How to train for Muscle Growth

Ah yes muscle growth. The anatomical term for which is Hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is actually the increase in size of any cell, so it doesn’t just relate to muscles, but in gym land when people say, “hypertrophy” they relate it to the growth of muscles.

Type “Muscle Hypertrophy” into your search engine. Go on, you know you want to! If you did, you would see that there are about 2,450,000 results! Probably fare to say there has been some research done on it then. Probably even safer to say that that means there is a lot of different theories on how to “grow” muscle tissue. Here’s the kicker, it all depends on you. Your genetic make up. So if you put muscle on easily, go up to your parents and say thanks! If you struggle, then again have a little chat to your forbears. Genetics are definitely a big factor, and guess what, you can’t change them. So let’s focus on the factors you can change, the environmental factors. You can do your best to make the best adaptation you can from your genes.

The environmental factors you can control are:

Training consistency

Nutrition

Rest and Recovery

Set intensity

Training type

Training consistency

Repeated efforts team. Consistency in your training is one of the biggest keys if hypertrophy is your goal. At least 3 sessions a week, on average, depending on your current fitness level (and sorry to mention it again, genetic make up).

Nutrition

What you imbibe plays a huge role. A popular bodybuilding adage is “abs start in the kitchen”. Type in nutrition for body building into that same search engine, millions of different peoples approaches will come up. This tells us that there is no magic bullet or potion (although many claim to be) that will make you gain enormous amounts of muscle. Some may help, but none are the be all and end all. So, sorry to sound repetitive friends, but this word, consistency, comes into play here again. To gain muscle, lean muscle, is actually harder to do than drop body fat, so your eating needs to be immaculate and repeatedly so. Try a few methods and see which one works best for you. Just following one trainer’s guidelines because its what he or she did for their bodybuilding comp may not always be the best method. If you seriously want to “grow your guns” or get “rock hard abs” then please, seek advice from a QUALIFIED source.

Rest and Recovery

So if work load, (training consistency) is important then the amount of recovery you have between “workouts” is just as important. This is where many people get the equation of growth wrong. You need the correct amount of work and recovery to get the correct results. It is not just work, work and more work. In fact, if work, work and more work is your theory, your adaptation will be INJURY and muscle growth is a long way off. Oh and sleep! 7 – 9 hours! (Here’s that word again) Consistently! Sleep is hugely important in helping adapt to the stress (workout) you did that day, but also in preparing your system for the next lot of stress (next workout). So buying a fitness magazine and doing the same “Rock hard” workout everyday is not the way to go. A good place to start is to hire a QUALIFIED Fitness Professional. Tell them your goals and specific target areas. They should be able to help prescribe (and I use that word intentionally) a training regime to suit you! And one of the key components of their prescription should be rest and recovery!

Set intensity

If you went to a QUALIFIED PT they should have given you a certain amount of reps and sets. The range here is varied, so to give specifics via this medium wouldn’t really be fare. Usually trainers prescribe around the 10-repetition range for hypertrophy. And anywhere from two to five sets. The key here is the intensity and total time of the set. 10 reps is usually prescribed because, at the correct speed of movement that set should take between 45 to 60 seconds. This duration at the right intensity (think around 8 out of 10 as a scale) should bring about the best hormonal response for hypertrophy. If you do the set to fast, to slow, to easy or to hard, you may be training for a different adaptation. It is fare to say though that something is better than nothing! Oh and yes, rest between sets (or a bout of easier movement) is important to let the energy system recharge and let you perform the next set correctly. Again, good trainers will help you with this.

Training type

Yep, resistance training, weights. Whole body movements are very important here. A lot of novices make the mistake of “splitting” the body up into really small muscle groups. If you want hypertrophy, you need to do whole body lifts. Oh and legs! Don’t miss “legs day”. For a beginner, three whole body (on alternate days), compound lift sessions per week should do the trick. Sure you can throw in a couple of smaller body parts that you really want to improve, but they shouldn’t be the focus of your sessions. Your sessions shouldn’t go for more than 45 – 60 minutes. In total, including rest between sets. If you’re in there longer than that, you could be working the old jaw a bit too much. Please include other training sessions during your week. You should not train at the same intensity and duration every session.

There you go. What did you learn? Well hopefully one of the big takeaways is to seek qualified advice. Everybody is different, and you may have to try different methods to find one that works the best for you. Make sure rest and recovery is planned, nutrition should be pretty clean and mix your training up. But one of the biggest keys is CONSISTENCY!

Chaddy