Our society does seem to be developing a love affair with pills and supplements. Commercials and advertisements abound with the newest supplement and greatest miracle pill ever invented (until next month’s greatest miracle pill). The general public is constantly bombarded with advertisements for diet pills which seem to be incredibly effective until, five years later, the producers are dragged into court due to health damage.

Of the American population, however; no segment is inundated with advertisements for supplements more than those interested in working out and building muscles. It would seem that a) it’s impossible to look fantastic without supplements and b) supplements are going to make it a lot easier.

The first thing to keep in mind is that both of these statements are completely false. It certainly is possible to look fantastic without taking supplements and supplements will make it a little easier, not a lot.

You’re still going to have work out, push yourself, sweat, deal with being sore, etc. There is no way around any of that. The advertisers won’t overtly tell you that their product will make you not have to work out as hard, but they certainly imply. If building muscles was easy, everyone would do it.

This isn’t to say that supplements don’t have their place. Obviously, per the AMA, at the very least you should be taking a multivitamin and mineral supplement daily. This is true for the fat guy who sits on the couch only burning calories by popping open another beer and it’s certainly true when you’re working your butt off at the gym, using even more of those nutrients.

In considering which multivitamin supplement to select, men and post-menopausal woman should select one without iron. Bleeding is the only way an adult body can dispose of excess iron and too much iron can be extremely unhealthy and damaging.

In addition to the general multivitamin, a Vitamin C supplement is also a very good idea. Vitamin C serves a great number of purposes, but for weight trainers one of the most important is that it fights free radical damage which occurs after heavy training. You will also find that it can greatly reduce the amount of time you spend sore after working out, which is a major benefit for most of us.

Glutamine is an amino acid that our body naturally creates and uses…our body just tends to use more than it can create. It’s an extremely powerful antioxidant, which will also help in fighting the stress and trauma of working out. Additionally, Glutamine helps reduce the destruction of muscle protein.

Speaking of protein, the final supplement I want to mention is a whey protein supplement. When you’re looking at building up your muscle mass, the amount of protein you should be taking in is generally overwhelming. Protein is crucial to building muscles, so weight trainers are advised to take in much more protein than the average person.

Getting all of that protein into your body through food can be difficult, and a whey protein supplement is a good shortcut to getting the protein in there to be utilized by the body. It also has a number of other potential positive effects on your overall health.

Beyond these four supplements, there isn’t much on the market that I consider the be really important. If you want to dabble with others and measure your results, feel free to do so, but you should definitely look into these four groups.

Just so there are no misconceptions, there is nothing in this article that can be considered a “miracle breakthrough” for muscle building. Realistically, 99.9% of the “miracle breakthroughs” you hear about today are only interested in building one thing – the bank balance of the person peddling the product. We’re going to discuss a few general, realistic, and workable ways to build your muscles.

For that reason, none of them work overnight, none of them work while sitting on the couch watching television and none of them work by simply drinking some funky concoction. While muscle building supplements have their place, we’ll discuss those at another time.

We also won’t discuss overall nutrition and health but, suffice it to say, if you have an unhealthy lifestyle which makes you overweight and out of shape, you need to fix that immediately. Why waste time on these muscle building activities if you have set your life up as an oppositional force to your own success? Develop a healthy lifestyle and then begin to focus on building your muscles.

One piece of advice that applies to everything we’ll be discussing is to be realistic and don’t push too hard, too fast. The number one reason that people don’t stick with their workout plan is that they start off pushing too hard and get burnt out.

Finally, you need to decide what kind of muscle form you’re looking to achieve. Drawing on examples nearly everyone is familiar with, you need to decide if you want to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger (bigger bulk) or Bruce Lee (lean and toned). This decision will help you determine which kinds of exercises you do and how you do them.

Now, with all of that out of the way, let’s look at some things you can do to build your muscles!

If you don’t already, start getting your body used to working out. Start running every day, not jogging or walking, to help get your blood moving and your muscles primed for building. You’re not running a race so you don’t need to be a speed demon. Instead, maintain a comfortable and steady pace, taking long and powerful strides.

If you want to have the lean, Bruce Lee appearance, you need to work with lighter weights and have a higher number of repetitions in each set. By doing this, you are toning and shaping your muscles into longer and thinner forms. If you want the Arnold look, you need to work heavier weights and do fewer repetitions. By doing this, you are toning and shaping your muscles into short and thicker forms.

Ensure that you have a regular plan, focusing on specific muscle groups, and stick to it. Don’t try to work every muscle in your body every day of the week. At best, this will lead to burnout and at worst it will lead to injury. Your muscles will be getting worked hard, so they need to have time to recuperate.

However, you should rotate your plan every month. For example, let’s say that you are working on your chest, shoulders and biceps on Monday; your abdomen, forearms and upper back on Wednesday; and your lower back and legs on Friday. Every four weeks, rotate one day so that you’ll be working on your lower back and legs on Monday; your chest, shoulders and biceps on Wednesday; and your abdomen, forearms and upper back on Friday. The following month, rotate one more day.

This will allow each of your muscles groups to take advantage of the fact that you probably workout differently on each of those days. If you simply stick with the exact same schedule forever, then you’ll find yourself quickly running into what are known as “plateaus,” where you just can’t seem to build that muscle group past a certain point. With a rotation schedule, you will avoid this problem by giving each muscle group the benefit of your natural changing body rhythm.

If you keep these general guidelines in mind and consistently work at your plan with passion and intensity, your body will be more toned and shaped than you ever imaged it could be. While it won’t happen overnight, it probably won’t take as long as you’re afraid it will.