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The time frame in which you can expect to notice muscle gain depends on several factors: your current fitness level, the intensity and consistency of your workouts and your body fat percentage.

According to the National Academy of Sports Medicine--an organization that educates personal trainers--those who are new to exercise can expect to notice muscle gain within four weeks of beginning a strength-training program.

Everyone from sedentary adults to seasoned body builders possesses skeletal muscles, the muscles that support the movement of the skeletal system. Body fat acts like a blanket covering these muscles.

You will need to be about 16 years old in order to begin gaining muscle. The largest muscle gain in males will generally be between the ages of 18 and 21, if they are working diligently at it. Although this is the normal range, I have seen a 17 year old whose muscle development was very striking. Additionally, before the filming of "New Moon", Taylor Lautner was able to increase his muscle mass substantially.

Each individual has an "upper limit" of muscle that they are able to attain, without the assistance of drugs, and this limit is determined by a genetic predisposition. As you reach this genetic limit, building additional muscle will become more challenging and take longer.

Therefore, you should understand that gaining 15 pounds of additional muscle, when you have already increased your body's muscle by 15 pounds, will be a slower process. These general guidelines will not hold true if steroids are being used, however. Learning how to build muscle will not be an issue if steroids are being used.

The amino acids in the protein you eat, especially the essential amino acids your body cannot produce, stimulate muscle synthesis or the creation of new muscle tissue.

Men and women both need 1-½ to 2 g of protein per kilogram of body weight per day to gain muscle weight. However, you must include this protein intake as part of a dietary plan very high in calories. Men must first consume 50 calories per kilogram of body weight and women must eat 44 calories per kilogram of body weight just to maintain current body mass. Then, you must add 350 to 700 calories to that to build 1 to 2 lbs. of muscle per week.

The best protein powders contain 2 to 2-½ g of the essential amino acid leucine per serving. Leucine appears to trigger the onset of muscle protein synthesis more than other amino acids. Ensure you eat 3 to 9 g of leucine in each of your meals.

With all the different supplements that are available for use, many people have a tendency to get confused on which they should take. In some cases there will be one or two supplements in particular that will stand out to you and draw your attention.

One supplement to take, that often tops the list of many people, is creatine. Let's have a quick look at the top five reasons why you should consider taking creatine.

Why Should You Consider Taking Creatine?

While bicycling, jogging and other aerobic workouts are ideal for improving your heart function and lowering your risk for stroke, you'll need to dedicate time each week to resistance exercise --- also called strength training --- in order to build stronger muscles and overall body strength.

Machine weights or free weights like barbells represent the primary tools for resistance workouts, although your strength also increases when you stretch resistance bands or carve out time for pushups and pullups.

Your timeline for improved strength depends on the intensity of your resistance workout, as well as how often you visit the gym, according to Dr. Ed Laskowski, a Mayo Clinic fitness specialist. Lifting weights for 20 minutes on three days each week is sufficient to gain larger muscles and better strength.

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require expensive workout equipment promoted through obnoxious infomercials. You can't flick on the TV anymore without seeing two new abdominal exercise machines being promoted at once. There are so many of them that if you get suckered into these 'ab workout' gimmicks, you will be broke quicker than Ben Johnson sprints the 100 meter dash! And get this: Of the $520 million dollars a year spent on exercise equipment, abdominal machines get a $208 million dollar piece of the pie!

Learning how to get a six-pack does not require thousands or even hundreds of crunches a day. So much for the Brittany Spears ab workout! Crunches are decent but totally overused and associated with more being better.

Learning how to get a six-pack does not involve starvation diets. Starvation diets starve the muscle when you should be feeding the muscle instead. Guess what happens when you starve your body? Your metabolism shuts down out of survival and causes your body to store fat.

Your primary goal will give you a general starting point for figuring out exactly how to balance your training, as well as what type of cardio and weight training you should be doing. In addition to your primary goal, you will also need to take into account two other major factors: Your Body Type - Are you naturally slim? Do you gain muscle easily? Do you tend to hold onto fat readily? The Type Of Cardio Training You're Doing - Is it high- intensity or low-intensity? Does it fatigue you for weights? Does your weight training fatigue you for your cardio?

