TIPS FOR THE TRAINING PLAN TO GAIN MUSCLE MASS

Regaining Competitive Edge in Your Workouts

It takes a lot of time, effort and a well-structured training plan to get good muscle. It is only if you train with a "plan" will you gain muscle mass in the long term. A training plan to achieve the goal of gaining muscle mass is based mainly on strength training, in which basic exercises and isolation exercises are the main element. The goal is to encourage muscle growth by subjecting it to continuous stimulation.

 

 

Fundamentals of the training plan to gain muscle mass

A training plan to gain muscle mass poses different demands to athletes. In principle, it is based on basic exercises in which weights gradually increase. Short training series is important to maintain intensity. However, the training plan also includes sufficient regeneration phases to allow the formation of new muscle tissue.

1. Characteristics of a training plan to gain muscle mass:

2. Strength training to increase the musculature

3. Attention in basic exercises

4. Isolation exercises as a complement
   

Frequency of training 

If you want to increase your muscles effectively and sustainably, you do not have to go running to the gym every day, as they say. Less is more! With a 3 or a maximum of 4 training sessions per week and with the right training plan, you can give your muscles the necessary growth stimulus.

In addition, muscle growth (hypertrophy) occurs anyway in the resting phases. It is when the muscular tissue recovers from the effort and the cross section of the muscle increases as a process of adaptation to the increasing load of the training (more weight, new stimuli, etc.) In other words, if you train extremely, you risk stagnating and suffering from symptoms of over-training, such as a loss of strength and a feeling of premature fatigue.

A classic effect would be, for example, to train chest and triceps or back and biceps on separate days. For a training frequency of three to four sessions per week, a triple or quad split is good.

Duration of training

The sessions of your training plan to gain muscle mass should last, as a rule, between 60 and 90 minute maximum. If you train too long, your muscle tissue will be exposed to hormonal stress by the secretion of cortisol. When you do not gain muscle mass in the long term, this hormone is one of the most frequent causes. If you go over the recommended training time, you can boost even the processes of muscle loss.

Important points about the duration of training in a training plan to gain muscle mass:

1. Max. 60-90 minutes per session

2. Too long a training has a catabolic effect

Selection of exercises

By this we mean basic exercises like the bench press, the dead lift, the squats and the shoulder press.

Approximately two-thirds of the training sessions to gain muscle mass should be used in basic exercises or free-weights exercises.

With the help of isolation exercises, specific stimuli can be applied to encourage growth and gain muscle mass, consciously overloading the muscles and exhausting it until muscle failure. This places a huge burden on the central nervous system.

Important points about the selection of exercises of the training plan to gain muscle mass:

1. Attention in basic exercises (two thirds)

2. Isolation exercises to complement (one third)

volume and intensity of training

Unlike the traditional routine for gaining mass, which requires maximum strength training (with a number of repetitions between 3 and 5), in the training plan to gain muscle mass you train in the so- called area of hypertrophy (with between 8 and 12 repetitions). The volume of training and the amount of series is to do it in comparison with the routines to gain weight and for weight loss are clearly superior.

First, 1-2 warm-up sets are always performed for each exercise with little weight and 15-20 repetitions. In this case, the main thing is the increase in the blood supply of all the relevant muscle fibers and the practice of the technique for the subsequent loading phase. The training to gain muscle mass is in the mid-range of repetitions and the intensity is the important thing.

Following the warm-up phase, the weight is chosen with which three to four sets of 8-12 repetitions each will be made. The weight should be chosen so that a clean execution of each one of the exercises can be carried out and, at the same time, supports a good stimulus for the growth. As for the orientation, you have to be able to carry out the last repetition of the last series without needing help.

Important points about the volume and intensity of the training plan to gain muscle mass: 

1. 4-6 exercises per muscle group

2. 1-2 warming series before each exercise

3. 3-4 work series

4. 8-12 repetitions

Pause Time

In the training plan to gain muscle mass, optimal pause times between work series are between 60 to 90 seconds. This lapse of time is sufficient to allow the muscles to recover before resuming the active application of stimuli in the next series of work.

Thus, the training model - pause - training - pause - training - training - pause (quad split) can be followed.

