How to gain muscle mass, not fat?

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Sergey Klinkov

Owner and manager of a fitness studio “Playground».

In general, body composition and potential dynamics of muscle gain depend on a large amount of factors: current fitness (fitness), genetics, nutrition, metabolism and even the environment Wednesday.

In short and simple terms, the main condition is a combination of regular muscle tension and metabolic stress. In other words, to build muscle, you need systematic free weights and resistance training, combined with proper nutrition and rest.

Exercise Correctly

Warm-up is a mandatory step in any workout. Warm up muscles, joints and ligaments before each session. This will not only reduce the likelihood of injury, but will also help increase calorie expenditure.

It is better to start your workout with free weight exercises, which by themselves do not lead to significant muscle growth, but they involve a large number of muscle groups and contribute to their increase density.

In the next step, move on to resistance exercises. This can be deadlift and Romanian deadlift, squats with a barbell, pull-ups with a direct and reverse grip with a pancake on a belt, a standing press, from the chest and from the chest in an incline.

According to researchScience and Practice, for a speedy set of muscle mass, a regimen of muscle training "to failure" with 8-12 repetitions and 70-80% of the maximum load is suitable. In this case, it is recommended to perform 3-4 approaches, and to create metabolic stress, take a break between sets from 30 seconds to 1.5-2 minutes.

In the latter approach, you can reduce the weight by 20-25% and make the approach to muscle failure. Take your time, adhere to the pace at which the muscle contraction occurs in 1-2 seconds, and it takes up to 5 seconds to unclench (stretch). It must be admitted that at home it is much more difficult to provide a training regime with weights close to the maximum load than in a gym.

Eat right

Keep track of both the quantity and quality of your calories consumed. Your task is to provide the body with energy in the form of fats and carbohydrates, as well as building materials in the form of protein. Take advantage of online calculator to calculate the daily calories you need.

To increase muscle mass, plan your diet to create a small calorie surplus (10–20%). The ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrates in your diet can be 35/25/40.

Try not to starve and eat regularly, but in small portions. Quality protein is found in chicken, beef, seafood, eggs, nuts, and legumes. Porridge, vegetables and fruits are excellent sources of carbohydrates. Try to exclude fast food, fatty and salty foods and an excess of sweets from your diet.

Rest

Stop underestimating the need for sleep and rest: this is when the physiological processes of recovery and muscle growth occur. This period takes 48 to 72 hours, so muscle growth training should be done no more than three times a week.

To this you can add medium-intensity cardio training if your task is not only to build muscle, but also to remove excess fat. And remember: overexertion slows down the growth of muscle mass.

Evaluate your result monthly

Increase your training weight if you feel the opportunity. Smoothly regulate the calorie surplus if muscle gain is too slow or, conversely, unwanted body fat appears.