BUILDING MUSCLE.
Building muscle size:
Firstly it is important to understand how the muscles work, and the way in which we obtain larger more powerful muscles using weight training.
Without going into great detail about physiology, muscles are essentially groups of fibres that move a certain part of our body i.e. the arms and legs.
When we lift a heavy weight our muscles are not accustomed to this type of strain, so as a result they suffer minor ruptures called micro-tears. You'll feel these micro-tears as DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) usually a day or two after your workout. These micro-tears are repaired throughout the day and especially when you are resting/ sleeping.
When the body repairs the muscle it adds a little more muscle tissue to the original muscle that was damaged this is so it can be more adapt for lifting heavy weights and you should see a slight improvement in muscle performance.
To build muscle successfully you would have to continuously increase the stress level place on muscle groups. This is commonly done by increasing the amount of weight, the repetitions of the exercises and/or changing the type of exercise used on a specific muscle, causing new micro-tears, building up the muscles size and strength more and more. Using the same weight each workout will not see great results. Changing your workout regularly can spark new muscle growth.
Building muscle is no easy task, it takes time, alot of hard work, dedication and often frustration!
But if that hasn't put you off then let me tell you how to pack on some solid muscle (remember this is a free guide, for workout plans made especially for you check out the personal plans link).
I see alot of guys in the gym using weights or weight machines and it frustrates me to see them perform exercises with bad form or with weights that are too heavy or too light.
The key with building muscle is not purely down to the size of the weights or the number of reps you do, its down to quality. and to help you understand the main factors in building muscle I have composed a list of the greatest pit falls and mistakes and also how to correct them, enjoy:
No warm up, not warming up before a set is the first mistake people make. going into an exercise without stretching and performing a pre-set will mean that your muscle's will not be working properly and you will increase your risk of injury like sprains or torn muscles.
You can make sure your body is ready to start and exercise by firstly strectching the body part you wish to exercise, for example if your are working your chest you might want to stretch by putting your hands behind your back, interlock your fingers and keeping your arms straight, try and lift the arms up as far as possible untill you feel a good stretch across your chest (fig.1). This will loosen up your mucle fibres and make them much more flexable. Also you will want to do a warm up set, to do this (example for a chest/bench press) take a weight 50% of what you will usually do for 3 sets and perform 8 reps with this lighter weight taking 2/3 seconds to lift and 3/4 seconds to lower the weight, this will make sure blood is now flowing to the chest muscles and not only will the give more of a 'pump' at the end of your sets it will help to build more muscle in the long run.
Fig.1
lifting and lowering the weight too quickly, some people think they can achieve more by lifting and lowering the weight very quickly, but this is not the case infact the people that do this are probably missing out on the full ROM (Range of Motion), full range of motion is crucially important, if you dont believe me try this; do 10 press ups as quick as you can, have a little rest now get down and do ten more, but this time touch your nose on the floor on the way down keeping your back straight and taking 3 seconds on the way down and 3 seconds on the way up and try not to lock your elbows at the top. The second one should be alot harder, this is becasue your muscles are working alot harder and have to cope with alot more stress.
So in order to workout properly; take your weight and take 2/3 seconds to lift it (exhale while you lift) and take 3/4 seconds to lower the weight (inhale while you lower), Most of your muscle building potential is in the lowering phase of the exercise so it is important you dont just speed through this part.
Bad form, I'll leave you with one last tip! bad from is the worst culprit for causing injury and can ruin muscle symetry ( having one arm larger than the other etc), I think the worst exercise for this dumbell press, people will use two heavy dumbells and it is more than likely that their weaker arm will fatigue more quickly than their stronger arm ( the stronger side of the body tends to be the side in which you use the most, like to write etc) this leads to off balance exercise. Maybe its more clear to see in the dumbell curls/ bicep curls, whilsts using 15kg for your right arm for 3 sets of 10 might be fine, but if you tried to do 3 sets of 10 using the same weight on the left you might not be able to complete as many reps or even sets.
The best way to conquer this problem is to always concentrate on your weaker side use a weight that you can handle comfortably for 3 sets of 10 with your weak side will mean that both sides will be getting an equal workout, and becaue of this you will be able to concentrate more on your form and ROM.