1 – The Password is Consistency!
Are your genetics good, but your habits bad? That’s not such a great thing…Your muscle mass increases slowly, so you have to persevere over time if you want to see lasting results. It is said if you firmly continue you will see wonders!
2 – Know Thyself
Do not focus too much on weight because as you increase muscle mass, it does not mean you’re putting on pounds! Keep an eye on the relationship between your body fat percentage and lean body mass (body composition) with the impedance meter.
Aided by measuring waist circumference, chest, legs and arms. If you can, keep an eye on these values once a week by placing all the data in a chart. Try to follow a path more fit to the needs of your body. The same applies to the power supply: follow a healthy and balanced diet and keep in mind that training involves a constant expenditure of energy whose diet must be taken into account!
3 – Training, of course!
To increase muscle mass, you have to program an anaerobic workout.
Squat and deadlift, for your legs and back, use a flat bench and incline bench for your chest and pulls for your back: these are multi-joint exercises that should be performed with weights for the most effective workout; they allow you to train large muscle groups and reduce fat mass. The ideal schedule is 2-3 workouts per week of 50 minutes, with a maximum 60 minutes.
Performing exercises with impeccable technique is crucial, especially in the initial stages, so you should be followed by a personal trainer or an assistant. There is no need to lift too much weight, the key variable is in fact the intensity of the workout (work done in units of time), so: run multiple sets of exercises and take short breaks between one set and the another.
4 – Rest
There are two types of sleep: nocturnal sleep and rest between training session and the next.
You must provide a rest period to compensate for muscle stress. If you train you have to rest 7-8 hours minimum each night. This because, during the night, the body produces the hormone GH (growth hormone) that regenerates the tissues that are stressed (in a positive way) during exercise.
If we go out before we rest, even if your body has been properly trained, your workout will not be effective because your muscles have not been rested enough. Try to concentrate your workouts during the week.
It is not necessary to train more than 3 times a week. Overtraining does not mean you will be better results, it’s better to leave a day of rest between one workout and the other, or alternate between aerobic and anaerobic training. The more you train a large muscle group, the longer it takes to recover. Analyzing if the muscle has recovered or not is one of the things that you need to learn.
Remember: without rest, the muscle does not grow even if the workout is extremely effective.
6 – Routine
An important objective is to include a routine in your workout! This way you do not have to think about what to muscle train and when, workouts must be performed in a schedule. If you decide to work out Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6:00pm to 7:00pm, try as much as possible, to maintain this pattern.