How to Harden Muscles? UPDATED 2022 – A Complete Guide

When you train your muscles properly, they grow bigger. That’s a proven fact and is commonly accepted. It’s common sense. However, some people don’t want this result from this training. It’s a different aesthetic and can change how you look physically.

Instead, some people are asking the question ‘how to harden muscles?’. They don’t want to grow bigger – they want to be stronger. They want to keep their current figure, but they still want more subtle results of training.

If you’re wondering how to harden muscles, then this guide is for you. We’re giving you our best advice on how to harden muscles, how to make muscles harder, and more tips.

 

How to Harden Muscles? A Complete Guide

Before understanding how to harden muscles, it helps to know exactly what happens in your body when you build muscle.

When you’re training, whether that’s lifting weights or doing squats or anything, you’re using muscles. When these muscles are subject to intense activity, the muscle fibers will begin to break.

Your body will reform these muscles over time, but they’ll be different from when before the fibers were broken. When they reform, they’ll be stronger, harder, and bigger.

You can accelerate this process through techniques such as muscle hypertrophy and nuclei overload training. But at a base level, your body makes your muscles bigger by fusing the fibers after trauma.

Testosterone also plays a vital part in muscle building. Your body uses this hormone to help it to build muscle and develop key stem cells in your muscles. Through strength training, you’re encouraging your body to produce more of the testosterone hormone which further helps this process.

So, what about hardening muscles? To do this, a lot of the same key practices from building bigger muscles will still apply. In general, though, harder muscles are built more effectively through having a low body fat percentage.

This is because when you exercise, your body will try to burn fat before it builds muscle. If it has no more fat to burn, then it will start to build muscle through your training.

If you concentrate your training on a particular muscle group, then your muscles will not have time to get harder before they’re broken again. This will instead promote your body to shift its focus to making your muscle fibers stronger, and not harder.

Making your muscles harder involves a particular balance of training, exercise, diet, and other health habits. Unlike making muscles bigger, a lot less focus is put on long periods of rest. Instead, rest periods should be a lot shorter.

HIIT training also has a lot more value when trying to make muscles bigger. You want your muscles to be shocked into intense training so that they grow in and adapt in the face of challenge and adversity.

How to Harden Your Chest Muscles?

One of the muscle areas that will benefit the most from being harder and stronger are the chest muscles like the pectoral muscles. So, how to harden your chest muscles?

You’ll want exercises that are high repetitions and low weight. The low weight will allow you to do more reps for longer, which is key to developing hard muscles. Low weight is subjective, but you should try to lift a weight that is slightly lower than what you can usually comfortably lift.

Specific exercises for hardening your chest muscles include bench presses, dumbbell pullovers, incline presses, and dumbbell flies. As you can see, dumbbells are a great way to harden your chest muscles.

You might also want to consider using a pec deck machine to harden your chest muscles. This machine enables exercises that focus on your pecs, making it easy to isolate this muscle group for the most effective training.

How to Make Muscles Harder Not Bigger?

Unfortunately, a lot of the advice for making muscles harder overlaps with advice for making muscles bigger. To specifically figure out how to make muscles harder, not bigger, requires a lot of patience and understanding of the current state of your fitness and where your goals are.

As mentioned, a low body fat percentage is essential to making muscles harder, not bigger. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. Depending on your body type, building harder muscles may be more difficult for you than other people.

Endomorph, ectomorph, and mesomorph body types all have different propensities to building muscle. You’ll have an easier time building hard muscles if you have an ectomorph body type as you’re already starting with a low body fat percentage.

Mesomorph on the other hand will be able to build larger muscles but will need to put in more effort to build hard muscles.

To make muscles harder, not bigger, the most essential step is to lift weights. Lifting weights is easily the most successful path to building hard muscles. Lift a lot, and at intense levels.

In terms of diet, your muscles rely on natural proteins to reform stronger and harder than they were when they last broke. So, it makes sense then, that you should be providing your body with protein and other essential macronutrients to promote muscle building.

If your schedule allows it, you might see benefits from changing when you eat. Try to eat little amounts frequently rather than big meals at certain times of the day.

 

Best Supplements to Make Muscles Harder

If you’re struggling to make your muscles harder, not bigger, it might be worth considering trying supplements. The best supplements to make muscles harder will provide you with vitamins and nutrients that will support muscle strengthening.

Usually, you can get a lot of great supplements that are tailored to your personal needs. You should always consult your doctor and your trainer before trying any new supplements.

For the best supplements to make muscles harder, look for supplements that provide you with protein, HMT, creatine, and beta-alanine.

 

How to Harden Muscles – Closing Thoughts

Finding out how to harden muscles can be confusing, as a lot of people don’t know the difference between exercises to build muscle and exercises to strengthen muscle.

Just like exercise, hardening muscles takes patience, time, training, and the right diet. Check out our personalized workout plans for everything you need to get started with hardening muscle.