Muscles are made of fibers that undergo catabolism, i.e. breakdown during training. In order for muscles to grow, it is necessary to provide them with adequate regeneration - it consists of rest, diet and supplementation. The lack of any of these elements slows down, and sometimes even makes it impossible to build muscle mass.

Muscleswill not grow without strength training - this is a common truth that every beginner bodybuilder knows. However, it would be more appropriate to say: muscles will not grow without strength training and adequate regeneration. You can exercise for several hours every day, but even such extreme effort will not help you achieve an athletic figure. Instead, it will burn muscle tissue rather than make it visible.

The most important factor behind the rapid weight gain is maintaining the right balance between training and recovery. In turn, regeneration can only be effective when the muscles receive a complete set of nutrients in the form of proteins, carbohydrates and fats. We can find them in food, but also in nutrients and supplements for athletes.

Muscles - how are they built?

There are from 450 to 500 muscles in the human body. In men, they constitute approx. 40% of body weight, and in women, approx. 35%. They are connected to the bones by tendons. By contracting and relaxing, the muscles put the skeletal system in motion.

Each muscle consists of a bundle of thin muscle fibers (myofibrils) that can be compared to threads. The individual threads are made of cells capable of contracting - myocytes. Muscle fibers are grouped into bunches, which fit tightly to each other and from the outside are "wrapped" in a connective tissue called fascia.

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Types of muscle fibers

There are two types of fibers in muscles:slow twitchandfast twitch . This distinction has a big impact on the growth of muscle tissue as both types of fibers require different stimulation.

Slow-twitch fibers(also known as red or oxygen)are responsible for performing hard but slow muscle work. They are activated during long, intense or moderate effort, such as long-distance running, cycling or swimming.

In turn,fast twitch fibers(otherwise white) are responsible for the performance of fast, dynamic work - e.g. when sprinting, lifting weights, or delivering blows in combat sports. They are much less resistant to fatigue than slow twitch fibers.

The number of fibers of a given type in each person is genetically determined. People with a predominance of slow twitch fibers have a better predisposition to practice endurance sports, and those with a greater number of fast twitch ones - to be successful in combat sports and bodybuilding.

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What influences muscle growth?

The increase in muscle mass is based on three pillars:

1. TRAINING

2. REGENERATION

3. DIET and SUPPLEMENTATION

For the growth of muscle tissue (aka muscle hypertrophy) to be fast and effective, it is essential to include all three pillars in your training plan. So you should not only plan the frequency of training, but also determine how much time we spend on rest and at what times of the day we eat meals and supplements.

Workout

When discussing the importance of training in the growth of muscle tissue, it is worth debunking the often repeated myth: during exercise, muscles do not grow. In fact, your muscles get damaged during training. The nerve impulse caused by the contraction damages the proteins that make up the muscle fibers. This process is additionally intensified by free radicals and catabolic hormones released during exercise, e.g. cortisol, adrenaline, glucagon.

It is worth emphasizing, however, that good strength training does not destroy protein cells, but only damages them to some extent, thanks to which it is possible to rebuild them. Therefore, the basic principle of any training is to exercise until we feel tired but not exhausted. When performing weightlifting, we should stop when we feel that we could do 1-2 more repetitions, not until we completely lose our strength.

The effectiveness of training also depends on whether we know its basic principles and implement them. One of the most important principles is the need for comprehensive muscle stimulation to activate both slow and fast twitch fibers. For this purpose, the set of exercises should be changed from time to time, which will additionally cause the desired effect of muscle disorientation,and not to give up aerobic exercise.

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Regeneration

Rest between workouts is the time when your muscles grow. This is when damaged muscle fibers regenerate, but in such a way that their number increases with each effort. In this way, from training to training, the figure takes on more and more athletic shapes.

The minimum amount of rest is a 24-hour break between training the same muscle groups. By using a training method called split (training single muscle groups), you can train day after day, but each time a different muscle group, e.g. chest and biceps on Monday, legs on Tuesday, back on Wednesday.

Diet

The condition for effective regeneration is to provide the muscles with nutrients that will be used to rebuild damaged structures. The basic ingredient is protein - the most important building block of muscles. Its amount in the diet for mass should be at least 1.2 g per kilogram of body weight, but in the case of intensive training, this value must be higher - from 2 to even 3.5 g of protein per kilogram of body weight.

Carbohydrates are equally important as they replenish lost energy and allow the body to recover quickly. First of all, you should choose complex carbohydrates, e.g. groats, brown rice, whole grain pasta, dark bread.

Contrary to appearances, the diet of a bodybuilder must also contain an adequate amount of fat - it should constitute about 10% of the daily caloric requirement. As in the case of carbohydrates, it cannot be low-quality hardened fat, which can be found in chips, sweets or fried dishes. Ideally, its sources should be sea fish, olive oil, nuts, avocados.

Important

The process of catabolism begins during training and continues for some time after its completion. In order to prevent large losses of muscle tissue, it must be stopped as soon as possible. For this purpose, the anabolic window should be used - the time after exercise, when the body has the greatest ability to regenerate.

Supplementation

Gaining weight and sculpting the figure without additional supplementation is very difficult. This is due to the fact that ordinary food is often unable tocover the daily energy requirements necessary to build muscle mass. In the case of an adult male, it may be as much as 4,000 kcal per day.

Therefore, with such high caloric values, it is advisable to use additional supplements: gainers and protein supplements. A portion of such a supplement is 300-400 kcal per 100 g. Additionally, you can consume nutrients containing amino acids that accelerate anabolic processes in muscles: incl. creatine, leucine, beta alanine, GABA.

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