If you repeatedly walk barefoot on rough terrain your soles thicken to deal with the abuse. If you skip meals your body slows down its metabolism and stores fat to protect itself from starvation.
So you see that the body adapts to any stress that it is subjected to. If you want to know how to gain muscle mass, the answer lies in the very same principle.
Make your muscles do more work, and they’ll get bigger to handle the extra load.
Your body needs a REASON for building bigger muscles and the TIME for building them. You can provide the reason to your body by working out with intensity in the gym, and the time by allowing it enough rest between workouts and good sleep at night.
Note that muscle doesn’t grow in the gym. Workouts stimulate muscle growth which actually happens in the rest period when you provide the muscles enough nutrition through muscle building diets.
This article is focused on muscle building workouts. We shall discuss 5 principles of gaining muscle mass through exercise and recovery.
Principle 1: Work Out With Really Heavy Weights
How heavy? As close to your one rep max as possible. Remember your muscles are lazy. They don’t want to get up and work. They will work only as much as what is required and no more.
They will utilize the least amount of muscle fiber needed for the job at hand. This makes them shrink over the years as you make lesser and lesser use of them. If they do get up, it is because of emergencies.
So the only way to bulk up fast is to create emergencies by performing exercises that are enormously demanding. Every muscle fiber needs to be awakened into action.
Work out with the heaviest weights that you can handle without the risk of injuring yourself. Get rid of bodybuilding myths like isolating muscle parts and focusing on one part at a time.
You need to employ the whole muscle to pump it up and gain muscle mass fast.
Your body will respond to the stimulus by hypertrophy, i.e. increasing the cells of the muscle tissues, making them larger.
Principle 2: Work High Reps
Do you really think lifting your one rep max will do the job for you? Better than a couple of lifts with a heavy weight is more lifts with the same weight.
8 – 12 repetitions with a heavy weight are what will make your muscles really adapt and grow bigger and stronger. This is and important principle of gaining muscle mass that you must follow to make a difference quickly.
Principle 3: Increase the Weight Progressively
Most traditional bodybuilding literature talks of lifting slow and “quality” weights, but they invariably turn out to be the light ones. Lifting light weights slowly and repetitively are only good for calorie burning.
They do nothing to help gain lean muscle mass. There is simply no muscle stimulation, no intensity, and no reason at all for the body to build more muscle.
To make muscle grow, you need to subject it to progressive overload. Each time there should be something new and unexpected in store for the muscles.
When they are put through enough stress to the point of slight discomfort (but avoiding the risk of injuries), they will react by becoming bigger to adapt to the new situation and deal with the extra stress.
The need for more muscle arises only when the body realizes that it must fortify itself to prevent a repeat of some particular calamity (your previous workout).
With the progressive overload technique, you subject your body to bigger calamities every time. The body responds by growing muscle mass so that it doesn’t have to experience the trauma again.
As your muscle fibers are happy to sleep as long as they are not required, this is a good way how to gain muscle mass fast by never letting them sleep.
Principle 4: Recover
This is the trickiest principle to hammer into your subconscious mind. Camping in the gym is not going to give you extra muscle mass; it is in fact going to deplete it and/or cause serious injuries.
Recovering means giving your body rest; and not bombarding it with supplements.
Let your body recover completely from each intense workout. It is during this time that the body synthesizes new muscles to prepare you for further brutalities.
This is the period in which you develop more strength to lift heavier weights the next time you work out. If you begin working out without recovering completely, you will not be able to apply the progressive overload technique, leading to a plateau or even loss of muscle.
Principle 5: Don’t Train Too Often and Too Long
Training at the gym each day of the week is detrimental to muscle growth. Not only will you not gain muscle, you will in fact lose it and gain fat as a natural reaction of the body to handle abuse.
Training too long is also no good for gaining muscle mass. Volume and intensity of training are inversely proportional. You need to exercise with intensity and that can only be possible in short sessions.
3 Indications to Know if You Have Over-trained:
1. You are unable to lift more than last time
Each time you work out, you need to increase weight by 5 percent according to the progressive overload technique. If you are unable to, pack up and go home. You haven’t recovered yet.
2. You are unable to increase repetitions
If you decide to keep the weight same as last time, you need to increase reps. If you are unable to, it means you need more time to recover.
3. You need longer to complete your workout
If you keep the same amount of weight and same number of repetitions but complete your workout in lesser time, it indicates progress. And if it takes you longer, it indicates that you have not completely recovered from your last workout.
For more on muscle building workouts, quick recovery methods, and nutrition guidelines, refer to Vince DelMonte’s No-Nonsense Muscle Building e-book in which he lays out a definite 29 week plan to carve out the body you want.
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