Muscle mass workouts involve lifting heavy weights for low repetitions to stress the muscles and increase muscle size. Workouts should focus on specific muscle groups and include rest days for recovery. Aerobic activities and light weights will not increase muscle mass.
Muscle mass workouts are primarily focused on increasing the size or amount of muscle present in the body. To gain significant muscle mass, one must stress the muscles by lifting heavy weights for low repetitions. Different types of muscle mass workouts include exercises for specific muscle groups, such as the arms and shoulders, chest and back, legs, and abdominal muscles. The possible combinations of these exercises are endless, which means there can be a wide variety in muscle mass workouts.
As with all types of workouts, there is no single muscle mass workout that will provide the best results for all bodies. However, there are some basic guidelines to follow if an individual is interested in gaining muscle mass. Muscle mass is different from muscular endurance: gaining muscle mass means adding more muscle to the body, and muscular endurance means exercising to improve existing muscle function for longer. Aerobic activities like running and bicycling, as well as lifting light weights for high repetitions, will not help increase muscle mass, although they are great for increasing muscular endurance.
To build muscle mass, one must lift heavy weights for low repetitions. The initial amount of weight lifted depends on an individual’s strength at the start of the training program, but the amount must be steadily increased from workout to workout to continue to challenge the muscles. Each set should consist of six to 12 reps or reps. This means that the starting weight should be an amount that the person can lift between six and 12 times without rest.
Muscle mass workouts typically focus on only one or two muscle groups at a time due to the high stress placed on the muscles being worked. This gives each muscle group adequate time to rest and recover before the muscles are stressed again. If an individual lifts weights four times a week, he or she might split up the workouts to include one day each devoted to the arms and shoulders, chest and back, legs, and abdominal muscles. This allows maximum stress to be placed on each muscle group, as there will be plenty of time to rest in the days that follow when the focus is on the other three muscle groups.
The type of exercises each individual performs is primarily a matter of personal preference. There are many different exercises that target each muscle group, but you don’t need to include every one of them in a workout. Some classic arm and shoulder exercises are biceps and triceps curls, front and lateral raises, hammer curls, shrugs, and shoulder presses. For the chest and back, some good options are squats, chest presses, bench presses, pushups, and lat curls. For leg and abdominal exercises, most gyms have a variety of lifting machines that target these muscle groups.
The final element of all muscle mass workouts is to include dedicated rest days. Muscle mass does not increase during a workout, it increases after a workout during the body’s process of recovering from stress and repairing the damage of lifting heavy weights. This repair process is how mass is built, and not allowing adequate time to rest and recover will actually hamper muscle growth rather than increase mass.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
