You want to build muscle mass, but don't know how to go about it? In this article, you will learn what to eat and what training to use to achieve your dream muscles. See the advice of dietitian Mikołaj Choroszyński on how to build muscle mass.

Contents:

  1. What is building muscle mass?
  2. How to build muscle mass? 4 rules
    1. Adequate caloric surplus
    2. Adequate amount of protein in the diet
    3. Appropriate training
    4. Regeneration
  3. Summary

How to build muscle mass?There is no simple recipe for this, because building mass is a long-term job that requires a lot of humility. The muscle tissue hypertrophy effects are the sum of many elements repeated for weeks. Building muscle tissue, as opposed to building adipose tissue, does not consist in overeating at will with the products you want to eat. It is an implementation of the assumptions adopted at the beginning of the plan.

In the article below you will learnhow to build muscle tissuewhile limiting the growth of body fat. This knowledge will be useful for people who are going through the fat reduction stage and for all those who want to effectively build a large, attractive musculature.

The information in the article is based on the current scientific knowledge and guidelines of the International Sports Nutrition Organization (ISSN).

What is building muscle mass?

In order to build muscle mass, it is necessary to properly influencemetabolism of the body . The easiest way to divide metabolic reactions is into two groups -anabolic and catabolic . When building muscle mass, you should focus mainly on supporting the anabolic environment (a group of reactions taking place on many levels) while limiting catabolism.

See also: How to protect muscles against catabolism?

What are anabolic reactions? In simple words: it is a group of reactions aimed at creating more complex forms from simple substrates (amino acids, sugars and their polymers) (amino acids ->proteins ->tissue ->muscles) . For this, an adequate caloric surplus is necessary. During growth and maturation, anabolic reactions naturally predominate in the body and weakenand with age, among others due to the declining level of anabolic hormones, such as testosterone.

See also: Growth hormone training - rules, diet, training plan

In each organism, both anabolic and catabolic reactions occur simultaneously. With this in mind, it is possible to use appropriate knowledge to influence the advantage of one or the other. Thus, the predominance of anabolic reactions will ensure the development of the body, increase the strength and amount of muscle tissue, but also fat tissue. By approaching building muscle mass with appropriate preparation, you can significantly reduce adipose tissue anabolism. Remember, however, that it cannot be reduced to zero.

How to build muscle mass? 4 rules

How to ensure the advantage of anabolic reactions over catabolic ones, so that muscles grow? Here are the4 most importantrules that you should implement.

1. Adequate caloric surplus

By increasing the caloric content of the diet, we give a signal to increase the amount of anabolic reactions. It is the key, but at the same time the simplest, signaling factor. The key isto know your caloric needsadjusted to age, gender and amount of physical activity. For this purpose, diet calculators help. However, the result from the calculator should be verified on the basis of your own observations (regular measurement of weight, body circumference and comparison of body photos over the course of months).

Click here to find out how to calculate your caloric intake (BMR and CPM)

Knowing your caloric needs, you should take care ofan adequate energy surplus . However, it is not about overeating, because this approach only results in fat gain. In order to effectively build muscle mass, the caloric requirement should be minimally exceeded in the first period.The surplus should be 100-200 kcal or 10% of the total energy requirement .

After making changes to your diet, observe your body for a month. Do not be crazy. The surplus seems small, but the very fact of the surplus gives an anabolic signal. If the strength and mass of the muscles do not increase, then after a month add another 100-200 kcal or increase the caloric surplus by 5%.

2. Adequate amount of protein in the diet

Protein is the main building block of the body's tissues. However, contrary to popular belief, there is no need to increase its quantity to astronomical sizes. The current scientific opinion, showing the average of 49 studies, is that1.62 g of protein is sufficientper 1 kg of body weight daily . The forks are 1.4 to 1.8 g / kg / day.

For protein metabolism to take place, vitamins and trace elements are needed. Therefore, excess protein can lead to deficiencies, resulting in impaired metabolism (anabolism) of muscle proteins. Protein metabolism is energy-intensive, its excess will result in more energy expenditure and less energy during training necessary to build strength.

