How to pump up muscles and gain weight? Basic training program

Hello, dear reader! If you have come to this page, it means you are interested in questions related to how to build muscles for a beginner or how to give yourself a slim, beautiful body.

Even before you cross the threshold of the gym, you will have to face a lot of difficulties and nuances.

I created this section specifically to shorten your path to a beautiful body as much as possible and to warn you against many mistakes.

Unfortunately, the vast majority of people train at random, blindly trying to build themselves a more or less beautiful body. For this reason, VERY FEW people achieve truly impressive results.

There are many principles and rules in bodybuilding and fitness, knowing which you can progress much faster than, in fact, the readers and subscribers of my blog successfully do.

I will show you their results a little later, but for now, in order not to delay too long, let me take you into the wonderful world of transformation of your body and life.

How to build muscle and principles of muscle growth

So, you decided to quickly build muscle, and don’t know where to start? In this case, this page of my blog will help you with this very well.

The information is given in a convenient, simple form, with all the necessary links and conclusions.

As you study this information, you may have more and more questions.

Do not worry. This is fine.

This is very simply explained by the fact that the less you know, the less points of contact you have with various facts and knowledge.

I'll explain it more simply.

There is a wonderful phrase that explains this phenomenon.

"I know that I know nothing"

This phrase was said by the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates.

The more you learn, the more strange things you encounter along the way. The more you want to know what you don't know. And it will be like this forever.

This is a kind of chain reaction that allowed our species “homosapiens” (“reasonable man”) to evolve, adapt and develop as a result of anthropogenesis (the part of human evolution in which our species appeared).

We grow when things are difficult for us. Our body CONSTANTLY ADAPTES.

At this point we will stop discussing with you for now and move on to the very essence of muscle growth, weight loss, in general, TRANSFORMATION of your body.

For now, remember one thing: THE BODY IS CONSTANTLY ADAPTING !

This will be enough for now.

Don't forget to follow the links provided in this article to gain a deeper understanding of issues related to building a beautiful body.

So, the main three rules to build muscles.

To pump up muscles (make them bigger), first of all, you need to adhere to the following simple rules:

• Progressive overload is the BASIC principle of bodybuilding. In order for muscles to grow, you need to CONSTANTLY increase the load, otherwise there will be no point in the body growing.
• High-quality recovery - consists of high-quality fractional meals (5-12 times a day) + sufficient sleep (8-10 hours).
• Developed muscle sense - you definitely need to learn to FEEL your muscles while working with additional weights, so that the load hits EXACTLY THE TARGET, and is not “smeared” across the synergist muscles (synergists are muscles that perform the same contractile functions in various exercises, for example, triceps and pectoral muscles).

For now, there may be little that is clear. Do not worry. Soon everything will become much easier.

Let's talk about all the above principles in detail.

Progressive load

Load progression is the basic rule of bodybuilding.

Our muscles and the body as a whole constantly strive for balance (homeostasis).

An increase in muscles (the size of motor units) leads to an increase in energy expenditure, which is extremely disadvantageous for the body.

Just imagine, the body lives calmly in balance, and you are trying to force it:

1. To grow motor units (muscles), which requires a HUGE expenditure of building materials (proteins) and energy (carbohydrates).
2. Spending more energy due to an increase in consumers (muscles), which the body considers a serious threat to life. Muscles are very voracious things that spend enormous amounts of energy.

Over THOUSANDS OF YEARS of evolution, our ancestors were forced to save energy to survive, because... I had to move a lot, and there was very little food.

Our body was forced to adapt to this.

To force our body to do something that is not profitable for it (grow muscles), we need to show that it is BENEFITABLE and necessary for survival.

In fact, this is all very approximate and exaggerated. I hope you understand this, but it reflects the essence.

Okay, how do you show your body that it needs to grow muscles?

YOU NEED TO CONSTANTLY INCREASE THE LOAD IN YOUR TRAINING! This will give the body a signal that it needs to increase muscle size in order to insure against increasing stress in the future.

I have a cool article on this topic about supercompensation, read it.

The easiest way to progress the load is to increase the working weights. This is the simplest, but not the only way.

There are relatively safe and unsafe ways to increase the load. I will write below why they are called that.

Load progression methods:

• Increasing working weights (on a barbell, dumbbells, exercise machines) = a safe way.
• Increasing the number of repetitions of an exercise = safe way.
• Increasing the total volume of load per workout (number of approaches in an exercise, number of exercises themselves, reducing rest between approaches) = unsafe method.
• Super techniques (supersets, dropsets, forced reps, negative reps, cheating, etc.) = unsafe method.

These are the main ways to progress the load, but for most people increasing the working weights and number of repetitions will be enough .

Increasing weights and repetitions are two safe ways to progress, especially for beginners, because we have natural guardrails for these methods.

The body has a reserve supply of energy, which it always leaves to insure our health and life.

