are going to run through the prove basics and help you get more from your training if your goal is to add size.

One of the main problems in the health and fitness industry is that there is so much conflicting information out there it becomes impossible to commit to anything. There is not one way to build a better body, there are numerous ways, and if you listen to everything you are told at your local gym you'll probably end up more lost than when you started in the first place!

Don't let anybody tell you that you need to train their way or give you the false impression that they know 'the secret' and everybody else is doing things wrong. Those are the type of trainers or fitness enthusiasts who are bad teachers as they have closed minds and will simply teach what might work for them, not realizing that everybody is different.

On this page we will be delving into the list of fundamental steps which form the basis of a good strength and size workout plan as well as nutrition guide. Whether you are a complete newcomer to resistance training, somebody who has never even stepped foot inside a gym before or someone who has been training for a while but never truly got the results they were pushing for, you will get something out of today's article.

The first port of call is your diet. Don't be fooled into believing you only need to diet if your goal is weight loss. On the contrary, if your goal is to get more muscular your diet is very, very important. You can train all day long if you want but your nutrition is the thing which is going to determine what happens to your body.

So, the first thing we must do is assess your body's desired calories per day. Everybody is different and most people do not have access to the scientific equipment necessary to determine their exact calorie needs each day so we're going to share with you a proven calculation to determine a useful ballpark figure.

Simply by taking your desired bodyweight, in pounds, and multiplying by twelve or fifteen you will be able to set a ballpark figure for your daily calorific needs. Choose fifteen if your goal is all-out size, choose twelve if you want to get bigger but not pack on a lot of size in the process.

So we now have a base figure for our diet. This already puts you ahead of the majority of other people training at your gym because despite it being very simple, most fitness enthusiasts never take the time to learn how to do this and wonder why they never get results.

You also need to look at your training program. It needs to be designed to include the exercises which are best for building size and strength and the repetition range needs to hit your hypertrophy zone. This means compound exercises are going to become your best friend and trying to fall into the eight-to-twelve repetition range with each set.

You are now coming along swimmingly and should be feeling very confident in yourself here. The next two steps cover less obvious points which are often overlooked.

Rest is just as important as training when you are trying to build. Probably less than 5% of the members at your local gym get their rest right and that's one of the main factors in their lack of real results.

You should try to hit the weights no more than three times per week if you are just starting out and no more than four times if you are already training regularly. Think of a rest day as a growth day, so it doesn't feel as if you are doing nothing with your time. This is where you grow, where your body builds.

Sleep also plays an important role in your potential progress. We have all surely heard the doctor's recommendation that we need eight hours of sleep each night but how many of us pay attention to it? Not very many. Again, as with rest days, sleep is where your body unlocks extra results so neglecting it is silly.

While you sleep your body releases natural growth hormone which forces your muscles to recover bigger and stronger than they were before. Don't be tricked into believing your body grows while you are in the gym, it does not, it builds while you are resting and recovering. Neglect this rest period and you are essentially hitting the gym hard again while still not recovered from the last session and therefore very little further progress can be made.

Now you know the basics and we're betting it wasn't as hard or as complex as you thought it would be when you first arrived! The next time you hear somebody asking how to build muscle I want you to remind yourself of the basic rules. Sleep, rest, specific training and a focused diet will get you there. Any personal trainer worth his salt will help you set that plan up should you require help however it's not as difficult as most people think, as you discovered today!