Beautiful muscles are the epitome of virility, attractiveness and strength. Points that magically attract many men and therefore often lift weights. Tons of sports food up to doping drugs are often taken to force the building of muscle mass. A fatal fallacy, which can endanger your health.
In this article I would like to show that it also goes differently. How to accelerate muscle growth in a natural way without using sports food or even dangerous doping. Here you need only 4 simple points, which in the sum decisively improve the muscle growth.
Point #1 – The training
The basis for building attractive muscles is, of course, muscle training. Due to the variety of training possibilities, the view for the essentials gets lost in the today’s time, so that I want to speak at this point on simple, but very effective and the fast muscle build-up conducive points. Muscle building ground rules:
- Training frequency: a full body workout 3 times a week
- Number of sets 3
- Exercises: small muscles, such as biceps, triceps, shoulders, abdominals, calves, with 2 exercises, large muscles, such as back, legs, chest, with 3 exercises.
- Number of repetitions: 6 to 12
Training alone is not a guarantee for building muscles, because an important element makes a muscle-building workout really a workout that builds muscles. This is called: progressivity. That is, you should try to improve in each workout. Either one increases the training weight and/or the number of repetitions. Muscle building is only possible through a steadily increasing stimulus that goes beyond the previous one. A gradual increase of the load in training, for example by increasing the training weights, is therefore ideal.
Point #2 – Nutrition
In addition to training, nutrition plays a significant role, if not the most important, in building defined muscles.. Muscle building is only possible if enough calories and nutrients are supplied. If these conditions are in place, nothing stands in the way of building beautiful muscles.
You should eat at least 2g of protein per kilogram of body weight. For an 80kg athlete this would be 160g of protein per day. Protein is mainly found in healthy and natural foods such as meat, fish, eggs, cheese and low-fat curd cheese. To digest these amounts of protein and to keep the body efficient, plenty of fluids in the form of water or tea is important.
Point #3 – Recreation
The stimulus is set in training, nutrition provides the necessary "building blocks" and the final element in the "faster muscle building" equation is recovery.
It is important to give the entire body rest and plenty of sleep so that it can respond with cell renewal, i.e. muscle building. 8 hours per night plus an hour nap in the afternoon would be optimal to accelerate recovery and kick start muscle growth.
In addition to sleep, a balanced relationship between tension (training) and relaxation (recovery) is an important point for optimal regeneration. This ratio should be balanced. Therefore more than 3 training units per week are not meaningful and/or. necessary.
Not the recovery of individual muscles is in the foreground, but of the entire body. Stress can limit the ability to regenerate and require additional rest. Therefore it is important to avoid unnecessary stress.
Point #4 – Motivation
Motivation is the core element of all the above elements. Only those who permanently pay attention to training, nutrition and recovery are able to guarantee fast muscle growth.
Every element, training, nutrition, recovery and motivation, is of extreme importance for building beautiful muscles. Even the best sports food in the world is not able to cause the same success as these 4 "inconspicuous" points.
All the points together are almost a guarantee for the fast building of beautiful muscles. This is reflected again and again in the experience of my clients. And on myself it can always be seen as well.
The most important exercises for strength training
Muscles are elementary for our health. More muscles consume more energy, prevent overweight and ensure well-being and health. Although muscle training also plays an important role in weight loss, for example, targeted strength training is structured differently because the goal is defined muscles all over the body. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the best example of successful strength training and he has even made film history with it.
Trained bodybuilders represent self-confidence, strength and health. You embody self-control and elegance. Strength training is mainly done with weights, which should be lower for beginners than for those who have been training for a longer period of time. In strength training should be trained daily for about 60 minutes. In advance, you should consider what your personal goals are, and then implement them step by step.
Warming up is very important at the beginning of the session. Because with cold muscles you will quickly get injured. The individual muscle groups are then trained differently.
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For the training of the chest and shoulder muscles, barbells on a bench are recommended for pressing. One training session lasts ten minutes, after which you rest for a short while and then start the second round. The back muscles are best trained by lifting loads on a pulley. It is also possible to use a rowing machine, which has the advantage of also training the cardiovascular system.
Classic biceps training is performed on a weight bench, repeating the exercises four to six times each time. Dumbbells are used. But also the chest muscles are an important muscle part. The best method for their training is the bench press with barbells or dumbbells. The ideal way to build leg muscles is to do squats with a barbell.
It is ideal if one can train a compact station, because so more than 60 exercises for muscle building are possible. One should not neglect to note down the exercises, so that one can see at a glance when what was trained and what success was achieved. It is also important to eat a balanced diet with high quality calories such as complex carbohydrates. In addition, you should also allow the body to rest so that it can regenerate.
