How to make your muscles grow at an accelerated pace. Developing the Mind-Muscle Connection to Promote Hypertrophy How to Make Your Muscles Tighten

And you already have an idea of ​​what a muscle is. But how does muscle contraction occur? What makes our muscles work?

In simple terms, muscle contraction occurs under the influence of nerve impulses that activate nerve cells spinal cord – motor neurons, the branches of which are axons brought to the muscle. If you take a closer look, inside the muscle the axon divides and forms a network of branches that, like electrical contacts, are “connected” to the muscle cell. Through such contacts, muscle contraction occurs.

It turns out that each motor neuron controls the group muscle cells. Such groups were called - neuromotor units, thanks to which a person can use part of the muscle in work. Therefore, we can consciously control the speed and force of muscle contraction.

So, we looked at the process of “launching” muscle contraction. Now let's take a closer look at what happens directly inside the muscle during contraction. This material is somewhat difficult to understand, but very important. You need to understand it, otherwise you will not be able to fully understand how our muscles grow.

Muscle contraction in rough approximation

First of all, it is necessary to understand what consists of numerous strands of two proteins: myosin And actin, which are located along the myofibril. Moreover, myosin is thick filaments, and actin is thin filaments. This explains the light-dark striped structure of the myofibril (dark stripes - myosin, light stripes - actin).

In the literature, the dark areas of the myofibril are called the A-disc, and the light areas are called the I-disc. Actin filaments are attached to the so-called Z-line, which is located in the center of the I-disc. The myofibril segment between the Z-lines, including the myosin A-disc, is called sarcomere, which can be considered a kind of contractile unit of myofibril.

The sarcomere contracts in the following way: with the help of lateral branches (bridges), thick myosin filaments draw thin actin filaments along themselves.

That is, the heads of the bridges engage with the actin filament and pull it between the myosin filaments. At the end of the movement, the heads disengage and engage again, continuing to retract. It turns out that muscle contraction is a combination of contractions of many sarcomeres.

If we consider the thin actin filament separately, it is a double helix of actin filaments, between which there is a double chain of tropomyosin.

Tropomyosin is also a protein that blocks the engagement of myosin bridges with actin in a relaxed muscle state. As soon as a nerve impulse is supplied to the muscle through a motor neuron, the charge polarity of the muscle cell membrane changes, as a result of which the cell is saturated with calcium ions (Ca++), which are released from special stores located along each myofibril. The tropomyosin filament, in the presence of calcium ions, instantly deepens between the actin filaments, and myosin bridges are able to engage with actin - muscle contraction becomes possible.

However, after Ca++ enters the cell, it immediately returns to its storage and muscle relaxation occurs. Only with constant impulses emanating from nervous system, we can maintain a prolonged contraction - this condition has been defined tetanic muscle contraction.

Of course, contracting muscles requires energy. Where does it come from, how is the energy that supports the movement of the myosin bridge formed? You will learn about this in the next article.

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Hello! Today we’ll talk about how lagging muscles should be trained and how load specialization should be structured. Let's go, friends.

From the very beginning I will say one caveat: BEGINNERS DO NOT NEED SPECIALIZATION!

Very often you can see that beginners who have just started training only bomb their arms and abs in the gym. Naturally, there is no progress for a very long time, or no progress at all, because... In order for small muscle groups to grow, large ones need to grow first. Then, in the end, having achieved a “bulging vein on the biceps,” it seems to them that progress is really being made, and they increase the load on their arms, which is the second mistake.

Beginners do not need specialization, because... they do not yet have sufficient muscle mass. Specialization is needed in order to eliminate body disproportion in an advanced athlete who has developed a lag in some muscle groups from others.

In order not to become a “mutant”, in whom only the upper body is developed, with a complete absence of legs or chest, and with the rest of the body lagging behind, you need to try from the very beginning to give an equal load to all muscle groups. However, this is not always the key to an evenly developed body.

Reasons why some muscle groups lag behind others

There are only a few reasons, in my opinion:

1. UNEVENITY load distribution.
2. TECHNIQUE performing exercises.
3. GENETICS a particular person is less suited for growth in the lagging muscle group than in the rest muscle groups.
4. OVERTRAINING lagging muscle group.

I'll tell you everything in order.

Uneven load distribution

This is exactly what I was talking about above. As a rule, this is the main reason for the lag of various muscle groups not only among beginners, but also among athletes who have been training in the gym for quite some time.

