Making Bigger Muscles
EducationMaking Bigger Muscles
Unless you are blessed with the "giant" gene, making bigger muscles takes hard work and focus. In order for David to become Goliath, David needs to lift weights in a certain way, eat certain foods, and get lots of rest. If you want huge hypertrophy and more mass, you may also need to start supplementing if you ever want to sling more than five little stones around.
The bodybuilding diet is full of plenty of protein and carbohydrates that are consumed in many small meals ever couple of hours, not three big meals. You need the carbs to fuel your workouts, and you need major amounts of protein to rebuild your muscles after you shred them apart during your workout. The bad news is that you cannot make muscle out of fat, but the good news is that you can use fat and other fuels for muscle gain. In my article about "Fitness Fueling" I provide links to online carb and protein calculators, and information about how the body burns fuel for fitness.
Invest in quality protein powders, and add them to a shake full of plain yogurt, fruit and 100-percent juice after every hard round of weight lifting. Dosage is based on your current size. As you keep making bigger muscles, you will get larger, and the dosage will go up. If you don't already consume enough whole-grain breads and pastas for energy, you may also want to invest in a carbohydrate energy powder for a pre-workout shake. Never eat right before a workout, unless you want to vomit. Give your body at least one hour to stabilize your blood sugar levels before you begin exercising.
Get plenty of rest between weight workouts. You need to be getting plenty of sleep, and you need to structure the frequency of your weight workouts to maximize mass. Studies show that muscles need a minimum of 48-hours to recover and rebuild between bouts of weight training. If you lift weights every day, the muscles just keep getting torn down. They will get stressed, injured, and they will get smaller, not bigger.
Search out some supplements. Take a multi-vitamin every day that is not synthetic or otherwise useless. The ingredients should be from live sources and not contain fillers. Do your research, so you know what those big ingredient labels mean. If you have trouble bulking up, get your gloves on some creatine phosphate which will put more power into the first few reps of every one of your weight sets. Always buy from reputable sources, and research, research, research! I highly recommend Shaklee products.
You have to lift heavy, and you have to lift with power to gain mass and strength. Stay away from light weight and high reps. Stick with weight loads that exhaust you after just 6-8 reps. If you can do more than 6-8 reps, you need to add weight. You should be shaking, breathing hard and sweating but still able to crank that last one out with good form. Once your form goes to pot, you're done. The goal is to wear out each muscle with as much weight as possible with as few reps as possible with the best form possible.
Use a spotter. Never lift weights alone! Making bigger muscles is pointless if you kill yourself in the process by getting strangled under the bench press. Building mass requires that you move around a serious amount of weight, and you never know when your muscles might give out on that second or third set. If you are a total beginner, please hire a personal trainer to put you a hypertrophy training phase, and then go back every couple of months for updates.
Get creative with your sets to keep your muscles guessing. We weight lifters have all kinds of fancy names for different kinds of workouts: super-sets, pyramids, inverse pyramids, compound sets, and so on. It is unsafe to get creative with proper form and technique, but it is beneficial to create new ways to bring your muscles to failure. For example, you could start with six reps and lots of weight, and finish with 8 reps of slightly less weight, or vice versa. You could hold the weight at the top for a count of three and come back slowly to the starting point. You could do a set of squats and then go right into leg curls to totally harangue your hamstrings. Don't be afraid to steal ideas from other lifters on the floor.
Have a plan and stick to it. Remember, the minimum rest period is 48 hours, but that doesn't mean you can't do anything at all in between weight sessions. One way you can do it is by devoting an entire day to your whole weight routine, followed by two days of light cardio. The other option is to do some weights every day with light cardio as your warm-up. Here are two examples showing these options:
Option #1 - Monday: Weights. Tuesday: Recumbent Bike for 30 minutes. Wednesday: Light job on treadmill for 20-30 minutes. Thursday: Weights. Friday: Recumbent Bike. Saturday: Jog. Sunday: Rest, do something totally different. Keep all cardio light, so that you save your energy for the weight workout.
Option #2 - Monday: Warmup with Bike for 20-30 minutes, then do upper body weight routine. Tuesday: Warm-up with treadmill or elliptical for 20-30 minutes, then do lower body weight routine. Wednesday: Warm-up with Bike or rowing machine, then do core and abdominal workout. Repeat for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Sunday doesn't have to be your day off, but you do need one day every week when you can be active in other ways like gardening, hiking, swimming with the kids, golfing, etcetera.
Ladies! Don't be afraid of bulking up unless you are on steroids. Men's muscles are round, while women's are oval if you look at them in cross-section. Muscle weighs more than fat, but it takes up a lot less room and looks a lot better. Never be afraid to get stronger and leaner.
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