How To Build Muscle Mass

Building muscle mass has many benefits, from improving your appearance and self-image to strengthening your immune system and promoting longer life. Most healthy weight loss plans encourage weight training; the exercises that cause muscle build up, towards the end of the weight loss program. The reason for this is that as you increase the percentage of muscle mass in your body the percentage of fat decreases, muscle tissue literally burns up the fat. Also, following weight loss, your body needs to be toned and weight training is the best way to do this. Hence sustained weight and a great physique both demand muscle mass under that skin of yours.

But how exactly do you go about building muscles? Many people rely on exercises like swimming and running to help them build muscle mass, thinking they can achieve the same results as they would from lifting weights. This is a grave misconception and doesn't yield the desired results; it just disappoints the muscle builder. The fact is weight training and swimming are two different genres of exercise. Swimming is basically an aerobic workout that aims to supply the body with maximum oxygen to strengthen the cardiac muscle. You achieve muscle toning with these exercises no doubt, but they don't build muscle mass. Also these exercises require a lot more time, and your aim is to increase your heart rate and keep it high.

Weight training or weight lifting is just the opposite. Weight training is basically an anaerobic exercise. This exercise places the skeletal muscles under a great deal of stress and thus creates an anaerobic state in the body, where the stored glycogen is burned in the absence of oxygen to make lactic acid and produce energy. This is an emergency backup of the body and is not a condition that can or should be sustained over long periods of time. Hence weight training workouts are short but intense in their nature. The lactic acid that is produced as a result of weight lifting causes a burning sensation and also creates tear in the muscle. When the body heals this tear, it grows new muscle which is stronger and larger in size. Hence, if you're aiming for both toning as well as muscle buildup, weight training is your only option.

Many people make some fundamental mistakes when lifting weights and these mistakes later on result in underdevelopment or no development. Here are a few pitfalls to avoid;

1. Short and Intensive Workout: as mentioned, you shouldn't prolong your weight training workout. The anaerobic state that your body goes into is not healthy for the heart if it is prolonged, you can suffer serious muscle and cardiac damage if you lift weight for hours and hours. Keep your reps to 8-10, but lift a good heavy weight and focus on developing proper form. Don't overdo the sets either. 25 minutes at the gym, excluding the time you take to do stretches, is ideal for building muscles.

2. Free Weights: weight lifting machines are for beginners and people progress past them at a very early stage. The real muscle building comes from free weight lifting. If you want to see massive muscle growth, go for free weight exercises. The compound ones are the best among these and should form the major part of your workout.

3. Rest and Sleep: resting your muscles is very important for their healthy and timely growth. Give your body, particularly the muscle set you worked, at least a day's rest before working them again. Sleep is also essential to muscle power. The maximum muscle growth occurs when you're hitting the hay. For rapid muscle growth, be sure to get in 8-10 hours of sleep a day.

• Emma Bullock
• 13/02/2009, 2:59 PM
• 0 Comments