Q&A for How to Build Muscle at Home

Working out at home is great for beginners, but at some point you may need to join a gym to continue progressing. If you're a beginner, you can do things like pull-ups, push-ups, lunges, and squats, and you can use weights that are around you or even your own body weight to help yourself get stronger. However, if you want to work up to lifting more, you'll probably need weights to help you out.

It is better to space out your workouts, so that you are not repeating the same workout every day. If you do the same exercises every day, your muscles won't get the chance to repair and grow. Consider trying legs one day, upper body the next.

You have to work the muscles to build muscle and exercise is the only way to do that.

You can use your body weight to build muscle, with exercises such as lunges, jumps, push ups, pull-ups, dips and calf raises.

Interval training, such as High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT), is the best way to torch calories during exercise. Check out this article to learn how to do it: How to Perform Interval Training . Additionally, diet is the most important factor in controlling your weight, so eat wisely.

You may want to take a protein supplement, such as whey powder shakes, when trying to gain muscle mass. Some body builders just drink chocolate milk after workouts, which has the right combination of protein and carbohydrates.

Yes, under most circumstances, free weights are excellent tools for building muscle.

Absolutely, you can use your body weight to build exercises and you can make this even more effective by increasing the difficulty and intensity of the exercises over time. Some good exercises to build muscle in this way include push-ups, pull-ups and lunges. However, don’t get stuck doing just one kind of exercise, for effective muscle building, there needs to be a variety of suitable exercises and workouts.

Yes, you can make your muscles stronger. Follow the steps in the article above and perhaps also read the wikiHow: How to Get Stronger Muscles when You are Currently Weak , to help make your muscles stronger.

Yes, it is possible to build muscle without working out but you will still need to move a lot, as the human body is made for daily movement. Things you can do that will still build muscle include walking everywhere, take the stairs instead of the elevator, do gardening, cleaning and other daily physical tasks. You can also look into taking protein supplements like creatine but do your research as a number of these can cause health effects that are best avoided. Basically, follow a lifestyle of moving a lot and not sitting around too much and you can avoid the gym workouts but still get muscle.

Push-ups are a good option.

Plenty of fruits, green vegetables and whole grains. Eat protein such as egg, chicken, cottage cheese, fish etc. Eat healthy fats including various nuts and egg yolks. Reduce your sugar intake. Work out harder.

Yes, home workouts are fine for thin people. Just follow these workouts with a good diet, and it will be easy for you to build a lean physique.

There should be a fair amount of time since your last meal (30 min-1 hr), but don't exercise on an empty stomach, either. Be sure to be fully hydrated before starting these exercises.

You'll build muscle just the same as everyone else. The real question is: how quickly will you lose fat and be able to see the muscle? That depends on many factors, from your height and physique to your dietary intake and dedication.

It's probably time to move to weight lifting, squats, bench presses, and pull ups. You have to keep steadily increasing the difficulty of your workout to see more results. Drink a protein shake after your workouts as well.

This depends on your genes. Some people have an easier time building muscle than others. In general, however, it will take about 3 months before you see any noticeable muscle growth. You may feel the differences a lot sooner, however.

The most important thing is what you eat: keep a ratio of 50% carbs to 35% protein and make sure the rest is healthy fats. Some people like to add a good-quality protein powder to shakes or oatmeal to boost protein consumption.

About 10 to 20 pounds would be good for beginners if you almost never lift.

You can see the first physical results in about 1 to 2 months.

It depends on your muscle strength. I would recommend starting out with as many as you can do and then try to build from there.

It depends on when you feel comfortable to work out. There is no wrong time.

There is no way to target fat in one particular part of the body, but doing cardio 3-5 times per week will reduce fat everywhere, including in your butt.

Fish and chicken are good options, as well as nuts, cottage cheese, and Greek yogurt. Watch how much sugar you consume. Also, most people don't know this, but there are different types of protein. Certain foods are called "complete protein foods," and these include edamame and spinach.

Arnold Schwarzenegger smoked weed and he was arguably the greatest of all time; as long as you remain motivated to do your workouts, and don't ruin your progress with the munchies, weed won't affect your ability to gain muscle.

Protein is a great option to eat after a workout.

Do some body-weight exercises like push ups and squats.

Oatmeal is great, but adding a protein supplement can aid amazingly. Grilled chicken is incredibly popular in the bodybuilding industry because it's so full of protein. Basically, go for chicken breast, salmon, and anything you find that has a lot of protein in the nutrition facts. Also, don't forget the protein shakes. They're not necessary, but they help a lot.

It depends mainly on the intensity of the workout and what your fitness goals are, but many people average an hour in the gym 3-5 days per week.

Yes.