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Despite all the hype and marketing surrounding a lot of the nutritional supplements being touted today as “necessary” and “must have” there is really only one supplement that is truly necessary for building muscle and that is protein.

The muscles in your body are comprised of two things: protein and water. It is absolutely necessary for you to consume plenty of protein if you want your muscles to grow. Make sure you get plenty of protein in your body before you start to mess around with any other supplements that may do nothing more the drain your wallet.

Let’s take a step back for a minute and actually look at what happens when you go the gym and work out your muscles. If you’re working out with weights, also known as resistance training and weight training, then essentially what you’re doing is breaking down your muscle tissue. You’re actually making small tears in your muscles when you work out hard and those tears are actually what lead to muscle growth and that’s also why it’s sometimes painful to workout in the gym.

Regardless of everything you’ve read about building muscle it’s actually quite simple. Building muscle is as simple as going to the gym and working out and then consuming enough protein outside of the gym to allow your body to grow.

The key to adding muscle to your frame is consuming one to two grams of protein for every pound you weigh. So if you weigh 225 pounds then you should consume 225-300 grams of protein. Consuming that much protein is not going to be easy and that’s where protein supplements can make it a little easier.

There are a few times throughout the day where it is really important to consume protein to maximize on fast muscle growth. The first is immediately following your workout. After your workout your muscles are basically dehydrated and starving for nutrients so take advantage of that and feed them protein so they can start the rebuilding process.

In addition to ingesting some protein right after your workout you also want to make sure you’re taking some protein first thing in the morning and a few hours before you go to bed. Going to sleep means your body is going without food for 6-8 hours so it makes sense to take in some protein before you go to bed and first thing in the morning.

You will make extraordinary strides with your physique your first 12-24 months in the gym regardless of what you do outside of it. Don’t sabotage your efforts by putting all kinds of supplements into your body when you have no idea how they work. Stick to the basics. Train hard, consume lots of protein and you will build big muscles.

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