How to build muscle through training
Muscle growth takes time, commitment to resistance training, good nutrition, and recovery. Whether you are a beginner or not, this guide helps you to understand how you can systematically improve your muscle mass. It includes an extensive series of exercises that works, supported by scientific evidence.
1. Muscle Growth (Hypertrophy)
During exercise, especially in resistance training, muscle fibers are damaged, which turns on a process called hypertrophy (scientific term for muscle growth). This is stressful which results in tiny tears in the muscle fibers, but you know what then happens during rest time: The body goes into a repair mode where it fixes these microcyticles making muscles grow and get stronger. The major mechanisms of muscle hypertrophy are:
Lifts weights: mechanical tension is a stress on the muscles which must be adapted to and in response they grow.
When you work out, micro tears occur in the muscles and they enter a repair cycle that results in muscle growth.
Metabolic stress: Exercises that cause a big accumulation of waste by-products (lactic acid) makes your muscles grow up.
These processes are initiated in response to certain types of resistance training, which will be analyzed next.
2. Muscle Mass: Resistance Training
The same thing with muscle building, NO resistance training just forget about ever building any amount of appreciable muscle. This accomplishes through a form of muscle tightening from weight lifting or using resistance bands. The key principles to get your maximum gains in are,
a. Compound Movements
Compounds = Many muscle groups being recruited at the same time to allow more weight to be lifted + encouraging more stimulation of muscle fibers. Some of the best compound moves are:
Squats- quadriceps, hamstrings, glutes, and core.
Deadlifts: Targ
Bench Press : Chest, Triceps, and Shoulders.
Pull-Up/Chin-Up: Targets the upper back, lats and biceps.
When you can do that, you build your whole body more quickly because it targets the major muscles.
b. Progressive Overload
Progressive Overload Is The Progressive Increase Of Stress On Muscles. In order to continually make progress, you have to lift heavier weights, do more reps or simply crank up the intensity. Doing the same exercise with the same weight over and over will allow your muscles to adapt to that load, and it will no longer grow.
So if, for example, you are squatting 100kg for 8 reps, try to do one or two more reps per week or add on a few kg to the bar. But, tracking your progress makes sure you always are testing yourself.
c. Training Frequency
How Frequently Should You Train to Build Muscle? For most people, the golden range is hitting every muscle group 2–3x per week. Research indicates that a muscle can be grown more effectively by training it several times per week than pounding the daylights out of one target muscle-group each session. An easy way of splitting your routine would be via push-pull-legs (PPL) or an upper-lower body split which will assist in keeping frequency up and recovery managed.
Sample Routine:
Day 3: Chest, Shoulders and Triceps
Day 2: Pull Day — Back and Biceps
Leg Day (Day 3: Legs + Core)
Day 4: Rest or Light Cardio
Day 5: Repeat
It is a structure designed to create well-rounded development and plenty of time for recovery.
3. Maximizing Gains Through Training Techniques
Shocking the muscle can be done using a variety of training methods to avoid plateaus.
a. Drop Sets
Drop set: Perform any exercise 2-3 reps short of failure, then drop the weight and immediately continue with your next 'set'. Doing so helped increase the time your muscles spent under tension, which is an important part of hypertrophy.
Example: 8 reps at your max weight on bicep curls, then immediately drop the weight by 20% and do another 6-8 reps.
b. Supersets
Supersets are when you perform two exercises after each other with little or no rest between them. Workouts targeting similar muscle group or antagonists muscles. This way more intensity happens and much HIGHER volume can be performed as WELL in SHORTER muscle producing time.
As an example, a bench press with no rest can be immediately followed by a set of push-ups.
c. Eccentric Training
Eccentric training refers to the stretching phase of a lift, which occurs when the muscle lengthens. This phase results in a higher level of muscle damage, and also allows increases to be the maximum.
Example: Use a count of 4 seconds to lower your body for the squat and then only 1 second to rise
4. The Role of Rest and Recovery
However, muscles grow during rest, not while working out. Recovery is an inseparable part of workouts. Here are some of the best ways to optimize recovery:
How much sleep: Strive for 7-9 hours of quality sleep. And the release of growth hormone, which is important for muscle repair and growth, occurs during deep sleep.
Active Recovery — On your off days spend some time walking or stretching, blood is life and the more you get flowing in and out of the muscles the better.
Rest Between Sets: Rest 1-2 minutes between sets to give your muscles the rest they need to lift a heavier weight.
5. Nutrition The Cornerstone Of Muscle Gains
You can not out-train a bad diet Good nutrition provides the energy necessary to complete your workouts and the nutrients needed for recovery. And this is what you should be thinking about:
a. Protein Intake
Muscle Repair & Growth: Dietary protein is necessary for muscle repair and growth. Since Bill is trying to add muscle, getting about 1.6-2.2 grams of protein per kilogram body weight per day is reasonable. The best sources of protein include:
Chicken, beef, and fish
Eggs and dairy
Legumes and lentils
Whey (liquid) and casein (solid) protein supplements
b. Carbohydrates for Energy
Carbohydrates are the main source of energy for our bodies. Not eating enough will result in a poor performance resulting in less than ideal workouts. Include complex carbs like:
Brown rice, quinoa, oats
Sweet potatoes
Whole-grain bread and pasta
In addition, carbohydrates support you fill up glycogen reserves, which is an excellent lifeblood for your muscle tissues for they employ during exercising.
c. Healthy Fats
Fats are very important in the making of hormones, for example testosterone which is a muscle building hormone. >> Include fats, like:
Avocados
Nuts and seeds
Olive oil
Fatty fish (salmon, mackerel)
d. Caloric Surplus
So, if you want to build muscle, you need to be in a caloric surplus (ie. eat more calories than you burn) Shoot for +250 to +500 cals/day to help fuel muscle growth without excessive fat gain.
6. Muscle Building Supplements to Add To Your Regimen
While you should base your diet on whole foods, some supplements can help boost muscle-building efforts:
Creatine–An amino acid, helps to improve strength and performance in high intensity exercises thus promoting muscle growth.
Day 1, Breakfast — Protein Powder; Great way to meet the daily protein quota and even more ideal for post workout.
Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAAs): BCAAs are known to stop your muscles from deteriorating during each workout, resulting in faster recovery leading to more muscle growth.
7. Consistency is Key
The single biggest concern in muscle developing is consistency. Results are not immediate, and muscle is not made overnight. Stick to the program, put in progressive overload on your muscles and eat and rest.
Conclusion
It is a science of intense, targeted training with adequate recovery and nutrition. It is basic compound movements, progressive overload and good nutrition!! That muscle will not build itself in the week or two, but over time periods as you are consistent and hardworking, you will start to see an actual growth occurring.