Every person in the gym has a muscle group that they like to train more than other muscle groups. For beginners, these are usually the abs and biceps, and for girls, these are the buttocks.

That's why, WE DEVELOP WHAT WE TRAIN. Some muscles begin to outstrip others in development. And this is not very good.

It’s one thing when your shoulders or calves lag behind and quite another when you have a developed upper body, and your legs are like matchsticks, for example. Or quite advanced shoulder girdle, with a strongly lagging back.

All this spoils the silhouette and often the athlete begins to look like some kind of incomprehensible, unformed lump or a mutant with an unevenly developed body.

Conclusion: To avoid imbalance, train your entire body EVENLY from the very beginning.

Exercise technique

A very common problem. Nobody wants to look like a loser in the hall and everyone tries to show off as much as they can. In most cases, this is done due to excessive weight.

The man writhes, twitches, spews various kinds of masses from all the crevices, but still tries to lift this weight, which is obviously large for him. This is fundamentally wrong.

Load progression– this is a key GROWTH FACTOR, yes, but the load must increase without negatively affecting the technique of performing the exercises.

CORRECT TECHNIQUE- this is a way to MAXIMUM LOAD the working muscle, while turning off or minimally loading all other structures (ligaments, joints, tendons) and muscles involved in this movement.

Simply put, the muscle that we are training should work, and everything else should be turned off, the LOAD MUST HIT EXACTLY ON THE TARGET, i.e. into the trained muscle.

This way you'll be better off . You will stop thinking about the weight on the bar and how your joints are cracking, and you will think about HOW YOUR MUSCLE WORKS. You will be focused on how she feels.

I hadn’t thought about this before, so my shoulders were behind in development, and I had to correct this issue for a long time. Now it's not so noticeable

That is why, a professional will be able to load the muscle much more with less weight than a beginner who is chasing heavy weights.

Conclusion:

1. There is no need to burden your muscles with weights that are too heavy for you.
2. It’s better to take less, but do the exercise with better technique.
3. Turn off everything possible from work to make the work of the muscle being trained harder.

Genetics

I won’t say that the factor is the most important, but it shouldn’t be excluded.

Many people justify the lag of some muscle group by unimportant genetics. No one wants to admit that they are just doing things anyhow.

But some genetic factors can make it difficult for muscles to grow.

Eg, the muscle may be shorter than in other people and this will complicate its growth. This often happens to the biceps and calves. Calves in general are often called “stubborn donkeys” since not everyone grows well.

People who are very tall and have long bones tend to have a harder time growing muscle mass than shorter people. In people of average height (165-180 cm), as a rule, the muscle bellies are short and the ligaments create shorter levers, so it is more convenient for strength work.

But I wouldn’t pay too much attention to this point, because... many champions had poor genetics, but this did not stop them from standing at the pinnacle of glory. They just knew what they needed to work on more than others.

Conclusion: genetics is a fairly important growth factor, but in most cases everything will depend only on your DESIRE!

Overtraining of a lagging muscle group

This happens, but very rarely. As a rule, everything happens the other way around (as in point 1). Nevertheless, this moment takes place.

Sometimes, athletes begin to take an unreasonable approach to choosing a method of treating dystrophy of any muscle group. They just stupidly start training it until they drop, every day, for example, until they can only hold a barbell or dumbbells in their hands.

This is bad. THE LOAD SHOULD BE SUFFICIENT FOR GROWTH, BUT NOT EXCESSIVE! There is a proverb: « There is medicine in the spoon, but poison in the cup.” There is no need to engage in self-help overtraining. This way you will do more harm.

Increasing the load must be approached wisely.

Firstly, if you want to increase some small muscle group (calves, biceps, triceps, deltoids), then you don’t have to significantly reduce the load on the remaining muscles. Most likely, your recovery abilities will be enough to digest such a load.

But if you want to make your quadriceps bigger, then you need to significantly reconsider your program, because... restoration of such a large muscle group requires considerable energy expenditure.

Conclusion: the load should be sufficient, but not excessive.

Training lagging muscles. How to make muscles grow

To eliminate the lag of a certain muscle group, you need to understand one simple thing: THE MORE WE TRAIN A MUSCLE COMPARED TO OTHERS, THE MORE DEVELOPED IT WILL BE COMPARED TO OTHERS. But the load should be sufficient for growth, NOT EXCESSIVE.

