Maximising your Muscle Growth

Muscle growth is, unfortunately, not a quick process, no matter how you go about it. In all honesty, there is no considered “best” way to about it.

Don’t let that put you off though. It just takes a bit of dedication if you’re serious about it. If you already lift weights every morning, then you’re already on the right track. Here are some of the mandatory requirements that you should take into account for some substantial muscle growth.

Eat Plenty

Don’t stuff yourself, but plenty of protein is what you need. (Image: Fit Lista)

When it comes to gaining muscle, you could say it’s like gaining body fat. Of course, this doesn’t mean just eat everything in sight. Protein is the key here, you need to gain more muscle than you lose.  Dietary protein ingestion is what stimulates muscle protein synthesis. When you’re not digesting protein, your body will be breaking muscle tissue down instead.

Train

(Image: Body Building Index)

Training and eating promotes maximal protein synthesis.  Basically, forming a constant training stimulation and eating stimulation will put you in the position where you’re making more than you’re breaking. This process can take time though, it’s not like fat loss that takes days to weeks. You could be working on this for months, maybe years.

Rest

(Image: Muscle & Fitness)

Seems contradictory really, but you need to allow your muscles to recover and grow after protein synthesis stimulation. Much like your skin on a cut, as it recovers your muscle will get back on form but stronger. Working out with damaged muscles won’t do you any favours, so make sure you give them this recovery time.

Frequency

A frequent workout is always good, but only if you can recover quickly. If you don’t recover very well then you should stick to short but intense workouts. Longer sessions will impair your ability to recover, not allowing your muscles to grow.

Intensity

(Image: Goddess Workout)

This is supposedly a lot of people’s problem when they start out. They don’t push themselves hard enough. You have to make sure that you actually do enough to stimulate your muscle growth, which means pushing them towards doing something you’re not used to. Obviously don’t go so hard that you end up snapping your spine, but just lifting weights until you’re bored isn’t going to do a lot. Push yourself.

Tie these 5 points together, and you’ll be on your way. Just make sure you don’t kill yourself along the way, it’s not worth it.

Source: Ali Stewart, via Huffington Post