Getting ripped is not an impossible dream, at least if you understand the commitment that building big muscles entail. If you ever at one moment or another said to yourself “I want big muscle!” complete with fist shaking in the air, well, you are not alone. The good news, however, is that once you have made up your mind to start a muscle building program, things can only get better from there. Now of course, making up your mind and following through are two very different things. You will always need to stay motivated and to act on that motivation to ensure that your big muscle building plan proves to be a success.
The Science of Building Big Muscles
There’s more to improving your physique than lifting a few pounds of weight and eating like a wrestler. Without a thorough understanding of how muscles grow and what you can do to hasten that growth, you’re not going to go very far beyond your “I want big muscle” mindset. It is a must then to know everything you can about the variables that you can manipulate (e.g. muscle action, volume, and load lifted) so you can maximize muscle growth or hypertrophy.
Type I and Type II Muscle Fibers
Which muscle fiber type do you want to work out if you want greater muscle growth? Is it type I muscle fibers or type II muscle fibers? And do all of these even matter?
In a word: yes. You need to know about these things so you don’t waste three hours every day doing activities that would not give you bigger muscles. If you know that type I muscle fibers are good for low intensity, long duration activities and that type II fibers have greater potential for hypertrophy then you can devote your time to doing more high intensity activities or heavy resistance training. Not that low impact exercises are totally useless but you need to know what a typical bodybuilding routine looks like so that you will know what to expect and avoid being blindsided should training prove to be more than you bargained for.
The Importance of Rest
As it turns out, rest and recovery is not merely slacking off. Anyone who is training to get big muscles need to realize that without rest, muscle fiber recovery is negatively affected, which carries over to future exercise performance. Remember also that workouts only provide the stress that will allow your body to change and that that change only happens during recovery periods. You can possibly undo all the hard work that you have put into your I-want-big-muscle program if you neglect to rest, as overtraining can lead to broken down muscles and overall weakness with subsequent workouts.
Secrets to Muscle Gain
Do you need to be Chris Hemsworth or Chris Evans to get muscles like Thor and Captain America? Are you required to pay a king’s ransom so you can get the body you’ve always dreamed of? Is there a magic machine that can help you get ripped or shortcuts that you can try to remove everything that’s so hard about bodybuilding?
The answers, unfortunately, to all three are no, no, and no. With building big muscles, you don’t have to be a celebrity to stay committed to a workout routine. You also don’t need to spend money on every exercise machine that you see in commercials. And as hard as it may be, you cannot give up, not if you want to see results. The truth is, there are no secrets to getting big muscles. It’s all hard work and commitment on your part. Everything else are additions that can make or break your goal.
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