In other words, we must force our lagging muscle to work TO THE MAXIMUM, but should not overtrain it.

1. We do MORE work on the lagging muscle.
2. We do LESS work on the remaining muscles.

Regarding the first point. The work can be increased by:

• Training VOLUME(increase the number of repetitions, approaches, exercises);
• TRAINING FREQUENCIES(increase the number of workouts per muscle per week);
• WASTING ENERGY in the approach(increase intensity through supersets, dropsets, etc.)
• TECHNIQUE(larger range of motion, maintenance of tension, peak contraction, etc.);
• TRAINING WEIGHT per exercise(increases the load, BUT DO NOT GO FOR WEIGHT, as it disrupts the technique of doing the exercises);

It's all simple and I'm sure you're familiar with these things.

These are WAYS TO INCREASE THE LOAD on the lagging muscle.

But there is a second point - DO LESS WORK ON THE OTHER MUSCLE GROUPS. Why do so few people do this? Because it’s a shame to lose hard-earned results.

But in fact, often reducing the load is only beneficial, because the body perceives this as .

But this is not the only point. Thus, the body will free up the RESOURCE of recovery abilities for the growth of the lagging muscle group.

Rules for training muscles during specialization

So, I’ll note a few basic rules for training muscles during specialization.

1. Specialization can be carried out only ON ONE MUSCLE GROUP! We need to cut this down on the nose. If it seems to you that you are lagging behind several muscle groups, then most likely you simply lack the overall muscle mass bodies.
2. A couple of weeks before specializing on the lagging muscle, REDUCE THE LOAD ON IT! A rested muscle responds to specialization much better than a tired one.
3. The main specialization lasts on average 2-3 months. Then the load should be reduced and train according to the usual program.
4. DO NOT DO TWO SPECIALIZATIONS IN A ROW! At least every other time, this will give the best effect.
5. Specialize in the OFF-SEASON! Here you don’t have to worry about increasing your caloric intake and belly fat.
6. To grow small muscle groups, you need to grow large ones (legs, back, chest).
7. Specialized training should be done NO MORE FREQUENTLY than every other day (except for calves and abs). Otherwise, they simply will not have time to recover.

These are the most basic rules to understand what we are talking about.

How to put specialization into practice

All schemes boil down to INCREASE THE LOAD on the lagging muscle and REDUCE THE LOAD on all other muscles. Options include a wagon and a small cart.

In practice, in most cases, this is not difficult to implement. For example, we need . They are our lagging muscle group.

Then we can train as before, and train our shoulders not once, but TWICE a week. Or, for example, we used to do 4 sets of shoulders, but now we do 7. That is. the load almost doubled. You can also start doing dropsets with weight loss. Or we can generally do more approaches, train more often, and use dropsets. It all depends on your fitness and recovery abilities, friends. Determine what is best for you.

In order not to disrupt your recovery abilities, you should reduce the load on other muscle groups. Nothing comes out of thin air. Here, as elsewhere, the law of conservation of energy applies. If you spend much more energy than is in your system, you will simply break it. Don't bring your body to .

PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS:

• The smaller the lagging muscle group, the less you need to reduce the amount of work on the remaining muscle groups. This applies to biceps, triceps, deltoids, calves. You can train the rest of the muscles in almost the same way.
• Accordingly, the larger the lagging muscle group, the more you need to reduce the volume of load when working on the remaining muscles. This applies to the legs, back and chest.

Which method is the MOST EFFECTIVE?

Specialization will work most effectively if you STOP training other muscles AT ALL and focus only on developing the lagging muscle. This works 110% because... all the body’s regenerative abilities are concentrated in only one place.

In addition, you will be able to train the lagging muscle MUCH MORE OFTEN, because... supercompensation (super-recovery) will occur faster in her.

Small muscles can generally be trained every other day, or every day if you work in pumping mode.

In this case, you will be surprised how the lagging muscle group will grow literally before our eyes, but, frankly speaking, few people are capable of this, because... It’s a VERY PITY to lose results in other muscle groups. But if you decide to do this, you will eliminate the lag much faster.

conclusions

These are the main points that need to be taken into account in order for training lagging muscles to be effective.

Over time, only you can create the best scheme for yourself, because... it depends specifically on YOUR MUSCLE, on the size of its lag, on your genetics, fitness, gender and age, as well as the recovery capabilities of your body.

Learn to analyze, friends. This is very important not only for creating a competent training program in the hall, but also for more important things concerning our lives.

