If you're looking to pack on solid muscle mass, you'll definitely want to read this article.

Because there's a lot of confusion on how to gain muscle mass and what it really takes. I want to give you 6 areas you absolutely, positively must focus on in any muscle building program you decide to use:

1: The proper amount of calories.

Since your diet is one of the most important keys to gaining muscle mass, you really need to know HOW many calories to eat, WHAT types of food to eat, and WHEN you should be eating them!

If you consistently under eat, you will NOT gain muscle mass. However, if you tend to overeat a lot, you will likely gain body fat.

So you have to be pretty accurate with your calorie intake in order to gain muscle mass without a lot of fat.

2: The correct approach to training in the gym.

Any muscle building program should give you MASS building techniques so that you can gain quality muscle weight, not just fat.

You want to make sure you're not training too many days. That will stop your body from recovering and your muscles from repairing themselves.

You also want to make sure you're not doing too many exercises, reps, and sets because that too could lead to overtraining.

We'll touch more on it below, but the best approach for building muscle is to stick with the basic compound exercises (bench, squats, deadlifts, barbell curls) and use lower reps and just a few heavy sets.

3: The best possible supplements to help pack on weight.

Let's get this straight...you do NOT need supplements to gain muscle. You need calories. And I've used just about every supplement on the market and many are a complete waste of money! However, there are a few exceptions and some can help you in the muscle gaining process, if you decide to use them.

The main supplements worth taking to gain quality muscle would have to be protein (whey, milk, or egg), creatine, glutamine, EFA's, a multivitamin, and meal replacements.

Save your hard-earned money and time by avoiding the useless ones.

4: The proper amount of sets and reps for muscle growth without muscle breakdown.

Like we talked about above, you want to make sure you're setting up your weight training to be the best use of your time and energy.

Most people train the wrong way for muscle growth. What I mean is, they do way too many reps and sets, thinking more is better.

A lower rep and set range is proven to speed up lean muscle growth while minimizing muscle breakdown.

After all, muscle growth occurs from overload. And it makes sense that one of the quickest ways to increase overload (weight lifted) is to lessen the amount of reps and increase the amount of weight.

5: The right balance of protein, carbs, and fats.

If you don't get enough protein, you WILL NOT gain muscle. If you consume too many fat calories, you'll gain mostly fat and not muscle. So it's important that you get the right breakdown of protein, fats, and carbs for your specific body type.

Most advice shows that 50% of your calories should come from protein, 40% from carbs, 10 % from fats. But this is just a guideline. Find what works best for you and stick with that.

6: The right approach to cardio so that you do not burn off all your hard earned muscle weight.

Depending on your goals, cardio may help or actually hurt your chances of gaining weight. If you're really looking to gain more weight fast, you may not want to be doing cardio at all.

That way, you don't risk losing weight and muscle by expending calories that could have been used for muscle building.

If you're looking to lose body fat while still gaining muscle, 3 to 5 cardio sessions a week is plenty.

For someone wanting to pack on the weight, I'd stick with just a couple sessions, none if you're really desperately trying to gain weight.

Those are 6 basic areas you want to focus on with any muscle building program you use.

The main points again are:

1. Find out the proper amount of calories you need to gain muscle weight without adding a lot of fat.

2. You want to set up your weight training to be the best use of time and energy in the gym. This includes how often to train, how many muscle groups, and how long to rest, both between sets and between workouts.

3. If you decide to invest in supplements, stick with the proven ones like protein, creatine, and glutamine.

4. Using lower reps and fewer sets means you can use more intensity and overload on the muscles. High reps with low weight does nothing for muscle building.

5. Out of your total daily calorie needs, you want to ensure you're getting the proper ratio of protein, carbs, and fats. You can start with the 50-40-10 ratio or 40-40-20 and go from there, depending on your results.

6. If you want to gain mass quickly, you may want to consider dropping cardio altogether. Or else, 3 to 5 sessions should be more than enough to continue gaining muscle while shedding fat.