Muscle growth takes place when the muscles are first stimulated by an intense workout, then are given proper nutrition, adequate rest, and most importantly, enough time, to go through the chemical process of building bigger, stronger muscle fibers.
For optimal muscle growth, recovery is just as important to your results as the workout. The workout has to come first; it is the stimulus, the thing that flips the switch and sets the muscle growth process into motion. Recovery time is when muscle growth takes place. Your body doesn’t actually change during the workout; the workout merely stimulates the change. Then you need a recovery period to give your body time to produce the actual muscle growth.
When you get done with a workout, you don’t feel the same as you did before you
started. You feel tired, maybe a little bit drained. Why? Because during the
workout something was used up-the energy your body needed to complete the
workout. In effect, by working out you have dug an energy hole. The first thing
that has to happen after a workout is that hole has to get filled in-you have to
recover the energy that you used up. Once that energy has been replaced, then and
only then will your body pile some extra muscle growth on top of where that hole used to be.
Recovery and muscle growth both require time to be completed. If your workouts are too long, or you work out too frequently to allow for full recovery, you will short-circuit the muscle growth process.
You must be careful to perform only the minimum amount of intense training required to stimulate muscle growth; then, get out of the gym for long enough to allow that muscle growth to take place. Anything more is over-training, which is the worst training mistake you can make, and will actually prevent muscle growth from taking place.
To make this point more clear, imagine you set a goal of getting a sun tan. If you are exposed to intense sunlight for a short period of time, and then get out of the sun, your body will compensate for that stress by producing a sun tan.
However, if you stay out in the hot sun too long, you over-expose yourself and cause a sun burn.
Training for muscle growth is an intense form of stress, just like going out in the hot sun. If you expose yourself to just the right amount, your body will compensate by producing muscle growth. Muscle growth is the exercise equivalent of a sun tan. However, if you over-train, you over-expose yourself and prevent muscle growth because the stress is too great for your body to adapt to. Over-training is the exercise equivalent of a sun burn.
Proper nutrition also plays an important role in muscle growth. Your daily diet provides the raw building materials your body needs to create bigger, stronger muscles.
For muscle growth, you would first need to stimulate your muscles through a proper training program such as High Intensity Muscle Building, and then you would need to increase your daily protein and calorie intake, as described in the High Intensity Muscle Building Nutrition Guide.
Click here to learn more about the High Intensity Muscle Building program
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