Building Muscles
Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!
We are going to discuss how to effectively Build Muscles. There are several components to building muscles. First we have to understand the main objective of your body. That objective is for survival; to keep you alive in various threatening situations. With that said, the body will only be building muscles if there is a reason or a need for it. This can be done with Progressive Overload.
Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!
Let’s talk about Progressive Overload when building muscles. It’s really about supply and demand. If there is a demand for more muscles needed in the body, it will supply the muscle. Let me explain. If you are comfortable with doing a certain amount of weight, for a certain number of repetitions and a certain amount of sets and stay there, there is no reason for your body to build muscle. In fact, if you stay with a routine like that for a month or more, your body has become used to it and will not progress any further.
Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!
What is needed is an increase of weight. You may have to drop down in the number of repetitions initially until your body adjusts. Stay with the same number of sets. Here’s a very conservative example:
Weight Factor: 60 pounds
# of repetitions: 12-15
# of sets: 3
You have been doing this routine for a month and by the third set you haven’t broken a sweat. What you need to do is increase your weight. For example:
Weight Factor: 65 pounds
# of repetitions: 10 1st set
8 2nd set
6-8 3rd set
Do you see the difference? We increased the weight factor by the smallest increment possible. It puts more demand on the muscle. Stay with this weight till your body adjusts, and have completed the designated reps. When this is achieved increase the weight to 70 pounds and repeat the process all over.
At first you will be able to progress rapidly. Then the progression slows down. Don’t quit just keep pushing on as this is normal. Plus, your muscles don’t progress at the same rate.
The second thing you have to keep in mind when building muscles is your diet and watching calories. There is a certain number of calories we all have for weight maintenance. This differs between men and women, and our daily activities. Obviously, if we supply our body with less calories than our maintenance weight requires, we will lose weight. This process is called a calorie deficit. Likewise, if we increase calories, eat more calories than we need, you will gain weight. We then have a calorie surplus. These extra calories will make a person fat if these calories are not utilized. This is a direct proportionate relationship.
Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!
If extra calories are consumed with a progressive weight training routine, the body will know to use those extra calories to build muscle. There are variables which helps the body determine which calories are stored as fat and which are used for building muscles. Consider your genetics, hormones, what you eat and your weight training routine to help determine the amount of muscle building.
Genetics plays a major role in efficiently using your calories. Concentrate on factors that you can control to ensure your calories are used for building muscles and not fat storage.
Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!
Your diet is a factor that is very much controllable. Progressive overload helps your body determine how to use extra calories. You need to determine how many extra calories is right for you. The amount of extra calories differs from person to person. Your body will also limit the amount of muscle building over time. Another words, there is a limit to the amount of calories your body will use for building muscles.
The number of calories used to build muscles is not proportionate. What I mean is, if you need 2000 calories for weight maintenance and consume an extra 1000 calories and the body only uses 500 of those calories to build muscles, the other 500 calories will be stored as fat.
There is more to weight training than progressive overload and counting calories for building muscles. It is extremely important to train the entire body, not just your chest and biceps or just your legs. Weight training requires working out the entire body: chest, back, shoulders, biceps, triceps, quadriceps, hamstrings and calves.
One of the most important reasons for training the whole body is to help prevent muscle imbalances. For instance, if you just train your quads, you then become prone to hamstrings injuries. I would wake up in the middle of the night with front shoulder pain. I talked to my doctor. We talked about my training program and I had been training my chest heavily. I was neglecting my back. As soon as I started working on my back with exercises he recommended, my shoulder pain went away. A very clear example of muscle imbalance. You should train opposing muscle groups equally. It also doesn’t look good when you just train your upper body and have skinny stick legs.
As you know, while training and building muscles, using proper form is critical to prevent injuries and seeing results. It doesn’t behoove you to do an exercise incorrectly and expect to see results. It just won’t happen. Using proper form is efficient and effective!! See my page on Correct Form.
It is recommended to train each body part at least twice a week. If your training is less often there will be slower progress of building muscles. A good suggestion is to train your upper body one day and lower body the next. Always allow 24 hours for recovery of the muscles trained to repair and grow. This also includes your abdominals. Check out my pages on the Abdominal Muscle Group and Abdominal Exercises for a Flat Stomach.
Your carbohydrate intake balances out the rest of your calories. Stay away from refined and processed carbs! Stick with fruits, vegetables, brown rice, oatmeal, whole wheat and grain products.
Drink lots and lots of water. It helps keep up your metabolism. It flushes out your system and helps you feel fuller. Try to stay away from soda pop, sports drinks, juices and alcoholic beverages.
Finally, rest and recovery is a vital part of building muscles. We touched on this earlier, but allow me to expand on the subject. When your weight training with progressive overload, you are actually breaking down the muscle. The body needs to rest and recover “to mend” or build up the muscles. That means giving each muscle group a full 24 hour recovery period.
Bodybuilding.com’s TOP 50 selling products!
It is also important to get a good night’s sleep of at least 8-10 hours. This is when your body is in its ‘prime’ recovery mode. On your days off do some light cardio. It is recommended to allow yourself 3 days off per week from weight training.
You will see results if you follow a healthy, balanced diet with a full body workout using progressive overload. It does, however, require you to make a commitment to yourself- by setting a realistic goal. Be consistent with your weight training. You don’t have to spend hours in the gym but use that time wisely. Give or take an hour for each session is normal.
Visualize what you want to look like. Keep picturing yourself with bigger muscles and with dedication, smart training and a healthy diet you’ll get there in no time! Good luck and be happy building muscles!!
For BODY BUILDING information CLICK HERE!
