Optimizing Muscle Growth...

There are like 1001 exercises you can find out there especially with the help of the internet these days. For beginners, this may seem a little overwhelming. I know I felt this way when I first started. The list never seems to end.

However, what I’ve learned is that you will only have this amount of muscle in your body. You don’t have to learn all the workouts from the text books and commercials out there. Just try to focus on the very basics first as long as you can FEEL YOUR MUSCLE CONTRACTING.

Muscle contraction is very important if you want to stimulate growth in your muscle fibres. Once contract, the muscle cells are flooded with lactic acid and blood that’s how most people who weight train can have that “pumped” feeling while they are at the gym (to build muscle faster, you can take advantage of this sudden blood rush by doing something just before and while working out, more of that at the end of this post).

Most exercises you do as a beginner can stimulate A LOT of muscle contraction which is why beginners have the advantage of growing at least 2.5kg – 5kg of LEAN MASS on the first 2 -3 months (also depending on your nutrition). I know that may seem too little to some of you, but no one said building muscle was easy ESPECIALLY the nutrition part which I’m still struggling to keep up to. Let’s face it we have too much great food here in Malaysia, satay, curry, nasi lemak, durian, and lots of fried stuff... How NOT to eat those foods LAH!?!?

I would recommend always start with the BASIC COMPOUND EXERCISES. Compound movements can let you stimulate multiple muscles fibres in one single workout. Examples of compound exercises are, SQUATS, DEADLIFTS, BENCH PRESS, PULL UP & DIPS. These are by far the most powerful compound exercises to gain massive amounts of MASS.

What happens here is, when you are in the gym lifting, you are actually making microscopic tears to your muscle tissue. This is why you will feel some soreness on the muscles the next day but don’t fret. Like what Arnold used to say, No Pain No Gain!

So after the punishment you put them through, they will start to regenerate themselves by using the nutrients in your body, like Protein, Calcium and in most cases, Growth Hormone and Testosterone (hormones will usually only be in the picture at night after you fall into deep sleep).

The entire Regeneration Process could take up anytime between 1 to 3 days per muscle group depending on the Intensity of your workout. In between that time, it is advised that you DO NOT train those muscle groups or you might have back firing results!! If you are patient enough to wait for them to fully heal, you will immediately feel that the weights you used on the last workout seem lighter!! Also, some muscle groups regenerate faster than others, so it's really up to you to listen to your own body and customize your own training schedule.


TIPS TO OPTIMIZE MUSCLE GROWTH.

• As mentioned above, when you contract your muscles when training you will cause a blood rush and lactic acid into those muscles. Having a Pre-Workout shake can make sure your muscles are being flooded with the right nutrients. Consuming a Pre-Workout shake about 30 minutes before you train ensures that the protein is digested and ready to be transported by the blood cells to needed areas of your body.

• As your muscles are PUMPED from the weights, there is actually a “traffic jam” of blood and lactic acid in your muscles and this will prevent or delay the intake of NEW blood cells with NEW protein nutrients into those muscle groups. Doing at least 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercises after your weight training can also help to loosen up those blocked blood cells.

• A good 6-8 hours of Undisturbed Sleep at night can help your body to secrete the maximum amount of Growth Hormone (HGH) and Testosterone. These guys can make you pack on muscles even beyond your genetic capabilities!!

• Having a 3-1-1 routine or something similar for your weight training. Actually this Repetition Tempo is a whole other topic by itself but I’m just going to give you a brief overview about it here. The numbers in 3-1-1 means, 3 seconds down, 1 second up and 1 second hold at the top position. Example: when you are doing a bench press, you will lift the weight for 1 second, hold it at the top for 1 second and lower it back for 3 seconds.

• Use moderate weights and make sure you keep PERFECT FORM!! Having the perfect form is essential to building muscles and to do that, you might want to leave your EGO out of the gym doors then come back and collect it after you are done... this is because in order to have perfect form, you might need to sacrifice those weights you were carrying. Get a spotter to help you if you can. Make sure you get someone who KNOWS how to spot, not just someone standing there helping you to count reps!!

• NEVER SKIP A MEAL. This one statement says it all, Nutrition is a whole subject by itself, well one that I completely suck at anyway ;-) BUT this is the general rule of thumb please try to stick to at least 5-6 meals a day in order to stabilize your body's insulin levels and keeping that metabolism high to burn extra FAT off and providing NEW nutrients into your muscles.

Well, there maybe lots of other tips that are useful for your training but lets take 1 step at a time shall we? Try to focus on those above first, and I'm SURE it will improve your training sessions dramatically! I think many people out there might have different thoughts on my tips above, it's just some simple guidelines and if you have something more effective, please do share it out in the comments below we would all appreciate your help... :)

Hope you guys can benefit from some of the tips above.

Until next post....

TRAIN HARD AND EXPECT RESULTS!!!

Regards,
Terry