P.S. Subscribe to blog updates. It will only get worse.

With respect and best wishes,!

Have you ever wondered why many bodybuilders with good physique stop building mass and fight for the muscles they have already achieved? Perhaps this case concerns you too.

Are you really looking for new ways to drive growth? Are you pushing your muscles to continue to develop and achieve explosive growth? You can achieve your goal if you do everything right.

Most athletes focus on increasing their muscle mass. Unfortunately, they often work to their detriment. They want to gain weight so much that they overdo it. Instead of making your muscles bigger, overtraining has the opposite effect - it locks you down. muscle growth. By overloading your body, you are preventing muscle development. The question of how this happens requires clarification.

Should you always push yourself to your limit? How to say. The longer you train, the more effort you need to put in the effort to achieve new results. Muscles must be forced to grow, and this requires a lot of work. In the book “Necessary Components of Strength Training and Exercises general development” the writer notes, “Trained athletes typically need to perform more prep (warm-up) exercises to continue to improve (although training overload is also possible).”

The longer you train, the more effort you have to put in to make your muscles grow. On initial stage training, your muscles require a moderate level of intensity to make them grow. As your body adapts to the stress, you have to work harder to keep gaining size.

Bodybuilding expert Chris Aceto notes: “Ask any good bodybuilder. They all trained more often in their early years. sports activities, and achieved great results. To continue their development, they had to strain themselves more and more, using greater and greater loads. (At the same time, they continued to keep themselves in good shape.) Because you are using larger loads, you must work each body part less frequently and with greater effort.

Aceto emphasizes that training should occur less frequently, but more rigorously, and in this he is absolutely right! You should train harder, but less often. Level of strength gain and level of recovery are not synonymous.

As noted in The Strength Training Factor, a number of exercise physiologists claim that a novice athlete can increase his muscle mass by 300% (!) in his first year of training, while his ability to recover from training only increases by 50%. . An athlete's ability to stress their body increases faster than their ability to recover from stress, which creates a serious problem and leads to injury.

This ratio will not change even if you exercise more. As you continue to work out in the gym, this gap not only does not disappear, but may even increase. Aceto reveals his theory in Bodybuilding Insights, Nutrition and Training: “The longer you do bodybuilding, the harder it is for you to gain muscle. Your ability to recover from training is not much greater than what you had in the early years of training. Your need to increase the intensity of your workout increases, while your ability to recover strength reaches a certain level and no longer changes.”

This discrepancy puzzles many bodybuilders. They mistakenly believe that by increasing the load, they should also increase the number of repetitions. This is wrong. You should not increase your training frequency. It doesn't even need to be maintained at a certain level. The frequency should decrease.

When it comes to training, some people take the “less is more” mentality and make the opposite mistake. They reduce the number of workouts, which is correct, but at the same time they reduce their intensity, which is not the right decision. The intensity must be constantly increased over the years of training.

Like many others, you may have been influenced by one of these misconceptions and either increased the frequency of your workouts or decreased the intensity of your workouts. But in both cases, you were unable to achieve noticeable results in building your muscles. One of these scenarios could be the reason for your lack of noticeable results from your workouts. You're either training too often or not pushing yourself hard enough.

To make any progress, you have to make the formula work. While studying power loads, you should train more intensely, but at the same time less frequently. To make your muscles grow, put this formula into practice and you will see the results.

Intensity fuels the fire.

As your muscles become accustomed to the stress and exercise regimen, you will need to make some changes to stimulate growth. You must increase the intensity of your training to move to the next level of development. How to measure this intensity?

The term intensity is somewhat subjective and intangible. How to measure it?

Chris Aceto says the amount of weight you use is the key to this challenge. The weight you carry The best way measure the intensity, provided that you maintain good form and do not allow yourself to relax during exercise.

Lifting heavier weights requires more energy. This is especially important to remember for those who have just switched to new stage in your training. Many people quit bodybuilding as soon as the load becomes too much. However, it is the heavy loads that will help you continue to build your muscles and become stronger.

You will not be able to achieve serious bodybuilding results if you use small loads or the same load without changing it as you continue training.

Intensity is ensured by a gradual increase in load when moving from one stage of muscle building to another.

Large and intense loads cause severe muscle pain. This pain may last for several days. It signals that there is a need to restore strength and relax the muscles.

Radical recovery.

Lifting weights really drains your body. Many bodybuilders who intensively engage in this sport do not realize that sooner or later they will bring their body to complete exhaustion.

