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The muscle grows in size if we do what needs to be done. Follow these 6 principles and increase the volume of your body without storing fat.
To achieve muscle growth you have to follow some principles. It sounds boring? No alternative. If you want your muscles to increase in size, you must adhere to a series of questions that are unavoidable.
Perhaps you had already noticed. You go to the gym 5 times a week and while you are stronger than before, your biceps are about the same size as when you started the workout. Why?
Because the principles of muscle growth aim to promote hypertrophy, that is, the increase in the size of the fibers. And that is not always achieved by simply lifting loads on the machines of the gym. It is more likely that you will get power and even definition (the edges of the muscles are more marked), but not volume.
Let’s see, then, 6 principles of muscle growth that you cannot forget if your plan is to have more lean mass.
1. Eat protein
Muscle is built with protein. These macronutrients are the raw material with which the body makes tissues, especially muscle.
If your diet does not have a good amount of protein, there is a possibility that the results in the gym will not be expressed in volume. Simply, because your body will not have how to manufacture what you ask it to manufacture.
This is one of the principles of muscle growth that many people overlook. Fearing weight gain or spending a long period on a diet to reduce body fat, they forget to incorporate these key elements.
According to researcha healthy adult you should eat 0.8 grams of protein for each kilogram of weight per day. We are talking about normal living conditions, without strenuous exercise in between. Therefore, for those seeking muscle growth, it would be wise to increase this intake to almost double.
2. Stimulate each muscle 2 times a week
The amount of exercise you should do for muscle growth is governed by principles divided into weekly periods. Well to the best of our knowledgea muscle stimulated with a routine has its greatest hypertrophy peak at 24-48 hours after.
If more time passes until we stimulate it again, that is, until we exercise it again, then it will not sustain the increase in volume. Once a week is not enough.
That is why it is convenient to develop rotating training plans, but that they concentrate on certain muscle groups on a monthly basis. You can plan your upper limbs for this month and work biceps twice a week, triceps twice a week and concentrate on shoulders twice a week.
Then another month will come and you can concentrate on the core, while still giving little encouragement to the parts we mentioned earlier. Focus on body regions, but without letting too much time pass between one stimulus and another.
3. Exercise large muscle groups as the basis of training
The previous principle already hinted that the routines bodysuit or full body are ideal, being able to focus attention on specific muscles in a rotating manner. But as we well warned, if you let a long interval pass between one stimulus and the other, there will be no hypertrophy.
For the base training routine it is convenient to establish movements that are capable of mobilizing large lean masses and in a complementary way. Working the thorax or chest not only ends up increasing the pectorals, but there is also usually an increase in the shoulders, for example.
The core It’s not just the abdominal part. If you do regular routines for this large region, there will also be stimulation for the lower back and, possibly, a part of the hip and gluteal muscles will be strengthened.
4. Calculate the training volume to increase it
There are many theories about training volume. But first let’s define what it is. We use this concept to establish the total amount of load multiplied by the number of repetitions. And the calculation time is usually weekly.
It means that, if for a certain exercise we use 10 kilograms of weight in 3 series of 10 repetitions, 2 times a week, the volume of that training will be 600 kilograms per week. On that basis we can make modifications in the future.
We could increase the repetitions to have more training volume once we feel that the load is no longer a challenge. Or increase the load to 15 or 20 kilograms while maintaining the same number of repetitions.
Even if they tell you otherwise no way to set the proper generalized amount of reps or load to achieve hypertrophy. Each person has unique characteristics and concomitant factors that must be individually evaluated.
How many reps to do then? That’s the million dollar question. What the sports medicine science is that it is preferable not to reach failure if what you are looking for is muscle growth.
Repetitions to failure are a way of exercising that consists of overcoming a load in the routine until the body indicates that it can no longer repeat. That would be the ruling and the indication to suspend the repetitions or the series.
However, training to failure breaks more muscle fibers that must then heal. On the other hand, suspending the series before the total failure of the muscle allows the body to make a more efficient subsequent repair that translates into hypertrophy in the medium term.
In addition, this method reduces the risk of injuries due to overtraining. Remember that damage to the muscular structures will leave you out of the routine for a considerable time, prolonging the arrival of the results you are looking for.
5. Eat more calories
Proteins build muscle, but alone they are not enough to give us the calories we need. If you exercise as often as we suggest, your nutritional requirements will be elevated.
Again, the fear of gaining weight can lead to a caloric deficit. You may have the false belief that you should limit your intake so as not to accumulate fat and thus hypertrophy your muscles. Nothing further from reality.
Eating more calories is one of the principles for muscle growth that cannot be negotiated. And of course the best thing is appropriate nutritional advice. Consulting with a professional so as not to overdo it or lack it is a good option if you notice that you are stuck in your search for hypertrophy.
As a general rule, it is estimated that around 500 extra calories per day is an acceptable value for someone who trains 3 or more times a week. That addition may become muscle without being fat tissue and, in addition, it will allow a progressive weight gain.
Gain weight? Yes. You have to increase your total body weight if you want muscle growth. Muscle weighs, unfailingly. If you are within the appropriate weight for your age, you train and after a few months you continue to weigh the same, it is very likely that you are not achieving hypertrophy.
What we are looking for is a gradual increase in weight based on muscle tissue. You don’t get fat, if that’s your fear. What you do is gain kilograms at the expense of muscle fibers.
6. Don’t forget about the eccentric part
Many exercises in the gym have a concentric part and an eccentric part. or also called positive parts and negative parts. Not because some section of training is good and some is bad. The eccentric or the negative is usually the movement with which we endwe return the load to the initial place or descend.
For example, in pull-ups, the part of the repetition in which we lower it is negative or eccentric. There you have to pay attention. We can maximize muscle gain if we do that movement in a controlled way. In the case of pull-ups, it would be without letting yourself fall, but descending slowly.
Eccentric exercise strengthens other fibers that are not stimulated during the concentric phase. In this way, the body understands that it must recruit more sections of the muscle to complete the repetitions, so it will seek to increase its size in the medium term.
Follow these principles of muscle growth and don’t be discouraged
Building muscle is a process. It is gradual, slow and requires a commitment on your part to maintain long-term routines.
Do not despair or try to accelerate the change of your body by the desire to see yourself defined in the mirror. This is how mistakes are made, unhealthy eating patterns are followed and fibers are damaged. Patience and persistence will get you results.
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