Muscle Building Article - A few tips - By Damien Young
Here's a lengthy, but very informative email giving you some tips on how to do just that.... Build Muscle and Get Strong!
I originally wrote this for just Police Officers, but it applies to everyone.
From a physiological perspective, the more muscle you have on your frame, the faster your metabolism will be, which will help you get rid of bodyfat efficiently.
After the age of 30, you will lose .5lbs of muscle every year unless you train with weights. This loss of muscle is the reason why it's harder to lose fat as you get older, because your metabolism slows down as a result of muscle loss.
From a mental perspective, having muscle gives you more self-confidence, for men it increases your testosterone level and that helps with drive, ambition and stress reduction.
So do you want to build muscle?
I can write several books outlining the details of how to build muscle but for the sake of putting it into one email, I'm going to simplify it as much as possible. (If you want more details, don't hesitate to ask)
When you work out with weights, you're actually making microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. When you get REM sleep, your body begins the process of repairing, rebuilding and making sure your muscles are stronger in order to withstand that microscopic muscle trauma again.
(This means that your muscles GROW when you get REM sleep)
During the trauma of your muscles repairing and rebuilding, your muscles get sore.
Depending on the amount of trauma your muscles go through and how long the repairing phase takes will determine how long your muscles are sore for.
This is why if you work out on Monday and get no or little sleep you won't be sore on Tuesday. But if you take a quick nap and go through REM sleep, you'll wake up sore!
This reason above is precisely why I tell you NOT to exercise a muscle that's still sore. If your muscles are still sore, that means they're not repaired yet. Hitting that same muscle with weights again will simply tear the muscles even more before it gets repaired from the last time. The result will be loss of muscle! So always wait until a muscle is not sore before training that muscle with weights again.
When you first start weight training, you'll notice increases in strength within the first couple of weeks. This is mostly due to your connective tissues getting stronger, (ligaments, tendons). Once these become stronger, your muscles begin to get stronger as long as you train them to.
In order to train your muscles to get stronger, you must train them with a weight that will put enough stress on them. Anywhere from a few reps to 12 reps are ideal for building strength. So your last set of every exercise should consist of 12 reps or fewer.
In order for your muscles to grow, you need to consistently put more stress, (weight) on them. Your muscles "remember" the last weight you used on them and try to adapt by growing thicker muscle fibers, (bigger muscles).
One of the most, (if not THE MOST) important factors in building muscle is Nutrition, more specifically your calories and protein. (You'll notice I gave you a calorie range and protein range, NOT a carb and fat range as they're less important.
In order to build muscle you must eat enough protein as protein helps build muscle (your muscle is made up of over 25% protein). Protein helps in the repairing and rebuilding process.
Your body is always in one of two states:
1. Muscle Building or Anabolic State
2. Muscle Losing or Catabolic State
That's right. You are either always gaining muscle or are always losing muscle!
In order for your body to be in an Anabolic or muscle building state, you must have enough protein at all times!
Unfortunately, most of you have been in a muscle losing or catabolic state for years because of your job or because you just didn't know this.
You cannot build muscle or even maintain muscle if you don't eat enough protein and remain in an anabolic state for at least most of the time.
Your body can process anywhere from 30-50 grams of protein every couple of hours. Anything more your body will store as fat.
So in a perfect world, if you ate 30 grams of protein every 2-3 hours every day up until a couple hours before sleep, you'll be in the highest anabolic state you can be in all day.
Just be careful, too much protein can put extra stress on your kidneys so it's IMPERATIVE THAT YOU DRASTICALLY INCREASE YOUR WATER INTAKE IF YOU DRASTICALLY INCREASE YOUR PROTEIN INTAKE!
The other thing is your calories.
You must have enough calories AND carbs in order to build muscle. Why?
Let's say your body burns 1500 calories in 24 hours doing nothing. Then you factor in daily exercise and regular activity so now you're burning 2500 calories/day.
If you eat only 1200 calories/day, you're creating a calorie deficit of 1300 calories.
2500 calories out - 1200 calories in = 1300 calorie deficit
That deficit is way too high. What happens is that your body will not only slow its metabolism down, but it will begin to use protein from your muscles for energy because it ran out of carbs for energy. This is why too few calories are not good for building muscle.
Your body uses carbohydrates as its primary source of energy. If you ate only protein and fat, your body will use the protein for energy and cause many other "Not so good" things to happen to your body. So CARBS ARE NOT THE ENEMY, THEY'RE NECESSARY!
The best ratio of Protein, Carbs and Fats I'd recommend is 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fats.
Protein has 4 calories per gram
Carbs has 4 calories per gram
Fat has 9 calories per gram
So let's say I recommended you eat 1500 calories/day.
1500 x 40% = 600 calories of Protein
1500 x 40% = 600 calories of Carbs
1500 x 20% = 300 calories of Fats
Now 600 divided by 4 = 150 grams of Protein, 150 grams of carbs and then 300 divided by 9 = 33 grams of fat.
That would be a great diet for building muscle! Not easy to follow but great!
So here's the breakdown of muscle building tips:
1. Train progressively heavier with weights, ending up with 6-12 reps as your last set.
2. Get enough sleep. Your muscles grow in your sleep. Aim for 7 hours or more/night. If that's impossible, short naps can give you REM sleep and help tremendously!
3. Eat enough protein. As a rule of thumb, eat 1 gram of protein per pound that you weigh.
4. Eat enough calories. I gave you a calorie range in previous emails.
5. Shoot for 40% protein, 40% carbs and 20% fats.
6. Eat protein with each meal and/or snack every 2-3 hours to stay in an anabolic or muscle building state. NEVER go all day without eating!!!
So there you have it in a nutshell. As I mentioned, there are many other factors but if you read this, understand this and implement this you'll be well on your way to building muscle fast!!!!
Let me know if you have any questions.