MAXIM fitness guru ALEXA TOWERSEY gives you the lowdown on building muscle and maximising your strength and overall workout and nutrition…
Oddly enough your body doesn’t really want to add muscle. It’s metabolically expensive and it’s costly to build and maintain. This means you probably won’t add much of it unless your body deems it to be absolutely necessary. The good news is that you can make your body deem it absolutely necessary by imposing on it enough physical stress (training) so that it is forced to adapt.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
When it comes to building muscle (hypertrophy), we could go really deep and talk about motor units, protein synthesis, mitochondria, signalling pathways etc…, but do you really need that info? Hell no. Chances are you’ll end up with paralysis by analysis. What you really need are some simple yet practical guidelines that are research-backed and proven on the gym floor.
Sets and reps
Bodybuilders pretty much have all their mail sent to the eight to 12-rep zone. But most of the research that supports this comes from studies on the hormonal response to lifting. Sure, mid-range training leads to hormonal spikes, but not enough to drastically alter body composition. Science tells us that there’s no magical rep range for maximising muscle size. You can use both heavy, low-rep (1-5) sets along with medium-load, high-rep (15-20+) protocols. The key lies in the total volume – 12-20 total sets per muscle per week is good rule of thumb for hypertrophy.
Tempo
Lowering slowly creates more mechanical tension on the working muscles. If you want to maximise your size gains, maximize your time under tension by using strict form and a controlled eccentric lasting around three to five seconds.
Rest
Since volume and tension (lifting more for longer) are the two biggest drivers of muscle growth, shortening your rest time can cause a reduction in the amount of weight you can lift. Rest periods for hypertrophy should vary anywhere from one to three minutes, depending on the exercises and amount of weight being used. Use enough that you can perform in all your prescribed sets.
TOP TIP: When it comes to maximising your workout time, I’m a big fan of using paired antagonist sets – i.e. super-setting a chest exercise with a back exercise and a lower-body exercise with an upper body or ab exercise. This allows you to rest longer between sets of the same muscle group, while maximising your overall training time.
Weight
The amount of weight you choose is determined by the amount of reps you’re doing. Choose a load that leaves you unable to perform any more reps than indicated on your workout program without having to cheat the movement.
Exercise Selection
For an exercise to be capable of scaring your body into growing new muscle, it must be safe and stable enough to allow multiple muscle groups to lift heavy loads through large ranges of motion. However, in saying that, as long as you focus on training volume per muscle group, exercise selection can be largely personal preference. You’re more likely to be motivated to train and consistent with your effort if you “enjoy” what you’re doing.
Training Splits
This is determined by how many days per week you’re training. It all comes down to getting in enough volume per muscle group throughout the week. If you’re training 2-3 x week then full body sessions are best; if you’re training 4 x per week then an upper/lower body split is best – i.e. Monday and Thursday train upper body and Tuesday and Friday/Saturday train lower body; and if you’re training 5-6 x per week then a body part split is ideal to allow for sufficient recovery of each muscle group after each workout – I like a three day on, one day off rotation.
TOP TIP: If you have areas that are lagging, I would suggest dedicating more total sets/reps and training days to them and less overall volume to your more well-developed muscle groups.
EATING’S NOT CHEATING
Here’s my go-to nutritionist (IG: @athleticeating) Top 5 tips…
- Ensure you are eating adequate calories. For efficient muscle hypertrophy you’ll need a daily energy surplus of 300-500 calories.
- Review total protein intake. Research shows the optimal range for daily protein intake for building muscle is 1.6-2.2g per kilo of body weight.
- Plan out your protein distribution. Once you know how much protein you need for your size, you can ensure that you’re getting it in regular doses. Aim for 4-5 doses of protein across the day to maximise your opportunity for hypertrophy.
- Don’t skimp on carbs. Your carbohydrate requirements will depend on your activity levels. Research shows that muscle mass gain is generally impaired when carbohydrate intake is too low. Following a low carb diet can also impair your training quality meaning you may not be able to hit training hard enough to stimulate hypertrophy in the first place.
- Choose quality protein sources from whole foods. Protein can be ranked via it’s “bioavailability” which refers to how well a given protein source is used by the body (digested/absorbed) and to be considered to be of a high quality, it needs to deliver all of the nine essential amino acids. Meats, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy products (including whey protein powder) tick the box for quality and bioavailability. Pea or brown rice protein is the best vegan choice.
For the full article grab the June 2021 issue of MAXIM Australia from newsagents and convenience locations. Subscribe here.
