Progressive means that as soon as you get used to lifting a certain amount of weight, you add a little more. Over time, you'll get stronger because your muscles adapt by getting larger to handle the added weight.
Our bodies adapt to whatever stress we regularly put it through. When you lift weights, what you're doing is actually tearing the muscle tissue in a healthy way. When you eat the proper nutrition, mostly protein, they'll actually repair themselves. In fact, they get stronger and bigger without lifting more weight.
As you continue to lift more weight, your muscles will keep adapting to this increased overload. So they get bigger.
But one thing you may not know, is, lifting weights actually causes muscle fiber damage. And this microscopic damage needs to heal properly if you're going to gain any muscle.
There are type A and type B fibers in your muscles.
Let's say the higher repetitions might tear the type B so heavier weights will tear them and bring them back stronger. Some people are fast switch and some people are slow switch.
Fast switch responds to high reps, mostly between 8-12 repetitions. Slow switch will respond to slower reps between 4 and 6.
Every body has a different buildup. Let's say, for example, my bicep is 90% fast switch and 10% slow switch. I would need to do mainly high repetitions for my bicep.
You, on the other hand, might be 90% slow switch and 10% fast switch so the approach you would want to take is lower reps.
So, in order to build muscle mass, you first have to tear it slightly.
The degree of tearing is directly related to how hard and how long you exercise and what type of exercise you do. Movements in which muscles forcefully contract while they are lengthening will cause the most muscle growth.
These are called "eccentric" contractions, and they provide the resisting action of the muscle such as lowering weights and performing the downward movements in exercises.
When you get the proper nutrition, your body repairs this muscle tissue damage and makes it stronger, for the next time you have to handle this weight.
That's why you have to first cause slight muscle damage, for new muscle mass to be built.
How Does Muscle Build
The popularity of supplemental protein has grown for many reasons. Let's look at a typical 200 pound bodybuilder. Our bodybuilder must consume 1 to 1.5 g of high quality protein per pound of body weight each day. This means he should average 250 g of protein each day. This protein intake should be divided into 5 or 6 meals to be consumed throughout the day. Six meals per day, our bodybuilder needs to consume an average of about 40 g of protein at each meal.
Let's look at the protein content of some common bodybuilding foods:
Another important tips is that, it has been established in studies that the prevention of a loss in lean muscle mass can be achieved when starving individuals were fed 1.5 grams of protein per pound of lean body tissue.
Therefore, if you want to make sure all the muscle you currently have stays on your body, eat this amount and you can rest assured that you shouldn't lose muscle tissue.
So, what's the bottom line for you, the muscle builder? You should still aim for a minimum of one gram of protein per pound of body weight, as protein does supply the amino acids that form the structure of new muscle tissue and obviously you don't want to short yourself on those.
After that though, you really won't need any more because once those basic needs are met, all you require is the energy to then build this muscle out of those building blocks.
While protein can be used for energy, it's not used nearly as effectively as carbohydrates or dietary fat is, therefore it actually makes more sense to raise either of these two macronutrients in comparison with raising protein.
So, next time someone is telling you that you need to take 2 grams of protein for every pound of body weight you have to build muscle, remember that you know better. There's really no harm in taking in this much, but it by no means is going to be the way to go if you want to optimize your muscle building ability.
Both Lebrunny & Nick Clipton are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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