9 Important Facts about Gaining Muscle Mass

9 Important Facts about Gaining Muscle Mass

There are thousands of theories, methods, and preferences available today on building or gaining muscle mass. But unfortunately, they can become complicated if you don’t know about the important facts about gaining muscle mass.

You need to know that building higher muscles is not all about hitting the gym every day. Although that’s a requirement, how you manage the rest of your day and night also matters. Yea, from your eating to your sleeping pattern, a lot of factors goes a long way to determine how or if you build muscle.

Without much ado, here are some important facts about gaining muscle mass that you should always remember either as a beginner, intermediate or expert fitness trainer:

1. It requires much protein

For you to build and maintain muscles, protein is an essential macronutrient that should be contained in every of your meal. 

Protein can be converted into energy for your body, and it helps to repair worn- out tissues and the little tears as you use your muscles to become active, especially with high intensity. 

Interestingly, as protein macronutrients repair your muscles, they become more developed and stronger. 

However, ensure you don’t go overboard, because excessive intake of protein, especially from animal sources, has been liked to kidney stones.

2. Carbs are needed too

If you rely on protein alone for your calorie supply, your body will absorb all the protein for energy, leaving little or none for repair and building of muscles. 

Hence, you need to consume a fair amount of calories as well if you need to gain muscles. Your body will always utilize carbs for energy if they are available, leaving the protein for its major function.

However, ensure you go with minimally processed carbs such as veggies, quinoa, steel-cut oats, etc.

3. You will need to eat regularly

As you engage in strength training to build higher muscle mass, your body will need so many calories to burn for energy and to recover from the stress of the exercise routine. Therefore, you’ll have to eat more frequently.

So you may need to eat five to six times daily to keep your body’s metabolism fired up. If you don’t, your body will turn to attack your lean muscle mass.

So a simple recommendation if you do your strength training in the evening is to eat: 

• Breakfast (Early in the morning)
• Brunch ( After three hours)
• Lunch
• After workout snack
• Dinner

However, your training routine and body weight will determine how many calories you’ll need to consume. 

You can consult us, and we’ll help you develop a custom diet plan based on your body weight and exercise type.

4. Avoid repetition of the same routine

When you follow the same exercise routine over time, your body uses something called a “muscle memory” to adapt the stress and potential damage of your strength training. 

But in the real sense, you need that stress on our muscles to build new muscle tissues.

Therefore, try to change up your workout regularly and add challenging movements to counteract any adaptation process.

You can rotate a few movements in and out every few weeks to refresh your exercise routine.

5. Sleep is vital

You cannot gain higher muscle mass if you don’t sleep adequately- seven to eight hours a night. The reason is not far-fetched. It is during your sleep time that most of your hormones, including testosterone and growth hormone, are released to help you recover, grow muscle, and burn fat. 

So when you don’t sleep enough, you are frustrating your effort to gaining higher muscle mass.

6. as a woman, you won’t get too bulky

A lot of women avoid strength training because they believe they would become extra bulky if they follow such programs. But that’s not true.

The major reason why men gain higher muscle mass during strength training is because of their testosterone level, which you don’t have as a woman. 

So don’t be worried about bulking up as a woman. There are lots of benefits you’ll derive from strength training. It helps promote your overall health and fitness. So, don’t deprive yourself because of some misconceptions.

7. The foundation is very important

You may want to build more on your beach muscles and Olympic lifts because they draw more attention. But the truth is that many stabilizer muscles around your hips, shoulders, and midsection (generally called the “core”) provide a strong foundation.

So you need to pay more attention to challenging the stability and mobility of these key muscles with physioballs, medicine balls, mini-balls, and rotational movements (chopping, lifting).

8. You get what you invest

The kind of result you’ll get from your strength training depends on the intensity of your workout routine. 

If you spend many hours to slosh your way to the gym or spend several minutes on your phone while you sit on a machine between sets, it limits the result you’ll get from your muscle-building effort.

However, when you work harder, you get a better result; you get a chance to build your heart rate up, and alternating between exercises helps to work out different muscle groups. This enables you to get fitter.

9. it’s never too late to start

You may say, “Oh, I am just too old to gain muscle.” But that’s not true!

 Although we lose muscle as we age, we never lose the ability to build new muscle. 

Past research has clearly shown that humans retain the ability to build muscle and maintain a healthy body even into their golden years.

So don’t ever give excuses about your age. Even in your fifties, you can be as fit as a 30-year-old if you follow the right diet plan and strength training routine

You need to keep the facts above in mind if you intend to build muscle mass. 

Other facts include:

• Your muscle gain will come more slowly as you become a more advanced trainer
• A training session should not exceed 90 minutes. After 90 minutes, any time you spend working out is working against you.
• Performing HIIT helps you preserve your muscle mass and stay lean
• A proper warm-up that includes dynamic movements and activation of core and stabilizer muscles helps to improve performance and prevent injury as you workout to build muscle mass.