The heavy-load approach works well for increasing intensity, but not for recovery. Rational physical exercise especially in relation to lifting weights, has a great impact on the body.

Simply eating more food will not solve the problem. Some bodybuilders follow the slogan: “There is no such thing as overtraining, there is such a thing as undernutrition.” If you pay attention to bodybuilders with this phrase on their T-shirt, you will notice that most of them are overweight.

The book The Strength Factor states: “The supply of biochemicals used in the process of stimulating muscle growth is limited to the extent of sufficiency, and cannot be voluntarily renewed, no matter how many calories you consume. The amount of additional substances consumed does not affect the rate at which your body grows.” Too much stress and heavy food can even cause a backlash in the body. Nutrition plays an important role in building your body, but eating too much can cause obesity.

Do you really want your muscles to grow at breakneck speed? Let them rest more!

Rejuvenation factor for new growth.

Building muscle is a 2-part process. Muscle tearing (via intensive training) – this is only half the battle. In turn, there is a need to build new muscles. This process is also divided into 2 parts.

The late Mike Mentzer noted that this procedure involves building new muscles on top of old ones, as well as balancing the body. This overcompensation represents new growth. The body replaces what was lost during exercise and then adds some more to withstand new stimulation in the future similar to what it just experienced. With such a system, active muscle growth occurs, but only if there is sufficient time for this.

How do you know how much rest your muscles need? There are a couple of ways in which you can determine quite accurately the amount of time you need to rest and recuperate.

One such indicator is muscle pain. When you put too much stress on your muscles, they start to hurt. This is especially true when you push past your established load limits. Train your body to a level you've never reached before (maybe increasing your bench press load from 250 pounds to 265) and your muscles will get a real jolt. You know how much they hurt when you try to move. Muscle pain signals to you that your body needs time to recover.

Ignoring muscle pain puts your health at risk. Why? Resuming exercise too soon after a strenuous workout can negatively impact your muscle growth results. When your muscles don't get enough time to recover, resuming your workout routine can pose some challenges. Try this a couple of times to challenge your muscles and you'll quickly send your body into an overtrained state.

Severe pain in the muscles indicates that they are not yet ready for new loads.

Dr. Mauro de Pasquale notes: “Chronic overtraining leads to chronic muscle pain and chronic fatigue. I believe pain is associated with muscle damage. This is usually the next training session. Sore muscles are sore muscles. Inflammation leads to metabolic and functional changes in muscle fibers, reducing their ability to adapt to a particular load, contract and grow. Mechanical damage to muscles leads to metabolic disorders and can become the basis for the effect of overtraining.” Dr. DePasquale also notes the high importance of getting enough rest to fully recover between workouts.

Heavyweight bodybuilder Skip La Cour argued: “Train less and less often.” But how to determine optimal frequency training for you? When to start new workout? A good rule of thumb is: "Wait until the muscle pain from the past classes will take place" To be sure, wait an extra day or two after you feel the pain is gone. This time will provide you with the guarantee of complete recovery and growth. The more you exercise, the more rest you need.

A beginner can afford an extra visit to the gym, but not a veteran. An advanced bodybuilder and even a beginner at an intermediate level of development can work with insane amounts of strength and put incredible strain on their body, which in turn requires a lot of recovery time. Not surprisingly, many bodybuilders seem to reach the same level at this stage. They constantly overload their body to a point beyond which growth is simply impossible. Does this sound like what happened to you? This may cause loss of training effectiveness.

The solution to this problem is very simple and lies on the surface. Get more rest. As much as possible. This seems elementary, but in reality it is not so simple, especially if you are regularly in gym.

Are you a gym rat? You may change your attitude and approach to training. To get your muscles growing again, try a different method. Is your current training program giving you the results you really expect? Obviously not. So keep an open mind and try something new, like taking more time off from the gym between workouts. Radically? Yes. But this approach really works great.

Long rest breaks.

Taking long rest breaks gives you several benefits. They allow your body to not only repair muscle tissue that received tears during training, and create muscle reserves for new activities. Such breaks have a beneficial effect on your mental state. The more time you take to rest between training sessions, the more eager you are to get back to work.

Imagine how with every workout you experience a new surge of strength, rather than forcing yourself to crawl half-dead into the gym by force of will, as you do now. Imagine how you can easily take on additional weight, which requires additional energy expenditure, rather than giving up if you don’t make it halfway. More time to relax and your dreams become reality.

