Tips on building muscle

Check out the recomping thread.

To actually build muscle you need to eat at least maintenance probably in a surplus and lift heavy weights in progressive overload.

You can do this slowly through recomping (either at maintenance or a slight deficit) but it takes a very long time. It's well worth it though.

Start doing compound lifts. I like the New Rules of Lifting for Women program, but people have good things to say about Strong Lifts, and probably others I'm forgetting.

If you've never lifted before, it would be good to have a few sessions with a personal trainer to show you proper technique which, for some people, is hard to pick up from books and videos. The problem is, if you've never lifted before, you don't have a lot to go by in judging whether a particular trainer is any good. Probably the best thing you can do is crowd-source the judgment by asking as many people as you can at your gym or in your area for recommendations (or evaluations -- negative advice is helpful too). To me, a good rule of thumb is that if they seem more interested in giving you diet advice that they're not certified to offer and selling you supplements than they are in evaluating your form, walk the other way. If you run into a trainer who insists you should only use machines, not free weights, because you're a woman, walk the other way (personally, I'd demand my money back in that case). Even if they insist on focusing on mapping a program for you rather than focusing on your technique (if that's what you've asked for), I'd look for somebody different.

If you've joined or are about to join a gym, many offer a free session with a trainer.

Desertcolt07 wrote: »

lift heavy, lots of protein

Yep. And your workouts dont have to be "female" geared just lift heavy. those muscles will show way sooner than you think.