If you're training to gain muscle, you will need to do less cardio training. Too much cardio can actually hamper your muscle gain by slowing recovery and burning up calories that your body needs for the process of building muscle. As a general guideline, one or two cardio sessions per week should be enough to maintain your cardiovascular conditioning and keep your bodyfat gains in check while not slowing muscle growth. You should train with weights at least three times per week, up to even six times if you can recover from it and still make progress.

The ectomorph is the naturally-slim person. They have a smaller bone-structure and can seem to "eat whatever they want and not gain an ounce."

2. Switch It Up Doing the same exercise, on the same day, at the same time will bore your muscles just as much as it is probably boring you. Jolt your body’s expectations by completely changing your lifting schedule. If you do chest work on a specific day choose another day to do that exercise. You may want to switch it up every week. After doing this for about four weeks, slowly increase your weight. You should see an improvement. in addition, watch your form. Compromised form can also impede increasing your weightlifting weight.

1. Stop Over-training You may think you are doing your body good by lifting five to six days per week, but when specific muscle groups are being over worked, you will have a difficult time increasing your lifting weight. If you have "hit the wall" and cannot go any further, this would be the time to check your routine. By cutting back on exercises that may be working certain muscles too hard, you may be able to increase your weight, and best of all, your strength. Try these tips each time you cannot advance to more weight. Choose a muscle group that you workout two or more times per week. Cut back to one time, for two weeks. Increase your weight.

If you want to build muscle you need to do two things. You must lift weights and you have to eat a healthy muscle building diet.

Healthy diets for muscle building require you to consume more calories. Of course this only applies if you are already fit and trying to gain muscle mass. It does not apply if you are overweight and trying to lose a few pounds.

For a rough estimate of daily calories you should consume for a muscle building diet, multiply your body weight in pounds by 20.

Q: Is Creatine a Steroid?

A:  I would like to dispel this myth by giving you the definition of what an anabolic steroid is.  These  are synthetic versions of the male hormone testosterone.  Creatine, as you will see below is not.  Basically anyone who says this should immediately be labeled a gymbecile. 

Q: What is Creatine?

Most sets are 8-10 reps, the ideal range for muscle growth. The first two sets of the first exercise for each bodypart are warm-ups. The last two are working sets. The first working set comprises 8-10 reps to failure, plus 2 forced reps. The last working set will include 8-10 reps to failure, 2 forced reps and 3-5 partial reps at the end.

1. CHANGE IT UP Don't let your body get used to anything. Every three to four weeks, change the exercises and the order in which they are done. Change the angles by using different hand/foot positions. Rest periods can also change; this is an often-overlooked training variable.

. REST On at least two days per week, stay completely out of the gym. This means no lifting! And don't neglect sleep - this is one of the most overlooked factors in muscle growth. Sleep equals time to grow.

Muscle definition in the abs comes from a healthy diet and regular abdominal exercises. Your abdominal workouts should target each of the three abdominal muscles: the transverse abdominis, rectus abdominis and obliques. Eat a diet high in protein and low in fat to help build more defined abs.

Start with the upper abs and middle abs, which are considered part of the rectus abdominis, a lengthwise muscle that runs vertically from your sternum to pubic bone. For the lower abs, which tend to carry the most fat cells, perform stability ball knee tucks. The stability ball will strongly engage your lower abs, but also the rest of your core. Kneel with the ball in front of you. Lean over the ball and walk your hands out in front until your legs are straight with your feet on the ball. Engage your abs and pull the ball closer to your chest, lifting your hips and bending your knees. Roll the ball away until you are in a straight line again.

Work the middle abs and obliques. For these, do bicycle crunches. Begin on your back with your feet in the air, shins parallel to the ground and knees bent to 90 degrees. Interlock your hands behind your head, keeping your elbows out wide. Straighten your right leg, right foot in the air, and lift your chest and right shoulder to your left knee. Come back to the center and straighten the left leg, bringing your left shoulder toward your right knee. Keep going from side to side, keeping your chest lifted and elbows wide next to your ears.