If you take this approach to heart, you will soon see the first successes. This may then serve as motivation to stick to one’s resolution, and to let one’s own goals gradually become reality.
Use load stimuli correctly
Finding the ideal training intensity is not as easy as one might think! Often beginners overload their body and exhaust your muscles so much that the body is no longer in healthy balance. Athletes only need to keep in mind the training principles, which are based on biologically natural laws and are the basis for a functioning fitness training.
Bringing the body out of balance
You have to imagine that the body is in a constant balance, the so called homeostasis. However, if one completes an intensive strength or endurance training, there is usually a suprathreshold training stimulus and the principle of supercompensation comes into effect – the body is no longer in a natural balance, the so-called heterostasis. Now it is important after sports units, especially with untrained athletes, that a time of regeneration is kept, otherwise the own bioorganism reacts with not healthy overfunctions and the training effect is equal to zero.
Increase the load and vary the training
If you want to build up muscles and improve your endurance, it is therefore very important to recognize the right time for the next load stimulus after the first overcompensation. Professional athletes and personal trainers can help you with this: An effective training load is based on the law of progressive load increase. With load stimuli, which remain the same over a longer period of time, the body adapts in such a way that constant stimuli no longer have a supra-threshold effect or even become sub-threshold. Therefore, for a further efficient sports program, it is necessary to increase the training load at certain time intervals.
Stimulate the muscles
In addition, the stimulus threshold law is an important factor in an efficient training: for the training to begin to have an effect, the load must exceed a certain intensity threshold, otherwise the body will not react positively. Here again the balance plays an important role – a sub-threshold stimulus remains ineffective, an over-threshold, too strong stimulus damages the system. In the middle lies the truth! The individual threshold value depends strongly on the training level of the respective person.
Last but not least, training variation plays a crucial role in establishing healthy homeostasis. In personal training it becomes clear that by changing the load stimulus, muscle building is better promoted. This includes varying the intensity, the content of the workout, the dynamics of the movement, as well as the design of the breaks.
The right training plan in bodybuilding
Training plan in bodybuilding
As an ambitious beginner, you are not only overloaded with the training plan of an advanced athlete, but you also diminish your physical successes with it. The performance levels are obviously different and one can’t get along with the plan of another.
Therefore, for me there are 4 factors that determine the success of a training plan and "tailor" it to me:
a.) Fun
b.) Experience
c.) Goals
d.) Time
A training plan must be fun
When I create my personal training plan, I am guided by these 4 points. For me, a workout must be fun first and foremost. This is a necessary prerequisite for maintaining reason 2, motivation, in the long term. If a training plan is not fun, the motivation quickly decreases. The consequence is a lack of desire to go to training and a new kind of disease "the procrastination" attacks the athlete. The successes fade and the frustration sits deep.
Unpopular exercises always exist
Fast increase as a beginner
With more fun in training, a lightness sets in, which in turn provides for more motivation and strengthens you in your successes. In accordance with the goals and the individual physical experience, one then compiles exercises, frequencies and duration of a training program. For example, beginners with the goal of building muscle can achieve very good results with a full body workout, which should be performed 3 times per week.
Somewhat experienced athletes (over 6 months), could venture into a 3 split training plan, which involves splitting the muscle sections into 3 weekly sessions. The factor time plays a not insignificant role in it. For me, training is not the first priority in my life, I think you agree with me on this one. Therefore, it should be highly efficient and not take up an extreme amount of time.
How long should you train?
30-45 minutes is enough in most cases to bring about significant changes in the body. In combination with a 3 times a week training, this results in 90-135 minutes. Around 2 hours of total training time for figure and health, as well as fun are all worth it or?
More is not insignificantly better. Your training should be short and crisp. To ease the conscience, I can tell ambitious athletes that it’s not the quantity (frequency and duration) of a training session that matters, but the quality (intensity and effectiveness, like the right training plan). The sum of all factors results in the right training plan, which is fun and brings the necessary successes with it. I have deliberately refrained from giving a blanket training plan in this guide, as I believe that it will only achieve half as much as applying my description.
A training plan is a highly personal, individually tailored approach.
In comparison you will surely agree with me, a tailor-made suit only looks appealing if it really fits.
The big four bodybuilding myths
In the field of bodybuilding there are many myths that have spread over time with the pretext of being able to train more effectively, more extreme and better. But these often turn out to be fallacies. The myth of definition exercises: Often observed in bodybuilders, how they want to build mass through basic exercises and gain definition through isolation exercises. However, experience shows that it is not possible to achieve targeted definition of body parts directly through certain exercises.
Rather, it is the reduction of subcutaneous fat tissue that leads to the definition of certain muscle areas. One observes too often how many try to strengthen the lower abdominal muscles, for example, with cross cable pulls. A muscle can do no more than contract – the so-called "pumping up" of muscle massesse thereby wrongly designated.
The myth of form exercises
Myth of standardized postures
Myth of one-sided training
Build muscle mass quickly and efficiently
There are many reasons to build muscle consistently: Body tension improves posture, reduces stress on joints, and muscle burns more calories than fat.
In the end, a trained body looks better and you cut a good figure on the beach even at an advanced age. However, when training muscles, some things have to be considered and first of all the rule of thumb is: less is more. But how do you build muscle consistently and sustainably??
Training and nutrition
For an efficient muscle build-up, two factors are crucial: the training and the nutrition. Also a sufficient liquid supply is important, so that the nutrients can be transported faster to the muscle cells. In order to be able to arrange however the muscle training effectively, first perseverance training is important, so that superfluous fat pads disappear. Otherwise, during the training phase, the body will later use up the muscles and the desired training effect will not be achieved. Basically, you should alternate running and muscle training and eat more on training days (especially protein-rich foods, complex carbohydrates and omega-3 fatty acids such as those found in olive oil). It is also important to sleep enough so that the body can regenerate.
Muscle training: short and intensive
The muscle training itself should be short and intensive and should not exceed 60 minutes. After this time, the muscle-building testosterone decreases and therefore less is more in this case. The key is to exercise regularly. At the beginning, twice a week is sufficient, because the muscle is formed only in the recovery phase, not during the workout. The principle is as follows: During training, tiny injuries are inflicted on the muscle. In the recovery phase it is then stimulated to grow.
During the training you should do about one or two exercises per muscle (these are called sets). One set can mean lifting dumbbells 10 times, for example. You should not overdo it at the beginning, because the correct execution of the exercises must be learned first, so that these also yield the appropriate success. Sports scientists also recommend eating more during training periods to allow muscles to develop. Over time, the load should then be continuously increased so that the muscles grow.
Training plan in weight training is essential
Integrate fitness into everyday life
In order to build muscle efficiently, it is essential to have a precise training plan drawn up by a professional and to have competent guidance during training. Otherwise, you may do more wrong than right and not be rewarded for your efforts. The result is frustration and possibly a premature termination of training.
However, if you take the above-mentioned basic rules to heart and train under expert supervision, you can look forward to some nice successes after a while. However, efficient muscle building takes time and you should take into account that success will only come gradually. Muscles do not build up overnight. However, the reward for the continuous effort is a healthier and also more aesthetic body, more resistant to diseases and various ailments.
Schedule training time firmly in the weekly schedule
Job, household and friends that require time: Many people would like to exercise, but still there is always a big but. Work calls, the household, the children, the partner and various social obligations seem to leave no room for all good intentions. Most people are aware of how beneficial exercise is for their health. Many who have started to exercise regularly also discover that it has a wonderful effect on the psyche, is balancing and relaxing. But how to integrate sports into the daily routine? And in such a way that you still meet all your obligations?
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Small steps
First of all, it is helpful to simply integrate more movement into your daily routine. Climbing the stairs instead of taking the elevator, getting off the bus two stops earlier, leaving the car parked more often or taking regular walks are already steps towards a more active and healthier life. Exercise is known not only to increase calorie consumption, but also to curb appetite, making it less likely to turn to chocolate bars& Co will grab. Of course, however, these small steps can not replace the healthy sport, in which the whole body is challenged.
Schedule fixed times
To integrate sports into your life in a sustainable way, it is helpful to set aside fixed times for it. This can be the sports group in the evening, Nordic walking trips with the girlfriend or the regular jogging laps in the park, when work, household, etc. are finished. It is always beneficial to train together with someone else, because you can spur each other on if your motivation starts to wane. In this context, sport – of whatever kind – can be seen as time out from everyday life, not as a must. Because experience shows that only those who enjoy the sport stick with it. But in pairs you definitely have more fun than alone. So it is always a good idea to find a sports partner.
In this way, there are a few ways to effectively integrate exercise into everyday life: more small-scale exercise, exercise in company, or exercise with a personal trainer of choice.
Increased performance in weight training with coffee?
Performance boost from coffee
In sports, caffeine is said to perk up tired muscles. A coffee during working hours, for example, makes you feel much peppier. But does this really mean that an increase in athletic performance with caffeine is also possible? De facto the statements are contradictory, whereby both supporters and opponents refer to scientific investigations. Caffeine can increase performance in the short term.
The chemical name of caffeine is "1,3,7-trimethylxanthine". But as a performance-enhancing agent, caffeine can be used not only in sports, but also in learning, to increase memory performance.
How much coffee do you need to drink for a performance boost
In fact, caffeine has a psychoactive effect, d.h. it improves mood and well-being when enjoyed in moderation. Thus the author of the article, Christopher D. Jensen, from that therefore for example in the cycle haven a measurable achievement increase could be noted by caffeine, likewise with runners, rowers and tennis players. Caffeine has an effect on agility, speed, marksmanship and endurance. In purely chemical terms, caffeine enables the messenger substance adenosine to dock better with its receptor and thus has the effect described. But it’s all about the right dose. Thus, according to this article, the recommendation is 1 to 3 mg of caffeine per kilogram of body weight. A significantly higher dose does not lead to a significantly higher performance – on the contrary, one should keep caffeine consumption moderate. 100ml of coffee contains 0.04g (40mg). For an athlete who weighs 80kg, it would take one cup (200ml) of coffee to reach 80mg of caffeine.
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How fast does coffee work
Caffeine reaches its highest effect about an hour after ingestion. Apart from coffee, caffeine can also be found in tea, power drinks, cola or chocolate, for example.
A Focus article from 16 expresses a different opinion. January 2006. Here you can read that caffeine is supposed to reduce the blood flow in the heart – but an increased blood flow is indispensable for a good athletic performance, because it transports more oxygen.
For example, a study by Swiss scientists reportedly found that up to 22 percent less blood was transported through the heart when caffeine was previously administered to subjects. As a result, the sporting performance had also been worse. Subjects who pedaled in a compressed air chamber to simulate arteriosclerosis actually had up to 39 percent less blood flowing through their hearts, according to this study. The explanation: Caffeine blocks receptors in the blood vessel walls so that they no longer expand under stress. "Caffeine is not a useful stimulant for athletes," study leader Philipp Kaufmann concludes, "It may make you feel more alert and active, but it actually diminishes your momentary performance".
Con and pro in terms of coffee
People with problems with the cardiovascular system would have to give even particularly care, because then cola or coffee before the sport could be even risky. It is a fact, however, that many top athletes consume caffeine before competition or training in order to improve performance, and numerous Internet portals state that caffeine is particularly suitable for endurance athletes. Due to its psychoactive effect, it is said to firstly promote motivation to exercise in the first place, and also boost fat metabolism and also improve performance levels. In many places, moderate caffeine consumption is therefore also recommended if you want to lose weight.
Caffeine, by the way, was taken off the official Olympic doping list and many athletes swear by caffeine. The self-test certainly shows whether caffeine is individually suitable for performance enhancement, but you should really only consume it in moderation, because an overdose can actually lead to health problems in the case of additional physical stress. Caffeine has been proven to increase blood pressure, which rises anyway due to exercise. Those who have high blood pressure anyway, for example, can then get into serious trouble. The motto for caffeine is therefore also: take it slowly and consume less rather than too much!
Coffee not only perks you up, it also makes you smart
Does coffee make you smart?
That coffee is a pick-me-up was already mentioned in the first part. Now scientists claim to have found out that coffee also makes you smart. But even here, the differentiated statement is "under certain conditions". The key idea comes from US researchers who published an article in Nature Neuroscience. A group of 100 test persons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore (US state of Maryland) were shown several pictures which they were asked to remember.
After the test one part of the group got a tablet with 200mg caffeine, the other part only got a placebo. All participants had to provide a saliva sample. With it the scientists examined whether the caffeine was already taken up by the body. A few hours after the first test, all participants were again shown several pictures. Among the motifs were some from the previous test, others only resembled the pictures, still others were completely new.
The "coffee drinkers" performed better
An improved memory performance
The placebo group, was wrong more often. They confused the similar images with those from the first round. However, if the "coffee drinkers" were given the caffeine only one hour before the start of the test, the result was similar to that of the placebo group.
Improved memory performance only works if the participants take the caffeine after the test.
Dosage and timing are important
Just as when caffeine was given too early, the researchers did not register improved performance when they gave out only 100mg. Too much (300mg) did not produce improved results either. The best results were achieved with a 200mg tablet.
Conclusion: If you want to do something for your memory, it is recommended to take 200mg of caffeine after studying. However, if you want to perform well in sports, you drink ca. 1 hour before exercise a cup of coffee.