Exercise less often! Sounds absurd? If you have been involved in bodybuilding for a long time, this is the key to new achievements for you.

More time to rest will give you the opportunity to heal your injuries. Otherwise, injuries will accumulate and you will no longer be able to achieve full performance in your training. And while you rest, you'll have time to get rid of minor injuries and won't get new ones (less time in the gym means less opportunity to get a new injury.) The more you rest, the more energy you accumulate for the next work session.

Total time for rest.

Taking breaks between sessions doesn't mean you shouldn't work the same muscle groups on subsequent days. The whole body requires rest. Regarding influence frequent training on the body Aceto notes: “The body works hard to recover from one workout, and receives additional stress from subsequent workouts. As a general rule, you should not train one muscle group more than once a week. When you train all muscle groups at once, you need 24 to 48 hours to fully recover.”

You may have already been brainwashed with the ideas of training every other day (a well-known approach for beginners is to work on the body on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for example) or other similar regimes, for example, training 4 days in a row to work all muscle groups at once with one day off and subsequent repetition of the cycle. However, such training programs are not optimal, since they do not take into account the need for sufficient time for complete recovery of the entire body.

At first you will be able to achieve some success with such a work schedule, but over time your results will become less and less noticeable, which, ultimately, can even lead to a complete loss of productivity. Why? Muscles become overtired, as does the entire body, which does not have enough time to rest.

Muscle building should not be viewed in isolation. The whole body takes part in this process. Your entire being is used to repair torn tissues. This recovery is vital. Your overall depends on it

health status, as well as the effectiveness of combating individual injuries.

Don't hesitate to take time to rest. It is very important to wait until it calms down first. muscle pain from previous workouts, and only then return to the gym!

A professional in his field, Aceto was once asked whether you should continue training when you feel muscle pain? His answer was a categorical “no.” “Even when the muscles only ache, this means that they did not have time to recover from the previous workout. If you continue to work in this state, you are accelerating catabolism (muscle breakdown)."

Mentzer also believed that rest was an important factor in muscle growth. “If you accept that rest is as important as the training itself, you will understand that there must be an optimal ratio of rest days to work days. Based on my extensive experience as a trainer, I can say that training every 4-7 days produces the most miraculous results compared to any other schedule. And after 96 hours of rest, no decompensation or atrophy occurs. Once upon a time, I asked many bodybuilders if they noticed that after a couple of weeks of rest, they always returned to work with renewed vigor. They unanimously answered that in fact it was so. Perhaps you too have felt this way at some point. If you return from rest with a new charge of energy, you will not experience decompensation. Moreover, as you become stronger, you overcompensate. So don't worry about it. If you don’t experience decompensation after 1 or two weeks, you won’t have it after 4-7 weeks.”

Note that Mentzer was talking about 4-7 weeks between workouts, not necessarily between workouts for the same muscle group. This time is enough for the complete restoration of the entire body, and each of its components separately.

4-7 weeks off from training may sound crazy to you if you are used to rapidly changing cycles. On the other hand, do you feel the need to do something completely new? What you did helped you get far in your bodybuilding performance, didn't it? So don't hesitate and feel free to stretch your breaks between your classes. Guess what happens then? Your muscles will start growing at a crazy pace again! Allowing yourself extra rest will help your muscles recover.

How much break should you take between workouts? Mike Mentzer considers breaks of 4-7 weeks optimal.

Mike reminds us: “The first thing your muscles should do after a workout is not to add new layers on top of the old ones, but to fill the holes between them. It may take several days for the repair process to be completed before the body can begin to grow new tissue.” When you give your body extra time, it can complete these two procedures. The more extra time you give your body, the faster your muscles will grow. Everything is very simple.

Relaxation/work area.

If you have been training intensively for some time in a regime of rapidly changing cycles, the transition to a rest regime of 4-7 days will be difficult for you, at least on a psychological level. Sure, your body will appreciate it, but not your brain. To avoid this stress, transition to a new routine gradually. Start with two days off and increase their number every 3 times until you reach a regime of 4-7 days of rest.

Even though Mentzer considers resting every 4-7 days ideal, you may need more or less. Again, muscle pain can serve as a guide. Wait until the pain subsides and wait an additional 2 days. It may turn out that you need a whole week to fully restore your strength. Does not exist universal council by the number of days for rest, which would suit everyone.

