4. Fundamentals of Muscle Building

Finally, I’ve managed to sit down for more than 0.3 seconds and write another blog post! I really missed doing these. Today’s topic will be muscle building (or muscular hypertrophy). This will more than likely be a series of blog posts, because this is my primary passion within fitness and I have a LOT to say about it – truth is, I actually tried to write a blog post that touched on everything relating to muscle building but I just couldn’t, it would have been more of a ‘thesis’ than a blog post..

Anyway, it can be a minefield out there when taking on a goal like this, especially if you’re new to it, but I really hope this helps anyone who’s reading!

First things first, there are 3 primary factors when it comes to muscle building; mechanical tension, muscle damage, and metabolic stress (Schoenfeld, 2010). But don’t mind me and my big juicy words, basically what each of these means is:

• Mechanical tension: Lifting heavy weights. ‘Heavy’ is subjective, but I like to go by a weight that allows you to execute an exercise with perfect form within the given rep range (e.g. 8-10 reps).

• Muscle damage: Tearing down muscle fibres. This can be optimised by using certain techniques like time under tension (slooooooow lifting – say on the leg press for example, the same weight is going to be MUCH more difficult to lift for the same amount of reps when you take 2-3 seconds on the way down and 2-3 seconds on the way up. This is good. We like this.), or eccentric loading (negatives / going slow on the easy part, and either a) fast on the concentric/hard part, OR b) getting a spotter to help you lift the weight for the concentric/hard part).

• Metabolic stress: Since we primarily use the ‘Lactate’ energy system when lifting for hypertrophy, there is a build-up of metabolites (e.g. lactate, creatine, etc.) in the muscles, and its cells swell (for the use of a better term.. we’re aiming for a ‘sick pump’).

The next incredibly important factor in terms of training is progressive overload. Don’t be THAT guy/girl, who goes to the gym very regularly, does the same program for months / even years, and always lifts the same weights, for the same reps, and the same amount of time under tension. If you really want to build muscle, do not be that guy. Sure, I’ve been there before myself, and it took me so long to figure out why I wasn’t progressing. Think about it like this: the actual growth of your muscle(s) is your body’s adaptive response to a stimulus. The stimulus is of course, resistance on the muscle (a.k.a. lifting weights). If you do not progress your program/routine in the gym, your body has no extra stimulus to further adapt to. Therefore, it has no need to build larger muscles. Yes, this part is disgustingly hard (even that extra 1.25kg plate on certain lifts will hurt BAD at times), but it’s what’s required. So, just do it.

To quickly touch on nutrition, I’m going to keep it simple. You MUST be in a caloric surplus. I mentioned a caloric deficit in my fat loss post, when you burn more calories than you consume throughout the day. But for muscle building, the opposite is where you need to be – consume more calories than you burn throughout the day (the amount of excess calories will depend on a few things, but as a general guideline, keep your protein high and aim for 300-500 calories more than your maintenance calories). This allows your body to use the excess calories to repair your muscles from those unrEAL heavy workouts you’re doing. That is the only way to actually pack on new lean muscle tissue. All those muscle fibres you’ve torn downneed to be repaired sufficiently in order to make any muscle bigger, and higher quantities of GOOD QUALITY food is how you do that.

Last but not least, be patient. I’m not going to lie to you and say that if you do all of these things(^), you’ll be a BEAST in 6 weeks. That just won’t happen. Fat loss transformations can happen over a much shorter period of time, but the body only has a certain capacity to build new lean muscle mass. In total, I’ve probably been through 18ish months of pure muscle building, and I’m still not jacked! It will be a long process, but sooooo so well worth it if you stick to it consistently!

This post truly only scratches the surface of muscle building, but please do show some love if you’re intrigued, or if you’d like to know more. I personally have a LOTTTT more things up my sleeve when it comes to this side of fitness (how to train for muscle building, how to eat for muscle building, sleep, recover, etc.), so please let me know if you’ve any unanswered questions.

For PT enquiries, feel free to email me at kpfitnesskate@gmail.com or message me on my Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/KPFitness/

References:

Schoenfeld, B. (2010). The Mechanisms of Muscle Hypertrophy and their Application to Resistance Training. Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, 24(10), 2857-2872.

#bodycomposition #workout #gym #fitness #hypertrophy #musclebuilding #training