“It's changing up your workouts on a very regular basis to make sure that your body doesn't get used to the task

doing the same workout over and over, the body's muscles dull to the routine

mixing up exercises, sets and reps, muscles become “confused,” forcing them to work harder

If you were to wrap your hand around your upper arm and squeeze, you would feel various types of tissue. The soft, spongy material is fat mass, and everything else is considered lean body mass. This includes skin, bone, muscle, fluids and connective tissue. Out of all these types of tissue, fat and muscle are the only ones you have control over.

Feed your body healthy foods. Avoid foods that are deep fried, cooked in butter, smothered with gravy, doused with creamy sauces and coated with sugar. They are empty-calorie foods that offer you no nutritional value. Eat foods instead that are beneficial to muscle building such as eggs, cottage cheese, lean beef, chicken breasts, fish, beans, fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts and oils.

Drink water to hydrate your muscles and keep your calories under control. Avoid beverages high in calories and caffeine, such as energy drinks, lattes, soda, sweet teas, slushies and alcohol. The Institute of Medicine recommends that women get approximately 2.7 liters of water a day and men get approximately 3.7 liters a day. This comes out to about 90 oz. and 120 oz., respectively.

Creatine - Learn More Best taken 1/2 hour or so BEFORE a workout and again RIGHT after a workout. What I do is take a creatine/juice/protein drink about a half hour before a workout and than another shake right after. This "bracketing" technique helps set up an anabolic (muscle-building) state for your muscles and helps prevent muscle breakdown from a workout (catabolism). Other than these 2 opportune times, you can add another creatine serving or two any time throughout the day. I usually recommend 25 to 30 grams of creatine on a loading phase and 10-20 grams a day on a maintenance phase.

Glutamine - Learn More Definitely take glutamine right before bed. This is where the overwhelming research shows the value of glutamine raising growth hormone levels significantly by taking 5 grams before bed. Also, another great time is upon waking, when your muscles have been without significant nutrition for up to 6-8 hours. Another good time for glutamine is about a half hour or hour after working out. This helps in the recovery/recuperation process from demanding workouts. So, creatine definitely before and after your workout and glutamine right before bed and right upon waking.

The best times to take ANY protein drink or protein supplements are as follows. I've listed them in order of importance, so based upon what you can afford, start at the top of the list and work down. When Should You Take It? The most important time is right after a workout. Your muscles are like a sponge and need instant nutrition for muscle recovery and growth. Right before bed. You're about to sleep for 6 to 8 hours. That's a long time without protein. Could you imagine going throughout your day (when awake) not eating 6 to 8 hours? Right before bed is important. Right upon waking. Same thing, you've just gone 6 to 8 hours without proper nutrition. Your body needs protein quick. Half hour before a workout. This sets up the "anabolic window" before your workout and provides your muscles with adequate nutrition so that the effects of weight training (weight training breaks down muscle-called catabolic) are not as severe.

Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Goodshoot/Getty Images Active people involved in resistance training regularly take protein supplements to promote muscle strength, enhance muscle recovery and gain muscle size, as acknowledged in an article by Robert R Wolfe in the August 2000 issue of the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition."

An effective protein supplement used before or after working out should contain the nine essential amino acids that cannot be synthesized in the body. The optimum combination of amino acids renders them "complete proteins." These are protein supplements derived from animal or dairy sources.

Writing in Bodybuilding.com, bodybuilder Hugo Rivera categorizes five types of protein used in supplements according to their bio-availability value--ability of the body to assimilate and use protein.

Muscular strength is defined as the maximum force that can be exerted by a muscle or muscle group.

Muscular endurance is the capacity of a muscle to repeatedly exert force or to maintain a fixed contraction for a period of time.

Putting on muscle mass is a long process that involves hard work and patience. To succeed, both exercise and nutrition must be considered. The National Strength and Conditioning Association reports that novice weightlifters can gain up to 1 lb. a week of muscle, while experienced weightlifters can gain up to half a pound of muscle each month.

Design a weightlifting program for him. MayoClinic.com recommends two or three workouts per week of at least 20 minutes each. To maximize his progress, he will need to increase the weights he uses gradually as well as the length and intensity of his workouts. Advanced weightlifters work out for an hour or more--as often as six days a week, according to the National Strength and Conditioning Association.

Lift weights yourself, and partner with him to encourage him to work hard. To motivate him, you will need to prove you are willing to work at least as hard as he does. If you are not in physical shape to act as his partner, find a suitable partner for him.