Hello everyone, everyone, everywhere! Today we will talk about perhaps the most pressing question that faces any person who comes to the gym and it sounds like this - how long can it take to pump up? One (maybe two) naked truth awaits us, without embellishment and castles in the air. The material is planned, as always, to be extensive and detailed, so I decided to split it into two articles. In this issue you will find out how beginners generally deal with temporary issues in bodybuilding, as well as what tools any person should have in order to achieve the coveted muscle volumes. In the second note, let's talk... although let's not get ahead of ourselves...
So, I hope you are already excited?...then let's begin.
Main Factors of Muscle Growth
Many people are still convinced that it is enough to go to the gym for 3-4 weeks before going to the beach. That's all! A toned figure is guaranteed.
In fact, your desire to get pumped up is not enough. There are certain laws of biochemistry and physiology that limit the rate of muscle growth. Let's look at them.
The rate of muscle growth depends on many factors:
- Genetic predisposition
Most professional bodybuilders are phenomenally genetically gifted people for rapid muscle growth. Usually these are pronounced mesomorphs (athletic body type).
Their complete opposite is ectomorphs (thin body type). The rate of muscle growth (as well as their total quantity) in ectomorphs is genetically highly limited.
- Hormonal background of the body
The level of anabolic hormones in our body is one of the main factors in muscle growth. The higher the level of anabolic hormones, the faster you can pump up.
The good news is that anabolic hormone levels can be increased through strength training, nutrition, and supplementation.
The bad news is that hormonal levels may be suppressed. Excessive and prolonged physical activity, stress, unfavorable environment, poor-quality food and much more can negatively affect hormonal levels.
This, by the way, is one of the reasons why professional bodybuilders resort to artificial anabolic steroids. To have a 100% guarantee of a consistently high level of anabolic hormones in the body.
- Correct training method
Different body types have their own specific training methods.
It is very important that you exercise according to a plan that is most effective for your body type.
- Nutrition
A properly balanced diet can significantly speed up the process of muscle growth. Nutrition accounts for 50-70% of success in muscle growth rate.
- Complex restoration of the body
Most amateurs neglect various factors to speed up the recovery process. Full healthy sleep, massage, sauna, physiotherapy - all this can significantly speed up the pumping process.
But professional bodybuilders use all this. And they are growing by leaps and bounds.
Choosing a lesson system
To solve the dilemma of how to pump up in a month, an inexperienced athlete begins to quickly increase speed. Sudden jerks can end in disaster. The desire to get a final positive result in a short time can incite you to take the wrong steps.
Properly selected exercises effectively develop muscle mass. The most popular request on the Internet is: how to pump up your butt in a month? By identifying the main problem, you can evenly distribute the efforts of the training process.
A person loses weight evenly. Massages and dietary complexes increase the rate of reduction of the fat layer and increase the tone of selected parts of the body. Experienced athletes recommend:
- study four days of the week;
- the minimum daily water intake is two liters;
- consume a certain amount of calories (the “multiples of 40%” rule - carbohydrates, proteins 40%, fats 20%);
- get enough sleep, 8 hours of rest;
- record progress with photographs, videos, centimeter measurements and keeping a training diary.
It is necessary to start and record all your training and achievements in a diary. Each entry is made according to the following type:
- dates of the day;
- time spent training;
- meal schedule;
- menu of consumed products.
This is how progress is tracked and the selected program is tested.
How long does it take to actually get pumped up?
To answer this question, we first give a few numbers as a guide.
If you are working out for yourself, it is considered optimal to gain muscle mass plus 10-20 kg to your height, without the first growth digit. For example, your height is 180 cm. Then the optimal muscle weight: take height without the first number - 80 and add 10-20 kg.
We get the optimal muscle weight for an amateur bodybuilder with a height of 180 cm equal to 90-100 kg. At the same time, the percentage of body fat should not be higher than 10-12% (abs are clearly visible).
Let's say you come to the gym with a height of 180 cm and a weight of 75 kg. This means you need to gain a total of 15-25 kg of lean muscle mass.
How long it will take, you will find out right now.
Norms for the rate of muscle gain:
- During the first year of training – 10-12 kg of lean muscle mass.
- In the second year - 6-8 kg.
- For the third - 4-6 kg.
After three years of regular training, the body will exhaust its potential for rapid muscle growth. Then you can continue to build muscle. But the growth rate slows down to 4 kg per year.
Now you have received the truthful answer.
To gain 15-25 kg, you will need 2-3 years of REGULAR training.
These figures show how much it takes to build muscle within the framework of natural physiology, without the use of anabolic steroids. However, modern pros, taking a huge amount of them, set inhuman standards for muscle mass. Thanks to their hard work, the norms for the speed of its acquisition have also changed.
When taking steroids, the norm is to gain 10 kg of muscle weight in 2-3 months.
How quickly can you achieve results in bodybuilding?
With proper training and the appropriate physique, you can achieve good results within a year and a half.
It is believed that a person of average build can get good results from working out in the gym within a couple of years. The first results will be noticeable already in the first year of active training. It should be remembered that success will not be long in coming if you approach your studies systematically, without stopping at the results achieved.
If bodybuilding becomes a lifestyle for you, and not just a sport, then, of course, you will soon be able to see the fruits of your efforts. There are athletes with 20 years of bodybuilding experience who continue to improve their bodies, achieving truly impressive results.
