Moving is important to maintain our health, but also, for aesthetics we may want to obtain more defined muscles. For it it is important to follow a consistent training at our current physical level, to be constant and take certain factors, which we talk about in this article, into account.
If you are thinking of starting to train your body, either to gain strength or to gain muscle mass, do not miss what we tell you today.
Before entering the matter, it is important that it is clear that increasing muscle size is a progressive process that depends on many factors, as we will see, and in which we must know how to listen to our body in order not to overdo it. This means that we have to be patient and constant to achieve the expected results.
Muscle mass
Muscle mass is the volume of the body tissue of muscles. Skeletal muscle is what allows us to move and maintain posture.
The muscles are capable of increasing according to the demand for effort that we ask of them, which allows us to gain strength and endurance. This process is recognized as muscular hypertrophy, that is, the increase in muscle due to training.
Why does muscle grow?
Normally, muscle grows when its myofibers break during work. When the muscle is rebuilt, it does so in a larger size to cope with the work it has been subjected to.
Therefore, to achieve an increase in muscle mass we must attend to three fundamental factors:
- Proper training that produces the breaks of the myofibers.
- Feed ourselves properly to repair muscles.
- To rest well since it is at night when the muscles are repaired.
Training to increase muscle
As we had been announcing, we are facing a progressive physical change and therefore also facing a progressive training. The starting point will be marked by our physical level and from there we must achieve strong and resistant muscles before starting a training that makes them increase.
If we do not follow this process as much as possible, it is that we end up injured and we cannot train for a long time, after which we will have to start from scratch.
How much to train?
If you are going to start training from scratch, the ideal is to do between three and four workouts a week to gain strength and endurance. In a short time, the exercises that cost you will seem easier and it will be time to take another step.
To start gaining strength and endurance, combine these exercises:
- Sprints
- Squatting
- Dominated
- Pushups
- abdominal
- Strides
- plates
- burpees
- Barra
If you start from a advanced level or you have already managed to gain resistance and strength, the ideal is train for four days exercises to gain volume and two days in which we do a short session of no more than fifteen minutes of aerobic exercise.
Exercises to increase the volume of muscle mass
We must always start with a warm-up and finish by stretching all the muscles that we have worked.
At first, it is best to do the exercises we talked about a moment ago, especially those that are most difficult for us to do. Little by little we can increase these exercises by adding weight. For example: weighted squats, kettlebell lunges, etc.
In addition, we will add deadlifts and pectoral exercises such as those that can be done on the bench.
How many reps to do in volume training sessions?
The warm-up exercises should be done with little weight and about 15 repetitions.
When we start the training itself, the repetitions will be marked by our body. Can start with between 10 and 12 repetitions and two sets. When this is easy for us we will carry out between 3 and 5 series with the same repetitions.
We must adjust the weight so that the end of each exercise costs us to do it, that is to say to reach the failure in the last repetition of the last series that we do. Always, yes, being careful not to injure ourselves, if we see that we fail before we must reduce the weight for the moment.
Never forget to stretch.
What factors are important when it comes to gaining muscle mass?
Our genetics
Genetics are hand in hand with muscle growth, making there are people who can get more developed muscles and faster than other people. Therefore we must be aware that our own body will mark its limit and we must respect it.
Our physical level
To begin we must be aware and recognize from which physical level we start and little by little increase the level as our physical form increases, that is, we are more resistant and strong.
Rest and avoid overtraining
Muscles grow overnight, when fiber repair takes place. Therefore it is logical that If we do not have adequate rest at night, we will not get good results no matter how much we train.
At the same time, dWe must respect the rhythms of our body, if we try to break the limits that mark us, it is most likely that we will suffer an injury because our body cannot adapt to the rhythm we want it to take.
Be careful if you start to feel any of the following symptoms:
- Anxiety, depression, or low mood
- Fatigue
- We performed much less than before
- It takes us much longer to recover
- We have difficulty concentrating
- We feel muscle or joint pain
- Our sexual appetite is reduced
- In the case of women, lack of menstrual period
If you feel them, it's time to lower your training level and let your body recover before picking up the pace again.
Do not neglect muscle groups
It is a very common mistake to focus training on the upper part of the body for men and focus on the lower part for women. Nevertheless If we want to be healthy, it is important to work all our muscles equally.
A diet that helps us nourish our muscles to obtain greater benefits
We should eat high protein and low in inflammatory foods of the digestive system since these foods will prevent us from properly absorbing the nutrients of what we are eating.
Eat foods such as cod, prawns, chicken or turkey breasts, lamb or pork. As well consume carbohydrates in the form of fruits, nuts and vegetables. And consume the tubers turned into resistant starch.
Also eat quality fats so that our body has the necessary food to manufacture certain hormones such as testosterone.
The best sources of this type of fat are: blue fish, eggs, olive oil, avocado and grass meat.
And above all remember that the increase in muscle mass is something progressive. First we must gain strength and then increase our muscle mass, so we must be patient and constant without stressing our body.
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