Want to Build Muscle?Get Out of the Gym!
What? Did he really say that to build muscle I have to leave the gym? That has to be a typo.
Isn't more training, better for building muscle? Nope, it is not a typo.
You read it right.
To build muscle faster, you may need to actually work out less.
Let me explain.
"Work" Out: An Analogy Think for a minute about working at your job.
There is a reason that most jobs do not require you to work 16 hours per day, 7 days per week, and 365 days per year.
Your mind and body would eventually break down, you would make mistakes, and your productivity would suffer.
Therefore, each day, you leave after 8 to 10 hours, you typically only work 5 days a week, and get some vacation time each year to keep you fresh and productive.
This analogy translates to your time spent in the gym working out and your ability to build muscle.
The more time you spend working a particular muscle (or group of muscles), the less productive your workouts become.
Your muscle get fatigued and weaker over time.
What Happens When You Lift Weights? It is a myth that your muscles grow during your workout.
This misconception most likely comes from the fact that as you workout, blood rushes to the muscles being worked, causes the area to swell and you experience what is called a "pump.
" When you lift weights, what happens to the muscle is actually quite the opposite.
The muscle fibers actually break down.
During the work out, the muscle fibers tear under the stress of lifting heavy weights.
The shock to the muscles creates a response from the body to utilize the nutrients from your diet, particularly protein, repair and reinforce these damaged fibers.
Simply put, your body rebuilds the muscle fibers to be bigger and stronger.
Your body cannot begin the repair and rebuild process until you stop working out and tearing the muscle down.
And, of course, you don't stop working your muscles until you leave the gym! In order to build muscle, you must get some rest.
Not getting adequate rest can lead to a condition called "overtraining.
" Overtraining can actually lead to a loss of strength, and a reverse in the progress you have seen from your weight training efforts.
You can only get bigger and stronger by getting adequate rest.
Resting to Build Muscle So, what do I mean by "rest?" Rest is the time between workouts when the work for a particular muscle group is minimized.
This allows your body to focus on protein synthesis in that particular area, using all of the nutrients and supplements you consume throughout the day for muscle recuperation.
How much rest you need varies from person to person.
As a rule of thumb, you should allow 48 hours between workouts.
This rule is one of the foundations of the total body, every-other-day workout routine.
However, as you become more advanced in your lifting routines and begin to lift heavier weights, the amount of time between workouts for a body part may increase.
If you advance to an intense 5 day routine where you work a different muscle group each day, you could rest as many as 5 to 7 days before you target the same body part again.
One final benefit to getting more rest is that you come to gym more refreshed and focused.
This allows you to lift heavier weights in each workout, which eventually leads to bigger muscles.
At the end of the day, getting sufficient rest ranks as important as proper nutrition and lifting heavy weights on the muscle building scale.
Isn't more training, better for building muscle? Nope, it is not a typo.
You read it right.
To build muscle faster, you may need to actually work out less.
Let me explain.
"Work" Out: An Analogy Think for a minute about working at your job.
There is a reason that most jobs do not require you to work 16 hours per day, 7 days per week, and 365 days per year.
Your mind and body would eventually break down, you would make mistakes, and your productivity would suffer.
Therefore, each day, you leave after 8 to 10 hours, you typically only work 5 days a week, and get some vacation time each year to keep you fresh and productive.
This analogy translates to your time spent in the gym working out and your ability to build muscle.
The more time you spend working a particular muscle (or group of muscles), the less productive your workouts become.
Your muscle get fatigued and weaker over time.
What Happens When You Lift Weights? It is a myth that your muscles grow during your workout.
This misconception most likely comes from the fact that as you workout, blood rushes to the muscles being worked, causes the area to swell and you experience what is called a "pump.
" When you lift weights, what happens to the muscle is actually quite the opposite.
The muscle fibers actually break down.
During the work out, the muscle fibers tear under the stress of lifting heavy weights.
The shock to the muscles creates a response from the body to utilize the nutrients from your diet, particularly protein, repair and reinforce these damaged fibers.
Simply put, your body rebuilds the muscle fibers to be bigger and stronger.
Your body cannot begin the repair and rebuild process until you stop working out and tearing the muscle down.
And, of course, you don't stop working your muscles until you leave the gym! In order to build muscle, you must get some rest.
Not getting adequate rest can lead to a condition called "overtraining.
" Overtraining can actually lead to a loss of strength, and a reverse in the progress you have seen from your weight training efforts.
You can only get bigger and stronger by getting adequate rest.
Resting to Build Muscle So, what do I mean by "rest?" Rest is the time between workouts when the work for a particular muscle group is minimized.
This allows your body to focus on protein synthesis in that particular area, using all of the nutrients and supplements you consume throughout the day for muscle recuperation.
How much rest you need varies from person to person.
As a rule of thumb, you should allow 48 hours between workouts.
This rule is one of the foundations of the total body, every-other-day workout routine.
However, as you become more advanced in your lifting routines and begin to lift heavier weights, the amount of time between workouts for a body part may increase.
If you advance to an intense 5 day routine where you work a different muscle group each day, you could rest as many as 5 to 7 days before you target the same body part again.
One final benefit to getting more rest is that you come to gym more refreshed and focused.
This allows you to lift heavier weights in each workout, which eventually leads to bigger muscles.
At the end of the day, getting sufficient rest ranks as important as proper nutrition and lifting heavy weights on the muscle building scale.
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