Lets look at three very important questions:

1. Is it possible to gain muscle fast?
2. Are there shortcuts to getting big, massive muscles?
3. What recent discoveries make building muscle easy?

Can you get big muscles fast?

What do you mean by fast?  A realistic expectation would be to gain 10 pounds of muscle a year for a mature adult (not a teen) who has been lifting 2-3 years already.  Can some people gain muscle faster than this?  Absolutely, but 10 pounds is a good average for the group I mentioned.  Teens have natural growth spurts where they add lots of lean body mass whether they workout with weights or not.  Even then, about 50pounds growth in a year is pretty much just for the one in a million genetic freak.  So back to the original question, can you gain muscle fast?  Not unless you think a pound or two a month is fast.

 Are there shortcuts to getting big muscles?

Sure, we all know what they are and there are risks associated with all of them.  You can get implants thru plastic surgery but anytime you have surgery you can have life threatening complications not to mention the fact that even the best plastic surgery just makes you look strong, not be strong.  Then of course there are pharmaceutical shortcuts and these carry many risks as well, both legal and health risks.  Legal because you can end up in jail, health problems because black market steroids are 90% fakes being made under dubious quality control.

Are there discoveries that make building muscle quick?

People *want* to believe their is an easier way to build muscle and their brains seem to shut down when it comes to critically evaluating claims from advertisers.  I know you have all seen these ridiculous ads in the last year:

“Cambridge scientists have discovered the secret to …”

“Chinese scientists have discovered a shocking shortcut …”

Oh reeeely. Do these scientists at Cambridge have names?  China is a really big country, do those scientists have names too or should we just tell everyone what “Mr. Chinese Scientist” said to do for big muscles?  Be really wary of products suggesting that a plant discovered deep in the Amazon rainforest is their secret muscle builder.  Here is how it works.  Company makes wild ridiculous claims about muscle building potential of their product, they pay some big pros to spread the word, then after taking millions of your dollars they just fold up shop and open up another another name to start all over again.  Now lets talk about the placebo effect which is why so many worthless products get incredible hype.  If you believe something will help you gain muscle, it will.  How?  When you *believe* you have the secret to unfettered, fast muscular gain you have fantastic workouts.  You are focused. You push extra hard because you know you can.  After the gym you pay extra attention to your nutrition because you are so excited about your strength and mass gains.  You brain is a powerful thing, even more powerful than your muscles in many cases.  If you pay $100 for a $2 bottle of caffeine tables that have been hyped in your locker room as incredible mass builder, then its going to work for you too.

So how do you get big muscles?

1. Do resistance training. To build your muscles stronger and bigger you need to force them to lift heavier and heavier weights.
2. Dont overtrain.  Doing a full body workout every other day is appropriate for beginners but not for intermediate or advanced bodybuilders.
3. Get enough sleep at night. If you have to depend on an alarm to wake you up then you probably are not getting enough sleep.
4. Get good nutrition.  Get enough protein from lean cuts of meat, eat lots of vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

Irony at its best!  Check out the advertisements next to this video on this screenshot: