If you want to look fit and healthy you need to follow a healthy meal plan, exercise and live a healthy lifestyle. But for many people hitting the gym is more than just trying to stay fit. In fact many people desire to gaining muscle mass, so that they become bulky and build muscle.
Now one of the most common advice you will receive if you are trying to gain muscle mass is to lift heavy and big weights. This is going to allow you to gain muscle as quick as possible.
However before you decide to hit the gym and lift some big weights you need to understand how lifting heavy weights is going to help you in building muscles. It is important for you to understand that in order to gain big muscles as safely as possible; you need to overwork your muscles, very carefully. Now put a lot of emphasis on the word carefully!
How does the whole process work?
Now the process might seem a little absurd however it is important that you understand the fundamentals to gaining big muscles.
Muscles grow in response to the stress they undergo. When you lift heavy, big weights you cause the muscles to feel overloaded. This results in small tears that are made in the muscle. Now this might scare you a bit however understand that this how the human body works. Your muscles will then repair these tears when you are resting. This allows the muscles to not only grow in size but also to gain strength as well.
Lifting weights traumatizes the muscle cells, triggering your body to repair them.
The satellite cells outside the muscles are triggered by the damage they face and so these cells fuse together to help the existing muscle fibers. They do so by increasing the existing muscles in size, these muscle fibers undergo a recovery stage. They form new protein strands which allow them to be thicker and more stronger than before.
So in simpler terms, when you lift heavy, big weights you actually damage your muscles slightly. And in return your muscles repair themselves to become stronger and bigger so that they can lift more, heavier weight than what they are used to.
This is not an overnight process though!
However you must understand that having just one heavy weight lifting session will not result in bigger looking muscles. Instead for such bigger, stronger muscles you need to have sessions every day. Muscle growth is a complex process that takes place gradually overtime. You are required to undergo regular training sessions if you wish to see greater output.
How much weight can you lift?
Well since heavy weights will allow you to gain big muscles, you should lift about three to six sets of eight, and do 12 repetitions of one exercise. Make sure to use about 80 to 85 percent of your one-repetition maximum. Also make sure to rest for at least 30 to 60 seconds between each of these sets. See that you leave at least 48 hours between any heavy workouts you are doing for specific muscle groups.
Lifting weight isn’t all that is needed
You need to take care of your diet and you sleep as well as these both also play an important part in muscle growth. The human body requires about 250 to 500 additional calories per day in order to fuel muscle growth. You will also need to increase your protein intake as well, as your body will require a higher amount of amino acids in order to assist with the repairing process. You also need to sleep for at least 7 to 9 hours daily, so that your body is able to produce growth hormones for your muscle growth.