TIPS FOR THE TRAINING PLAN TO GAIN MUSCLE MASS

Keep a Training Diary

It is very useful for most people who train to gain muscle mass to keep a training diary. In it you can register the number of series, the weights used and the "sensations" that you have during the training. With the training diary, the progression (permanent strength increase) can be observed very well and sporadic adjustments can be made in the training plan.

Various Ways Strength Can Improve Your Life

However, studies have shown that bodybuilding can reduce blood pressure and bad blood fat (cholesterol, triglycerides). Also, by doing muscle exercises, the heart works and gains strength. Each of our efforts during the day becomes less difficult. Bodybuilding helps keep our heart healthy longer, besides lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease such as atherosclerosis or heart attack.

Osteoporosis is a pathology manifested by excessive fragility of the skeleton, due to a decrease and alteration of bone mass. When bodybuilding is combined with a balanced diet, this activity becomes a preponderant prevention element to fight against osteoporosis. When the muscles contract, they exert traction on the bones to which they are attached. This solicitation causes the bone to strengthen by calcium accumulation. Measurements of bone densitometry carried out in women having started bodybuilding over 50 years show a decrease and a stabilization of osteoporosis.

Healthy Bones

Osteoporosis involves loss of bone mass and greater fragility of the bones. It affects one in four women and one in eight men after age

50. Muscle exercises cause significant stress on the bones, which causes them to solidify over training. A good way to prevent osteoporosis is to combine a balanced diet with muscle and/or cardiovascular exercises like walking, jogging, tennis, etc.

Bodybuilding Improves Your Figure

Weight training endurance such as running have many benefits for the body (especially from a cardiac point of view), but they do not strengthen all the muscles of the body, such as the ab dominal or arms. A loss of strength in the abdominal strap is because of a prolonged use of the back muscles on a daily basis. This abnormal training of the back muscles can lead to pain, igniting discomfort.

Prevents Back Pain

Do you know that most back pains are also muscle pain? The strengthening of the back muscles, thus allows the prevention and reduction of the famous "back pain", a real chronic disease in the recent years. The more back muscles are toned, the longer the spinal column is secured. In addition, the muscle development of the abdominal and lumbar muscles, which play a preponderant role in the balance of the pelvis, effectively prevents back pain.

A well-adapted and well-executed weight training program helps prevent or treat back pain. About 80% of people experience low back pain during their lifetime. Strength training strengthens the back muscles and improves posture control. The back is better supported. Our spine is more stable and our movements are better executed during our daily activities.

Abdominal bodybuilding: Are you a woman and you are afraid of becoming a bodybuilder with oversized muscles? The development of muscles is more complicated to get in women. It requires training and a special diet.

Muscle Prevents Aging

Maintaining good muscle tone is an important factor for the mobility and independence of older people. Bodybuilding can be practiced even in old age! Exercises of a muscle (called analytical exercises) do not produce almost any cardiovascular stress. By increasing muscle mass (and thus strength and bone mass), seniors improve their balance and thus their ease of movement. Seniors can even get rid of their cane after starting a bodybuilding program.

Bodybuilding Improves Well-being

Like many physical activities, bodybuilding promotes endorphin secretion. This hormone is a natural tranquilizer that helps reduce stress. Having a more toned, stronger and healthier body allows you to have more confidence in yourself!

Favor explosive movements at a steady pace. Perform functional exercises involving the whole body to develop broad athletic skills and a very good strength/weight ratio. Ideally, the sessions should not last more than 30 minutes.

Do not have dumbbells? Be imaginative and do, for example, exercises in body weight or lift heavy things that you find easily at home: big cans filled with water, your cat's litter bags, your wife's handbag, etc.

Other Health Benefits

Strength training reduces the risk of colon cancer, improve diabetes control, improve sports and everyday activities, reduce stress and prevent age-related muscular decline. Muscle training is also essential in a weight loss process.

Warning: It can be easy to get hurt if you practice bodybuilding carelessly. If you are a beginner, bodybuilding exercises should always be performed in precise and stable positions, with controlled body movements and weights. The best advice we can give you, in order to practice safely, is to be supported by a weight training coach who will create a personalized training program.