Dr. Ollie MacLay trains quite often and achieves good results. Other bodybuilders training with him quickly become exhausted. They need more time to rest than MacLay. The book “The Strength Factor” explains this: “Like all other physiological characteristics, the time required to restore strength after training is determined individually for each person. After training together, someone in the group can return to classes after 48 hours, and others after more. Some may take up to 8 days to fully get back into shape.”

Experiment and you will definitely find the best option for yourself. As noted above, muscle pain is the primary signal, but you should also remember that after it you should rest a little more.

Another mechanism is your strength. If you are still increasing your strength (in relation to your body weight), then you have plenty of time to rest. If after a rest of 5,7 and 10 days you continue to achieve good results during training, then we can assume that you have found your optimal ratio.

Experimentation will help you find your individual optimal training regimen. Start with a short break of a few days. Then increase their number little by little and let time work for you. Since Mentzer emphasized the need for 4-7 days of rest, try this regimen as well. Make your adjustments as needed. You may be one of the few genetically gifted individuals who can exercise more often. You'll likely find that you should train less often because that's when you get better results.

Why might you need time to rest? You try to avoid overtraining. You are also trying to support the recovery process in your body. If you succeed, your muscles will grow. Everything is elementary.

Manage your time correctly, and quality recovery will lead to natural muscle growth. Since your muscles have not had a real rest for a long time (in some cases for several years), they will readily respond to this rest and begin to develop with new strength. They will start growing like crazy.

Strong nutritional support.

You can significantly help your body recover and grow additional tissue by using proper nutrition. You will need enough carbohydrates and protein after your workout to fuel your muscles. Another tip is to consume more foods that contain potassium, which is burned during exercise. For example, after training you will only need to eat a tablespoon of molasses (blackstrap). It is also important to restore the supply of vitamin B.

Building new muscle can be helped by consuming more protein after exercise. Your muscles will be sore the day after your workout and they will need protein. Make their wish come true by preparing protein cocktail, adding some liver tablets and some fats.

Fats are essential for proper digestion and they aid in the muscle building process. Choose the right type of fat for yourself, such as fish oil. Any of these fats combined with protein will provide you with adequate nutrition.

You should not consume excess calories, which will only lead to overweight. All you need is a constant increase in protein intake so that your body builds more and more new tissues. Mix a low calorie protein shake, add liver tablets and some fat. This cocktail is especially useful to drink in the morning a couple of hours after breakfast. We can recommend you the following companies - manufacturers of nutritional supplements: MuscleTech, Prolab, Labrada, EAS and MET-Rx.

You can grow at a crazy pace. All you need to do is open your eyes, change your approach to training and its intensity. Start today, but remember that everything needs to be done gradually.

To summarize what was said above:

• Workouts can be incredibly intense to stimulate new muscle growth

• During your workout, work your muscles until they start to hurt.

• Measure your intensity during your workout using the weight you lift. If you constantly increase the load, you ensure stable muscle growth

• Exercise less often. The intensity can double if you take longer breaks.

• Rest until your muscles are no longer sore, and then wait a couple more days before returning to exercise.

• Don't work major muscle groups more than once a week (exception: abdominal muscles)

• Experiment to find the optimal number of days you need to get enough rest.

• Feel free to take more time to relax. If you need to rest for a week.

• Support muscle recovery and growth with plenty of nutrition. Remember to take in more protein after your workout.

How muscles grow after training - a scientific approach. Learn how to gain muscle mass and recover properly between strength training sessions.

Skeletal muscles are composed of filamentous myofibrils and sarcomeres that form muscle fibers. The 650 skeletal muscles of the human body contract, receiving a signal from motor neurons triggered by a part of the muscle cell called the sarcoplasmic reticulum. Motor neurons tell your muscles to contract.

The better you are at contracting your muscles, the stronger you become.

Powerlifters can lift enormous weights without looking overly muscular. This is due to their ability to activate these motor neurons and contract muscles better. Therefore, many powerlifters are smaller than bodybuilders, and can lift much more weight.

Maximum strength gains occur at the very beginning of your strength training. Further muscle development occurs gradually, since you have already learned how to activate them.

The physiological side of gaining muscle mass

After exercise, your body repairs old damaged muscle fibers or forms new protein compounds (myofibrils). The restored myofibrils increase in thickness and number, creating muscle hypertrophy(height).Muscle growth is associated with the predominance of protein synthesis over its breakdown and occurs not during training, but during rest.

