I've heard too many crap at local gym and magazines etc. Now is the time to forget all those over
complicated theories you've heard from the 'big' brothers. Try using a little commonsense. Your
body makes
muscles if it expects some use of them in the future. In simple words, if you put your body in some
strain, it will try to be ready for the next time by building more muscles.
Now think of the things that your body will need to build more muscles :
- More food.
To build something, the prime requirement is the raw material.
That means you need to eat more. Proteins build the structure of muscles, so
you need to take more proteins. Carbs supply energy so you need to take
them too.
If you don't take that much proteins, your body won't be able to repair old and build new
muscles. If you don't take the required amount of carbs, your body won't have enough source
of energy to do exercise and will break the already stored muscles.
If you take too much proteins, your body will have a hard time digesting them. If you take
too much carbs, your body will accumulate them as fat.
A major misconception I've seen here is people just
don't get the meaning of eating more. Its very easy to eat awefully lots rotis (for
North-Indians)/bread or rice after a full 1-2 hour workout. But you are neglecting something
that actually does the building part : Proteins. Carbs are eaten more as they are more freely
available, but its proteins that you should stress upon when 'increasing' your diet. It is
very important for you to understand that if you eat more carbs then what your body can
actually consume, they will just add to the body fat. So, they need to be taken in
controlled amount so that they are just enough to supply for your general requirements and your
body is not led to break muscles that easy.
Another thing you need to know is that not all you eat gets assimilated if you eat too much
in one go. Its much better to eat less and more frequently. Consuming 12 rotis and
one litre
Milk is no good. Diets routines like this one only cause indigestion and more body fat.
But unfortunately they are too popular and people actually feel proud to brag of how much
they can eat in one go. I know that its not possible for everyone to take meals every 2-3
hours. But there is no way round. You must try to manage some odd 15-30 minutes to
get the required calories . But if you really can't do this, then you can take some liquids.
I mean don't eat too much and keep on taking juice, protein-shakes etc at regular intervals.
This is not quite the best possible approach but I found it the most practical one.
- Some quiet time.
After supplying the required amount of building blocks (food), you need to give your body some
free time to actually build the muscles. This is done mainly while you are sleeping. So rest
more.
A sleep deprived body won't be able to repair or build more muscles that efficiently.
For an average person 7-8 hours a day are quite sufficient. If you attend gym three days a week
with no do-or-die sort of workouts, 7-8 hours are quite OK for your body too. The basic funda
is to take rest whenever your body demands it. Just listen to your body, it'll tell you
exactly how much it needs. Practically, sleep well in the night (may be a little more then
you normally did) and take a little nap after lunch (quite good if possible). That will do.
One stupid thing I've heard from beginners is the way you get rest. This is very very silly
but I've heard it very often. Let me clear it once and for all that lying on a couch watching your
your favourite TV serial is NOT resting your body. You must SLEEP for some hours and thats REST.
Your body won't be doing what you're expecting it to be doing while you watch TV. Also, you
can't
break your 7-8 hours sleep in 4 chunks of 2 hours each to get enough rest. Your body needs
continous sleep of that much time once every 24 hours.
If you are in the habit of devoting lesser time, for example 5-7 hours a day to sleep, then
make sure you change your time-table accordingly when you start exercising. This is a common
problem with students and bugged me too quite a lot. My college timings are from 9:30am
to 5:30pm. And with
all the assignments, labs, travelling time etc it becomes 7:30am to 7:30pm!! Now, if I devote
one and a half hours a day for exercising and 2-3 hours for studying......well I'll become
a machine!!! I just can't. Nobody can. I solved the
problem by taking two working days off for exercising only while adjusting the intensity. But
if you are on supplements etc with heavy sets, then you may need to take rest 9-10
hours a day. In that case, you'll have to take some more radical approach. But my experience
says that its not possible to go all out in gym and earn the best grades too. A day has only
24 hours and you can't have the pie and eat it at the same time! The only possible solution
I've seen is to workout
with more intensity when the sem starts and lower it when exams are approaching! This way
you atleast get reasonable grades.
- Putting More Strain.
You worked hard enough....You slept well.....and now your body has developed all the muscles
it expected to need in the next workout. Now comes the next step. You need to
increase the weights and/or intensity to signal that it'll be needing still more muscles
in the next session. The funda is to do a trifle more then your body can presently take, so
that it will compensate by building more.
The "How much to increase" part is by far one of the most common
causes of not getting the expected gains! I've seen dozens of people who start all right but
when it comes to increasing the poundage, they just go overboard. You can take my word that
its quite ok to increase the weights by just two or three pounds. That way, you'll avoid
overtraining and muscle injury and will be able to observe consistent gains.
So, the ground rule is,
"more muscles" = "more proteins" + "more rest" + "heavier weights"
Now forget all other crap you ever heard. You just need the right combination of these three.
