By Chris Chew
Submitted 2012-01-31 06:31:20
Number Of Times Read: 30
We all know that in order to gain muscle mass and weight, we have to do weight resistance exercises by lifting weights. So many underweight people head for the gym regularly and lift weights until their faces turned blue, but frustratingly their muscles are not growing. Why is that so?
Well, there are several factors to force your muscles to grow and in this article, we will explore some of them. Firstly, if you are a hardgainer (those who have difficulty in gaining weight), you will want to increase muscles mass on your whole body. If that is the case, then stop exercises that workout only one or two body parts. Do exercises that hit the most muscle groups at one go.
By doing that, not only that you will increase muscle mass all over your body, you will also save plenty of time as you need not hit your body muscle part by part. In order words, stop doing single joint exercises like bicep curls or forearm curls but concentrate on exercises that hit your bigger muscles like your chest, back and lower body. Some of these massive compound exercises are the squat, deadlift, bench press and chin ups.
Next, are you lifting till muscle fatigue? Muscle fatigue is when you cannot lift another rep in a given set because you have fatigued your muscles. So if you can lift a particular weight to ten reps and cannot make it to the eleventh, then you have reached muscle fatigue and the tenth rep. This is done to force your muscles to grow.
Let s take the example that a certain magazine you are reading is asking you to lift up to eight reps but in actual fact, you will only reach muscle fatigue at ten but you followed the advise of the magazine and stopped at eight, do you think that your muscle will grow?
Now we will take a look at progressive overload. Most people at the gyms I have seen do not have a log book to record the exercises that they do and the weight that they are lifting. They just commit it to their memory. With so many exercises, sets, reps and other bodybuilding issues, how can they remember the details the next time they hit the gym?
That is the reason why most people just do the same exercises with the same weight every time. Now we all know that if you do the same thing, you get the same result and that is why they stay the same.
In order for your muscles to grow effectively, you must increase the weight you are lifting or adjust to higher reps each time you exercise your muscles. This is so that you can get stronger and bigger and do not stagnate like what most people are doing. This is called progressive overload
Next, are you making the mistake of lifting weights almost everyday? If you are, then this is another reason why your muscles are not growing. The reason is because you may be over training your muscles.
You see, when you lift weights with intensity, you are actually breaking up your muscle fiber. Your body will then repair your muscles and make it stronger so that it can withstand the onslaught that you will be giving it the next time you hit the weights. Therefore you must allow time for your muscles to heal before you work on it again.
Yes, many professional bodybuilders lift weights almost everyday. But do remember that they are on special nutrition and exercises unlike you. Besides, they also know what exercises to do so that they do not interfere with the muscle healing process.
So now that you know why you are not gaining muscle weight and size, you may want to do it even more effectively by finding out why you should have sufficient sleep and about nutrition to feed your muscles in order for them to grow.
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Submitted 2012-01-31 06:31:20
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