In turn, the shortage of protein or individual amino acids will make it impossible to build muscle mass. The lack of valuable amino acids intensifies catabolic reactions. With a low-protein diet, the increase in caloric content in the examined people only caused an increase in adipose tissue.

Valuable sources of protein are mainly eggs, dairy products, meat, fish, legume seeds, nuts, protein shakes. It is worth mentioning that you can successfully build muscle mass on vegetarian diets.

Read more: The best sources of protein for athletes

This will be useful to you

Meet the best supplements for bodybuilders

Protein supplements - types, impact on he alth, effectiveness ranking

Creatine: effects, dosage, side effects

Whey protein - which one to choose?

BCAA - how and when to take?

Pre-workout supplements

L-arginine - is it worth using?

3. Appropriate training

Exercise-induced signal is essential to build muscle mass. Physical exercise causes micro-damage to the muscle tissue, which the body compensates with the superstructure of new and stronger bonds.

Training the largest muscle groups causes a strong anabolic response through, among other things, the release of hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone.

In order to build muscle mass, strength exercises are recommended. Performed at least 3 times a week, covering all major muscle groups. The training recommended for beginners and intermediate people is FBW (Full Body Workout) 3 times a week. In FBW training, multi-joint exercises are recommended, and all the most important muscle groups are trained during each session.

People with at least one year of experience in strength training should use split training, which consists in strengthening individual muscle groups separately.

Learn about different methods of strength training:

Training with the 5x5 method

Pyramid training

Volume training

4.Regeneration

Regeneration is a key element in maintaining the advantage of anabolic reactions. The recommended amount of sleep is 7-8 hours a day. Also, don't abstain from short naps during the day, if you can.It is during sleep and rest that muscle mass is built . Insufficient sleep causes the deposition of adipose tissue due to the increased release of the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol increases the breakdown of proteins and hinders the uptake of amino acids by the muscles in order to synthesize muscle proteins.

In addition, sleep deprivation and an excess of cortisol increase the insulin resistance of tissues, preventing the supply of necessary energy to muscles and peripheral tissues.

Excessive physical effort caused by too much training in the absence of the required time for regeneration may also contribute to the excess amount of cortisol.

Summary

To ensure the optimal development of muscle tissue:

  • increase your caloric intake slightly above your daily requirement,
  • make sure your diet is nutritionally rich and contains the right amount of protein,
  • stimulate your muscles preferably with strength training at least 3 times a week,
  • take care of a long and regenerating sleep that will allow you to rebuild muscles damaged by training with a vengeance.

Remember that building muscle mass is a slow process . The key is an appropriate training and diet plan that will be implemented for weeks. Take care of it at the very beginning, leave nothing to chance, and the results will exceed your expectations. Keep in mind that you won't see the effects overnight. However, after a few months, the differences in the figure should be noticeable.

Worth knowing

Muscular but sterile, or the Mossman-Pacey paradox

Scientists have uncovered a paradox - men who strive to achieve an attractive, masculine appearance - perfect muscles and avoid baldness - destroy their ability to have children.

Dr James Mossman from Brown University (USA) and prof. Allan Pacey of the University of Sheffield (UK) - after which the paradox is named - noted that the dream of achieving an athletic body prompts many men to take anabolic steroids that can harm sperm. This problem also affects men who take medications for baldness.

Dr. Mossman, while working on his PhD, noticed that many of the male fertility test applicants had impressive musculature, but their sperm contained virtually no sperm.

Dr. Mossmansaid in an interview with the BBC, "These men try to look powerful, like the pinnacle of evolution, but they are very useless in an evolutionary sense." All because they cannot have children.

Source: Fertility paradox in male beauty quest, https://www.bbc.com/news/he alth-48396071

About the authorMikołaj Choroszyński, nutritionist and gastrocoach Master of Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Psycho-dietician, Youtuber. Author of the first book on the Polish market about a diet counteracting neurodegenerative diseases "MIND Diet. A Way for a Long Life". He fulfills himself professionally, running his Bdieta diet clinic, because nutrition has always been his passion. She helps her patients by telling them what to eat to stay he althy and look good.

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