When it comes to physical development, building muscle is of course one of the top priorities. An increase in muscle mass will make your muscles more defined, increase your amount of lean body mass, and overall shape you.
Basics of building muscle
Anatomically, skeletal muscles are parallel cylindrical fibers that contract to produce force. These muscle contractions enable human movements to occur. Your body constantly renews and transforms amino acids, the building blocks of protein, into your muscles.
If your body takes in more protein than it adds, you will lose muscle. If net protein synthesis is balanced, there is no change in muscle mass. Finally, if the body adds more protein than it takes in, muscles will grow. The key to building muscle is to increase protein production while reducing protein breakdown. This process of increasing muscle is called muscle hypertrophy and is the main goal of resistance exercises.
The muscle building process is affected by several factors, and these include hormonal factors such as growth hormone and testosterone, as well as the presence of amino acids and other nutrients. Your main tool for producing new muscle tissue is your body's protein synthesis performance, and therefore it is necessary to both perform resistance exercises and get enough protein and nutrients in general.
The right amount of resistance exercise will trigger your body's hormonal response to build muscle , but there must be enough protein and energy to complete the process, or muscle loss may occur. Researchers and experts continue to study the science of gaining muscle, but for now the best known method is to do resistance exercises with medium-heavy weights and consume plenty of protein.
Tips for building muscle
Although many types of sports have health benefits, the only way to increase muscle mass regularly is to use medium-heavy weight resistance. In addition, the development will only occur in the muscle used.
Decide how many reps you want to do
The repetition factor is important when creating the program necessary to build muscle. To stimulate muscle growth, it is necessary to use only the amount of weight that will allow you to do 1-20 repetitions.
So in general, to gain more strength, you need a weight that you can do just a few repetitions with, for more muscle mass, you need a weight that will allow 6-12 repetitions, and for more muscle endurance, you need a weight that will allow 12-20 repetitions.
However, these boundaries are not very sharp. In other words, sets of 3 repetitions provide muscle development, sets of 8 repetitions help you gain strength, and sets of 20 repetitions help you build muscle.
In addition, according to recent research, different individuals may respond differently to more or less repetition intervals. Simply put, depending on who you are, the formula of low reps with high weight or high reps with low weight may work.
Choosing the right weight
Whichever method you choose, the weight you choose should be heavy enough to not allow you to do more than 20 repetitions. By the last reps you should be almost failing.
For example, if you are doing a set of 10 reps, by the tenth rep you should not be able to do any more. It is generally recommended that you reach a point where you cannot do more than two repetitions to build muscle.
However, since it may vary from person to person, you should try at different intervals and find the method that suits you best.
Choose your exercises wisely
Building muscle basically depends on the working muscle itself.
To make your biceps bigger, you need to exercise them. You can try an exercise that works only the biceps , or you can also do a mixed exercise that includes it.
There is no one best type of exercise for building muscle, as both single-target movements and compound movements provide the necessary opportunities for hypertrophy.
However, it is appropriate to use both together to achieve the best long-term results.
Movements like barbell squats stimulate many major muscle groups simultaneously and provide more functional movement in a single exercise. This provides both an increase in muscle strength and efficiency in exercise.
Exercises that activate a single muscle allow them to target specific muscles, and beginners may find them easier than complex movements.
In addition, isolation movements are often easier to perform even when you are tired because you do not have to keep your entire body balanced. This way, you can continue doing these movements if you are tired due to another exercise or work.
Avoid excessive exercise
One rule of thumb is to do 3 sets of 3-5 compound exercises, followed by 3 sets of 1-2 isolation exercises. During these sets, the heaviest weights are generally used in compound movements, while more repetitions are targeted in isolation movements.
If you are performing three working sets per exercise, your total combined and isolated movements should be no more than 5-7 per exercise.
This way, you can reap the benefits of each exercise and reach your highest muscle-building potential while avoiding the symptoms of overtraining.
What to eat to build muscle?
Nutrition is another important stage of the muscle building process. If you do not give your body the right nutrients, new muscle tissues cannot develop.
Loading and cutting
Many athletes, bodybuilders, and people looking to build their muscles use a variation of the loading and cutting cycle.
During the bulking process, you consume more calories than you expend to support muscle growth. The cutting process involves reducing calorie intake to reduce body fat and exercising enough to prevent muscle loss.
To gain muscle, you need to provide your body with enough calories and nutrients, especially protein. In this way, new muscle proteins can be produced by the body and this production will be triggered during sports.
The main goal of eating during the loading phase is to provide enough nutrients for the development of the body, but not to consume so many calories that it causes fat instead of muscle. In this process, some fat gain increases, but muscle building occurs more. Generally, consuming an extra 300-500 calories a day is sufficient.
The body has a maximum muscle building rate, and beyond this limit, excess calories turn into fat. If your goal is to be in shape, you should stay away from excess fat.
Amount of calories needed to build muscle
To gain muscle without gaining excess fat, you need to consume 300-500 calories above your basic needs.
Many factors determine your basic calorie needs. These include your age, gender, current lean mass, physical activity level, occupation, and medical problems.
Proteins necessary for muscles
Protein is the top priority when it comes to nutrients for muscle building. According to the latest research, those who want to build muscle should consume up to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of weight every day.
Your nutritionist will guide you especially about foods, but protein sources will be your main priority.
Muscles need carbohydrates and fat
When it comes to carbohydrates and fats, recommendations vary widely. You need to take in enough fat daily, especially for the hormones to work properly. According to recent research, it is appropriate to consume 0.5-1.5 grams of fat per kilo of your body weight per day.
If you tend to prefer fattier foods, you can accept the upper end of this range. But the rest of your calories should come from a variety of carbohydrate sources.
To calculate this, multiply your daily protein goal by 4 and multiply your fat intake goal by 9. Because there are 4 calories per gram of protein and 9 calories per gram of fat. This way you can calculate how many calories you get from protein and fat.
Then subtract this number from your daily energy needs and divide by 4, because carbohydrates also have 4 calories per gram. In the long run, you can gain muscle without gaining too much fat if you consume regular protein and do not exceed 500 extra calories per day.
How fast can you gain muscle?
While the process of building muscle may be easier than many other things in life, don't think it's too easy or happens too quickly.
Achieving serious muscle building is a process of correct exercise and correct eating that takes months and years. The muscle building process varies even between two people doing the same thing.
In general, with good nutrition and regular exercise, muscle development in the range of 0.25-0.9 kg per month is seen as the maximum potential.
This may seem like a small amount, but over time the results will be incredible. With just a few years of regular exercise, you can gain 9-18 kg of muscle and this will remain visually evident.
As a result, the process of building muscle is very dependent on both exercise and nutrition. In exercise programs designed for the muscle building process, both combined and isolated movements should be applied with weights, but the right exercises, sets, weights and repetitions should be applied for the right muscle amount and size.
Proper nutrition should include sufficient protein, fat and calorie intake. Calorie intake should be sufficient for muscle building, but not so high that it causes fat gain.
Large increases in muscle mass require months or even years of waiting, but it varies from person to person. However, for the right amount of muscle you have to lift heavy, eat right and be regular, that's the rule of thumb.
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