One of the main question in fitness and bodybuilding world is how to increase muscle mass and gain more lean muscle mass? So I will try to explain it a bit thorough.
An increase in muscle mass occurs when conditions are created for increased protein synthesis in the muscles, as proteins are the building material of the muscles. The process of building and breaking down of proteins is something which happens constantly in the body, and these processes are the main reasons for increasing or decreasing muscle mass.
An increase in muscle mass occurs when the amount of created nitrogen is greater than the amount of nitrogen released and this condition represents a positive nitrogen balance. Nitrogen is a basic constituent of protein and the amount of nitrogen introduced and excreted indicates the protein turnover. Every healthy, non-training body has a condition called neutral nitrogen balance, which means that the amount of nitrogen injected and exhaled equalizes. After the exercise is completed, the muscle rests, and then protein synthesis is increased, and therefore muscle mass is increased. The more muscle breakdown is caused, the higher the protein synthesis and therefore the greater the muscle building.
When the processes of construction (anabolism) dominate the processes of degradation (catabolism), protein synthesis is increased, and muscle mass is increased, a positive nitrogen balance occurs. Enhanced protein synthesis occurs after very intense and long-lasting exercises. Exercises that are of high intensity and performed under anaerobic conditions (when the need for oxygen can not be satisfied), causing “fights” in the body for the utilization of energy by Adenosine triphosphate (also known as ATP), on the one hand, to perform exercises and other for protein synthesis. With strong activation of the muscle cells, energy is required to perform the exercises and cannot be used to synthesize degraded proteins. Using ATP energy to perform exercise, energy for protein synthesis is not available and catabolism or muscle breakdown processes occur. This leads to a decrease in the amount of protein and nitrogen in the active muscles. All this leads us to the conclusion that exercise leads to a decrease in strength and mass of muscles, right? This conclusion would be true if the muscle was not given adequate rest and nutrition because, as we said, exercises is causing increased muscle breakdown (catabolism), if the exercises last for a long time, the intensity is more pronounced. But these breakdown processes during rest cause increased recovery and increased protein synthesis, leading to increased muscle mass. To increase nitrogen recovery in the muscles during the rest period, it is necessary to reduce nitrogen as much as possible during exercise. But if low-intensity exercises are performed for a long time, they do not cause major changes in protein in the muscles, which does not further enhance protein synthesis during rest. When performing exercises, the focus should be on their duration. If the exercises are performed with higher loads, the length of the workout is short (because large weights can only be done with a small number of repetitions) and this leads to small metabolic changes in the muscles. If, on the other hand, the intensity decreases and the length of exercise is significantly increased, this results in an increase in the aerobic energy source for the work, and this will not lead to an increase of muscle mass. The conclusion is that you should find a load that provides enough stress but is less than the maximum while being long enough to activate the metabolism processes in the muscles and to obtain energy from anaerobic mechanisms (ATP molecules). The load should be such that it causes maximum muscle activation in all muscle fibers. This load is not a maximum weight that can only be lifted once or more than once. That load should be so large that it can be done between 6 and 10 reps in a series. Particular attention should be paid to the last few repetitions, because at that point there has already been muscle fatigue and the priority is the form of exercise.
If the training intensity is not adequate and no major muscle breakdown is caused, there will be no increased protein synthesis, so it is important for the muscles to become inflamed during the exercise process. For beginners, It is best to exercise with weights that are up to one-third of their maximum, but this is giving results in the first 6 weeks of training. During later phases of training, this proportion increases, and at some point reaches its maximum.
In addition to the intensity of exercise to gain muscle mass, the following factors are also important: how many times a muscle group is trained during a week, how many types of exercises, and the number of series/repetitions are used for a muscle group in one workout, the speed at which exercises are performed and length of rest between series and different types of exercises. Most people get the best results if they exercise for one muscle group 2 to 3 times a week. During these exercises, it is advisable to do 3 to 6 exercises per training session. There is an emphasis on diversity so that the muscle does not get used to one form of exercise. The number of series of one exercise should be 3 or 4. The number of repetitions in the series should be between 6 and 10, as indicated above. Most commonly used are normal series or super series. Normal series represent the repetition of one by one set of a single exercise with rest between. The Super Series is a combination of two different exercises with the repetition of sets one after another without resting between two different sets/exercises.
For some people, the best results can occur if they start from a smaller weights and thus slowly increase the load in order to reduce the number of repetitions (the so-called pyramid), and for others when they start using heavier weights and progress to a smaller number of repetitions (the inverted pyramid).The best results are obtained by a workout consisting of slow or very slow performance of the exercises at maximum concentration, the exercises are performed completely correctly and with full movement to cause as much muscle contraction as possible (it is advisable to hold the movement at the moment of full contraction for 2 -3 seconds as blood flow in the activated muscles is increased).
At any moment, every persons who is physically active is experiencing stagnation, muscles do not develop as they did when they started training. This stagnation is essentially a habit of training the muscles and the workload they must overcome. The best way to overcome this condition is through variability in all possible aspects of training: the mode of training, the speed of exercise, the rest period between exercises, the difficulty with which the exercises are performed. It is recommended that the exercise choices for each muscle group should be changed every 6 weeks to avoid stagnation.
When the muscles are sufficiently activated by training, there are two other important factors for muscle development: nutrition and rest.