There are also satellite cells that act as stem cells for your muscles. When activated, they help nucleoids enter muscle cells. And this already leads to the growth of myofibrils.

Ability to activate satellite cells - key factor, which distinguishes genetic uniqueness from hard gainers (i.e. people who are not predisposed to gaining muscle mass).

The most interesting discovery Over the past 5 years, it has become clear that in people whose muscles respond well to exercise, the level of myofibril hypertrophy reaches 58% with activation of satellite cells by 23%. As the number of activated cells decreases, hypertrophy also decreases. If a person’s muscles do not respond to the load, there is not only no myofibril hypertrophy, but also activation of satellites (0%). And so it turns out that the more you engage your satellite cells, the more you will grow. The question arises: how to activate satellite cells for muscle growth?

3 types of stimulation that make muscles grow

Natural training is based on constantly increasing stress on the muscles. This stress is an important component of their growth. It maintains homeostasis in your body. It is stress, together with maintaining homeostasis, that is the basis of the three main conditions for gaining muscle mass.

To grow, you need to give your muscles more stress than what they have adapted to. How to do it? The main thing is to constantly increase working weights. Muscle tension creates changes in the chemical processes inside the muscle, which creates conditions for growth such as the activation of mTOR (an intracellular protein that is a signaling element that regulates development and hypertrophy muscle fibers) and satellite cells.Two other factors explain how some people manage to be stronger but smaller than others.

If you've ever felt muscle pain after a workout, this is an indicator of localized muscle damage from exertion. It is local damage that activates satellite cells. This does not mean, of course, that you must feel pain to do this. But there should still be muscle damage. The pain usually goes away over time due to other processes.

If you've ever felt a pump (blood flowing into a working muscle) during a workout, it was an effect of metabolic stress. Bodybuilders believe that it is the pump that makes muscles grow. Scientists partly agree with this.

Metabolic stress allows muscles to grow, although the muscle cells themselves do not necessarily become larger. This happens due to the entry of glycogen into the muscles, which helps them increase due to the growth of connective tissue. This process is called sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, with which you can look larger without increasing strength.

How hormones affect muscle growth

Hormones are the next element responsible for muscle growth and recovery and have great importance in the regulation of satellite cell activity. Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), mechanical growth factor (MGF) and testosterone are the most important hormones directly related to muscle gain.

The goal of many athletes when working out in the gym is . Everyone knows that it increases protein synthesis and reduces protein breakdown, activates satellite cells and stimulates the production of other anabolic hormones. Despite the fact that we cannot use up the overwhelming (up to 98%) part of the testosterone secreted by the body, power training not only stimulate its production, but also make the receptors of our muscle cells more sensitive to free testosterone. It can also increase the production of growth hormone by increasing the amount of neurotransmitters in damaged fibers.

Insulin-like growth factor regulates muscle mass by increasing protein synthesis, improving the absorption of glucose and amino acids ( components squirrel) skeletal muscles, and also activates satellite cells for greater muscle growth.

Why do muscles need rest?

If you do not give your body enough rest and nutrition, you can stop the anabolic processes in the body and trigger catabolic (destructive) ones.

The increase in protein synthesis after exercise lasts for 24-48 hours, so all the food eaten during this time will go towards muscle hypertrophy.

Remember that your limit is set by your gender, age and genetics. For example, men have more testosterone than women, so their muscles will certainly be stronger and larger.

Why doesn't muscle growth occur quickly?

Muscle hypertrophy takes time. For most people this is a fairly lengthy process. People don't see significant changes in weeks and months because fundamental changes are only possible through the nervous system's intervention in activating your muscles.

In addition, at different people different genetics, hormone production, type of muscle fibers and their number, ability to activate satellite cells. All of this can slow down muscle growth.

To make sure you're doing your best For , protein synthesis must constantly prevail over its breakdown.

To do this, it is necessary to consume a sufficient amount of protein (especially essential amino acids) and carbohydrates - then the cells will be able to recover. Visually noticeable muscle growth and changes in form will greatly motivate you. But for this it is important to understand the scientific side of the issue.

How muscles grow: conclusion

In order to pump up muscles, you need to create stress to which the body has not yet adapted. This can be achieved by lifting more weight and varying exercises, which will injure more muscle fibers and stress the muscles during the pump. At the end of your workout, the most important thing is to get enough rest and fuel for muscle recovery and growth.