One of the most common goals pursued in the gym is to gain muscle mass. It will help you have better aesthetics, greater power and strength and will also improve your health. Now, how should you train for it?
What does gaining muscle mass depend on?
The first thing of all is to understand this process a little. When you train and offer sufficient stress to the muscle, it suffers small tears between its fibers. When they rebuild, they do so with greater strengthand that is when you gain volume, or muscle mass.
Now, for this you are going to need two things:
- A correct diet. Macros have to be consistent with your goals, your weight and your training volume. This is a complex question, since each body is different. Therefore, we recommend that you go to our nutrition service. You can enjoy a free first consultation.
- A well structured training. This means that your muscles are given enough stimulation, but that they are also offered the rest they need to recover and gain volume. We will see below how you can carry this out.
How to plan your training to gain muscle mass
Beginning lesson, Let’s see a little how to plan your routine.Organize each workout and how to execute it so you can correctly achieve your goals.
Start with multi-joint exercises.
It is recommended, except in very specific routines, that you start with the most complex ones and those that involve the most weight. Bench press, pulldown, deadlift, squat… They are those that will generate the greatest fatigue. Therefore, it is advisable to be fresh when executing them.
Of course, you also have to correctly consider how to be more functional. The ideal is to do a good warm-up with mobility and conditioning exercises. Then, continue with some approximation series to prepare your nervous system for the impact of the final weight you want to lift. These types of precautions will be important.
Control the series and repetitions.
The best is usually do between 4 and 5 series of each exerciseincluding a total of 8 to 16 repetitions in each of these series. That is usually the optimal range. Now, another important point is to find the optimal way to give sufficient stimulation to the muscle.
It is considered that, to gain muscle mass, you have to do a total of between 12 and 16 sets for each muscle group per week. That is, include several exercises in your routine that stimulate the same muscles or repeat them gradually throughout your week.
Apply a sufficient dose of effort.
The real “secret” in training is get closer to failure. That is to say: reach a point where you practically can’t take it anymore. This forces you to give intensity to each series you do. At least enough intensity.
There are several ways to add intensity. The most advisable and functional thing is to add weight, but there are also other options if you don’t want to go that route. An example is that of look for more complicated exercises. So, if, for example, you usually do push-ups, you can change them to archer push-ups, or clap push-ups.
Another option to add intensity is reduce the rest time between one series and another. In this way, the muscle will not be able to recover in the same way and will have to exert greater effort.
Plan your routine well
Finally, organization is essential. This involves designing your workouts correctly, but also organizing them over time and analyzing them. Let’s go in parts.
The first thing we recommend is which allocates days for muscle groups. You can do it by push-pull or by zones. The idea is that each muscle group rests between 48 and 72 hours until you train it again. That will be enough time for you to recover properly.
Our next advice is to write down your weights and the development of your workouts. Have you point out your lifts so you can see if you are progressing, if you are stagnating or in which areas you need to focus more to improve. Also, this will help you have a mental goal to achieve.
Now you know how to act to gain muscle mass. Of course, you will need to have sports facilities that will offer you everything you need to train with sufficient efficiency. Therefore, do not hesitate to contact us!
