Understand the little details that go into designing a successful muscle gaining program.
Remember last week’s topic, working your SUVs instead of you cars? I talked about working your big muscles to speed up the fat loss process. This week I want to switch gears and get away from the fat loss perspective. I want to talk more to those who don’t have a fat loss goal, but have a muscle gain goal.
Just like I said last week, you want to work those big muscle groups, the SUVs, when trying to bulk up. Before I get ahead of myself though, I want to talk about the little aspects that amount to a successful muscle gain program. When I talk about muscle gain, I am talking about a program that is tailored towards the individual who is trying to put on some serious muscle. Whether it is for the upcoming basketball season or maybe to impress those around you, whatever the reason, this goal is completely different than creating definition. Definition can be created with different approaches, including a fat loss goal; this goal, the bulking goal, needs to be a complete lifestyle change. There I go again; I am getting way ahead of myself.
Ok, so you want to put on some serious muscle? First, and the most important thing, is nutrition. Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. I cannot stress how important nutrition is to your program. As I said in an earlier article, nutrition is the make or break it part of you program. If you are not eating any more food than you have been eating in the past when you were not trying to bulk up, then start eating more now! You need to up your daily calorie intake by about 500 calories per day; some of you maybe even 1000 per day! This will provide your body with enough excess calories to support muscle growth. If you do not up your calorie intake, you can be doing all the right things in the gym, but your body will not have the necessary excess calories to allow itself to waste them on muscle growth instead of supporting daily function. In order to add calories safely, you should be getting about 5-6 meals per day that are spaced out every 2 hours or so. If you try and up you calorie intake, but only eat 2-3 meals per day, you are going to put on fat, not muscle, so space it out!
Next, make sure you get some sort of meal/drink with a protein and carbohydrate within 90 minutes after your workout. The protein is used for muscle repair and the carbohydrate is used for energy replacement. If you do not get a carbohydrate with the protein, the protein will just be used for energy replacement; it will not be used for muscle repair (this is not a good thing). Also, make sure you are eating balanced meals with protein, fat, and carbohydrate. A high protein diet does not promote muscle growth; a high calorie diet does. Eating good sources of protein will aid in the quality of your eating habits. Meats, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and grains all contain good sources of protein. Supplementation may help, but there is nothing better than getting protein from animal and plant sources.
Another important component to a muscle gaining program is to make sure you are getting adequate sleep. Eight hours of sleep a night is very important because the significant growth of muscle occurs in between workouts, not during workouts. Good sleep, along with 48-72 hours rest in between workouts, enables your muscles to repair themselves and allows the muscle cells to stay healthy and multiply. You know what this means, it is time for you to go buy some bigger shirts.
Now comes the weight training part. This is an area that can be very complicated because if you do not structure your weight training program correctly, you will not see results as fast as you could. The most important thing to remember is to work your big muscle groups as you would if you were trying to lose fat. By working your big muscle groups (legs, chest, and back), you enable a larger amount of growth hormones to be release throughout your body. The release of these growth hormones (testosterone for example) is what supports the growth of new muscle tissue. Working your arms and shoulders does not contribute to as many growth hormones being released; therefore, muscle growth is not as significant. This is just a snapshot of the weight training aspect of a muscle gain program. The structure of a weight training program is an article in itself, so that is where I will be going next week. Until then, keep up the hard work!
Dan Falkenberg is the co-founder and co-owner of Your Live Trainers.