It is true that many people suffer great difficulties to gain considerable amounts of muscle mass and develop correct hypertrophy, and although we must take into account and know our genetic limits, this is not an impossible task, because if we work properly we can build a top-notch physicist.
For this, we must not only consider training as a whole, but as a set of factors such as intensity, volume of work, rest between series … And the same happens with food ; another key piece in the puzzle of our physique.
What do I need to know before I start to gain muscle?
Gaining muscle is not easy. Starting from that base, we must know that our mission consists of;
- Stimulate especially the larger muscles.
- Respect the necessary rest periods.
- Consume the necessary calories during the bulking stage.
- Using progressive loads (starting with excessively heavy series or reaching failure can limit us in the following, and this will worsen the quality of our training).
As long as we are clear on those four points, the rest is really simple.
How to train to gain muscle mass
There is no defined number of training days to gain muscle mass. 3 days can be just as good as 6 as long as the workouts are appropriate.
A fullbody type training will work better than a Weider type, since despite the fact that bodybuilders train following the Weider method, they usually use anabolic substances, which improve the recovery capacity of their muscles and allow them to improve.
For a normal person, a Weider routine will work up to a point, but your resilience will eventually limit you, and this will lead to stagnation.
Compound exercises such as the bench press, squats, deadlifts, chin-ups, the military press … They will be able to work many of our muscles at the same time, and they will help us to continue gaining muscle mass. Analytical exercises, specific to a muscle group, such as the bicep curl, also work, but we should limit them to a secondary plane, since the number of muscle fibers they recruit is less.
The intensity at which we should work should be quite high, but never excessive. The most suitable method is to calculate our 1RM and work around 80% of it.
Our 1RM is the weight of an exercise with which we can only perform one repetition, so if we are only able to perform one repetition of the bench press with 100Kg, we should work with sets of between 6 and 8 repetitions with 80Kg.
How to eat to gain muscle mass
Eating in the bulk stage comes down to a rule of thumb: we must eat more calories than we consume . If this does not happen, it will be totally impossible for us to gain muscle mass.
Increasing the number of carbohydrates will be crucial, since working at higher intensities will cause our muscles to use carbohydrates more as an energy source than fats. In addition, the energy they provide us will be necessary to synthesize the proteins that make up our muscles.
Protein intake should be at least 1.8g of protein for every kilogram of body mass we have, so a person weighing 70kg should ingest at least 126 grams of protein, although studies have been conducted where protein intake was higher and even better results were obtained in terms of body composition.
Fats are also an important factor, since their intake will largely determine the synthesis of hormones such as testosterone ; an anabolic hormone that is very involved in building muscle mass.
Conclution
To gain muscle mass we should train at intensities of around 80% of our 1RM at ranges between 6 and 10 repetitions. We should focus on compound exercises that work while many of our muscle groups, and we should follow a full – body routine.
As for food, it is essential that we eat more calories than we burn. Otherwise, there will be no muscle gain whatsoever. Paying attention to the consumption of our macronutrients is also essential.
References
- Tom Kelso, A Practical Muscle Growth Plan for the Skinny Guy, for BreakingMuscle [Revised December 2015].
