Strong muscles can enable you to play and enjoy many types of sports and physical activities. Not only that but even your everyday activity levels can be enhanced when you have strong muscles. Daily activities like walking your dog, making your bed, vacuuming your carpet, and so on, all require strength. Your joints too will stay in good shape.

Fortunately, muscles are not very hard to develop. By following the below 9 pieces of advice on how to use weights the right way, you can gain muscles easily.

1. Lift Weights

Hypertrophy is a process wherein a stimulus is placed on the muscles to enhance their growth. While in the beginning, you can start with lightweights, but once you are accustomed to it, you must increase the intensity. To see any real changes in the muscles, the stimulus must be bigger. If you are comfortable while using weights, that means that you are not gaining muscle. The idea is to get out of your comfort zone and increase the weight used to apply more pressure. With a consistent increase in weights, you will see both muscle gain as well as strength.

2. Choose The Right Weight

Grabbing light weights for a workout is a mistake. Select a weight that can be lifted 10 times. The last repetitions must be challenging. Maintain the correct body posture while using weights. The type of weights should be decided as per the body requirements. If while lifting, you feel any extremely painful discomfort, you should drop the weights and take some rest. You have to focus on properly lifting the heavyweight and avoid getting injured in any way. For beginners, lifting weights can be done with the presence of a trainer who can advise them accordingly.

3. Set A Routine

The routine here is not limited to working out every day but also to form a routine for the workout itself. A typical workout routine for muscle gain is to complete three to four sets of ten to twelve repetitions. Using heavier weights with fewer reps will help you gain muscles and using lighter weights with more reps will increase endurance. Follow a set of exercises for every workout.

4. Be Consistent 

To be able to gain muscle you must at least work out 3 to 5 days a week consistently. Keep a notebook to record your exercise routine so you can track your muscle gain. Try not to have bigger breaks of more than a day between two sessions.

5. Try Different Types Of Exercises

There are so many ways to workout to gain muscles that you can never get bored. You can choose four to six of them and change them every few weeks to keep the monotony away. For smaller muscle groups you can choose variations like barbell curl, rope curls, and so on. Heavy dumbbells are great for shaping your quads and glutes. Shoulder press variations can help exercise the shoulders and upper body. Traditional deadlifts will strengthen your hamstrings, glutes, and back strings. 

6. Maintain The Correct Posture

Adopt an athletic stance when you are getting into a position to do exercises that require you to stand. Keep your feet shoulder-width apart. Your toes should be pointed outwards and your knees slightly bent. Keep your back straight and your head should be facing forward. A stable position will ensure that you do not suffer any injuries during your exercise and will give you a kickstart when picking up weights. 

7. Give Yourself Recovery Time

Much as you would like to hit the gym, finish your workout and head back out, you should not do exercises in a hurry. Give yourself ample recovery time between weight exercises. When you have recovered properly, you will be able to repeat the next set more efficiently and even push yourself harder. 

8. Change Your Eating Habits

You are what you eat and this applies when you are training with weights to gain muscle mass. Your body will need all the nutrition to be able to do its best during the exercise. For this reason, you will need to start eating healthy. The first rule is never to miss breakfast. Do not stay hungry for a long time. Snack healthy every few hours. Your main meals should be rich in protein. Try to incorporate a vegetable and a fruit with every meal. Also, nutrient-dense vegetables can be eaten in large portions without adding weight. Stay away from processed food. Processing food makes it lose all its nutritional value. 90 percent of your diet should include whole foods to be able to gain muscle mass.

9. Stay Hydrated At All Times

Keep yourself hydrated at all times. After all, your body is 70 percent made up of water. This is all the way more important during your workout. As you sweat during your workout, your body starts to feel dehydrated. Extreme dehydration can be harmful to your health. You can hurt yourself badly if you faint during a workout because your body is dehydrated. Ditch canned juices even if they state that it is 100 percent natural. All canned items must include preservatives to be able to have such a prolonged shelf life. If you indeed want to drink some juice, you can make a freshly squeezed one at home easily. Surgery drinks like soft drinks, energy drinks, and so on should be avoided at all costs. Tea and coffee can be consumed provided there is no sugar in them. 

Follow the above 9 pieces of advice consistently. Do not get let down easily if you don’t see quick results. One of the biggest challenges you would face will be boredom. When you repeat workouts every day, eventually you will tend to get bored. For this reason, you must mentally prepare yourself to push harder and focus on the final results. Add as many creative methods as possible. Taking a friend along is also a good idea. Noting down the changes in muscle mass as you work out, will be another motivational factor.