However, if they tell you that you can achieve good results in a few months, this is not true. For people with good natural abilities, this time is one year, for others - from two to four years.
How to train to gain muscle mass
To quickly gain muscle mass, you must adhere to the following basic rules:
- Training frequency – 3 times a week
- In one workout, 1 large muscle group (legs, back, chest) and 1-2 small ones (biceps, triceps, abs, shoulders, lower legs) are worked out.
- For large muscles, perform 2-3 basic (multi-joint) exercises. For small 1-2 exercises
- The main priority is given to exercises with barbells and dumbbells
- Basic training load range: 2-3 sets of 6-10 reps per set
- Training duration is about an hour
In addition to training, nutrition is very important for building muscles.
Warm-up
Warm-up is the most important stage of any physical activity.
Warm muscles work well and efficiently, pumping occurs faster, since blood flow ensures good tissue respiration and accelerates metabolism.
Warming up will also help avoid minor injuries: joint dislocations, muscle strains and ligament ruptures.
A standard warm-up should last 10-15 minutes.
It includes:
- Cardio elements - running in place, jumping rope, lunges while lying down, squats, leg swings.
- Joint gymnastics - the most important thing is to work out the belt of the upper limbs. Particular attention should be paid to the elbow and shoulder joints.
- Stretching. You need to qualitatively stretch the muscles of the neck, upper arms, back, and sides.
After warming up, you need to rest for one or two minutes to restore your breathing.
The Role of Nutrition in Building Muscle
It is common knowledge that 50% of muscle growth depends on proper nutrition.
With the help of nutrition, the body receives macroelements (proteins, fats, carbohydrates), vitamins and microelements. All these substances are very important for us. They, one way or another, accelerate muscle growth.
Even fats! And this is not a mistake. For example, fats are involved in the synthesis of anabolic hormones. Well, we have already talked about how important anabolic hormones are in rapid muscle building.
Basic nutritional recommendations for quickly building muscle are as follows:
- The protein intake rate is 2 grams per 1 kg of body weight. For example, you weigh 70 kg. Then your daily protein intake is 140 grams (70kg*2 grams = 140 grams)
- In protein foods, priority is given to animal products. Meat, fish, poultry, eggs, dairy products.
- The carbohydrate intake rate is 1:3. That is, for 1 gram of protein there should be 3 grams of carbohydrates. For example, your daily protein intake is 140 grams. Then carbohydrates will account for 420 grams (140 grams of protein * 3 grams of carbohydrates = 420 grams)
- In carbohydrate consumption, priority is given to complex carbohydrates (cereals), vegetables and fruits.
- The total calorie content of the diet is 50 kcal per 1 kg of body weight. For a weight of 70 kg this will be 3500 kcal (70kg*50kcal=3500 kcal)
- Number of meals 4-6 per day
Taking nutritional supplements will also help you gain muscle mass quickly. The most effective in this direction are:
- Vitamin and mineral complexes
- Creatine monohydrate
- Protein
- Complex amino acids
- Selected amino acids (BCAA, L-glutamine and others)
- Gainers. Suitable only for people who have great difficulty gaining weight. The rest should be used very carefully so as not to gain “ballast” in the form of fat.
Stage 1
Preparing the body for hypertrophy (i.e., preparing the body for future muscle growth) takes 2-3 months, the shortest period of time, which is also the most necessary.
Our body, roughly speaking, is smart-ass. A beginner who came to the gym for the first time and trained with weights caused enormous stress for the body as a whole.
And if such stress is repeated regularly, then our body simply rearranges all the transport systems of our body in such a way as to waste less energy (suffer less from such stress), in short, our body does not enjoy it (it is blocked).
The first thing that changes our body is energy supply. Those. when we train, we spend a lot of energy, this is not beneficial for the body, it begins to store and release more glycogen and ATP in the muscles.
In addition to the above, our muscles learn to work more economically, well, spend less energy than before during training.
This occurs due to more coordinated work of our muscle fibers under the influence of the central nervous system, i.e. The more muscle fibers work together (as a group, friendly), the less energy the body needs to perform the exercise.
But in practice, everything happens in the form of an increase in human strength. Those. our teenager, without knowledge, did not plan the stages of muscle growth, he came and started training like all ordinary people. At the first workout, I bench pressed 60 kg, the next time I easily bench pressed 75-80 kg.
Or he pulled 60 kg, then 90 kg. This is not because his muscles have become larger in size, it is because our smart-ass body has learned to work more efficiently than before.
Yes, of course, a person can add a couple of kilograms of muscle mass, his appearance has changed for the better, the person thinks: well, everything is ok, I’m moving in the right direction. However, it is not. You are making a grave mistake; in just a couple of months, the growth of your strength and muscle mass will slow down. And all because he didn’t exist!
In fact, there was an increase in muscle efficiency and an increase in muscle transport systems. But the MUSCLE GROWTH ITSELF occurs during the second stage.
Important points that will help you achieve your goal
Avoiding injuries
The complex should be performed very carefully and technically correctly to avoid injury:
Take care of your wrists This is the weak link in strength training. Minimal pain requires immediate cessation of exercise. There is no reason to train through pain. Moreover, it can lead to inflammation or result in serious injury.
Strengthen your hands With the help of a compact expander, you can strengthen your hands at any time convenient for the athlete.
Do not use belts Natural training without belts significantly increases grip strength and increases the effectiveness of the exercise. Moreover, there is an opinion that training beginners with belts leads to a decrease in forearm and grip strength.