When you increase the load through working weights or repetitions, then at the moment when we experience muscle failure, the body maintains this reserve reserve.

The muscles grow, but there is no risk to health.

I recommend reading the article about muscle failure. After reading it, it will become clearer about this point.

If we increase the load by increasing the total volume of the load during a workout or by using super techniques, then the body depletes energy reserves MUCH DEEPER than the reserve energy reserve, i.e. there is a risk of overtraining.

If you just came to the gym, then I advise you to increase the load only through repetitions and working weights.

But this is only after 1-2 months of training, because from the first days you will need to go through a period of preparing the body for stress, which we will talk about below.

Let's, before I give you links to the necessary articles on my blog about the progression of loads, make the first two conclusions.

1 Conclusion: A beginner (no matter whether a man or a woman) must, from the very beginning, go through a period of preparing the body for physical activity (1-3 months).

Don't worry, I have a whole cool blog post about this period with a student's review. I'll give a link to it below.

2 Conclusion: Progression of loads at the initial stage (1-2 years) should occur by increasing working weights and increasing the number of repetitions.

So, articles on the topic of load progression for beginners, which I definitely advise you to read:

• How to increase working weights in exercises;
• The period of preparing the body for physical activity;
• Super moves for super muscles;

From the above articles you will learn how to properly increase the load.

High-quality restoration

Many people think that bodybuilding is just training in the gym.

How wrong they are...

Bodybuilding is not just hard training, it is a WAY OF LIFE.

You work on building a beautiful body around the clock, because... muscle growth processes do not occur during training, but after it during rest.

So when you eat or sleep, you are also doing bodybuilding because your muscles are repairing and growing.

3 Conclusion: Muscles do not grow during training, but after it.

The process of resting after a workout is called post-workout recovery.

It often happens that a person trains well, is disciplined, does not miss training, but does not grow, or generally becomes smaller and feels worse.

What could be the problem? 99% in POOR RECOVERY!

With proper, balanced nutrition, the body receives all the necessary materials for the construction of new protein structures.

This process is called ANABOLISM (from the Greek ἀναβολή, “rise”)

The fact is that our body can be in several states:

• Catabolism (nutrition is insufficient, protein and other structures are destroyed). This can also happen during heavy training.
• Homeostasis (there is enough nutrition and sleep, enough recovery abilities to stop damage during training, the body remains unchanged).
• Anabolism (enough nutrition and sleep + growth of protein and other structures occurs).

It is IMPOSSIBLE to achieve anabolism and catabolism at the same time.

First of all, we must get a little more calories than we spend! Many people wonder why they are not growing, although most of them do not take into account their limited diet (eating little) and their fast metabolism.

In order to start growing (enter a state of anabolism), one of the most important conditions is to take into account the quantity and quality of your nutrition.

There is a very simple way to control your nutrition.

Just start eating almost the same foods in the same quantities every day. This way you will be sure that you ate no less food necessary for growth than yesterday.

Recovery also includes the quality and quantity of sleep!

During sleep, amazing metamorphoses occur in the body (especially during adolescence). The entire system is recharged.

The hormones necessary for growth and recovery (testosterone, growth hormone, etc.) are released.

Try to go to bed no later than 22-23 hours and sleep at least 8-10 hours a day.

Useful articles on the topic:

• Signs of overtraining;
• Metabolism in the body;
• Healthy lifestyle;
• Should I drink water during training?
• Essential Nutrients;

Be sure to read the articles above. I’m sure the picture about recovery and nutrition will become clearer.

Developed muscle sense

Many people have been practicing all their lives and do not know this concept.

Hence the severe limitation of their progress.

It seems like they’ve been pumping for years, but there’s almost no progress. How so?

In response they say that: “Genetics are bad”, “I work out for myself”, “I don’t work out much yet”, etc.

Surprisingly, this is not the problem, of course.

The problem is that they don't feel their target muscle during the movement and perform the exercises incorrectly.

In the first 1-3 months of training, forget about your working weights!

Reduce the load by at least half and work on the correct technique for doing the exercises.

Above I posted a link to an article about the period of preparing the body for physical activity. Be sure to read it! Otherwise, you will make the most common and dangerous mistake.

The fact is that when you start to progress weights with incorrect technique, the risk of injury due to “crooked” technique increases greatly. Stay safe.

4 Conclusion: In the first 1-3 months of training (no matter a girl or a man), we deliberately reduce the working weights in the exercises by 50% and practice the technique of performing the exercises. We try to feel our muscles at every point in the amplitude of movement of the projectile.

Must-read articles on this topic:

• Feel your muscles;
• Mysterious mental attitude;

Mistakes of a beginner bodybuilder

The well-known saying , whoever makes no mistakes, does nothing, is just right for all novice bodybuilders. Everyone will go through injuries, sprains, pain in muscles, ligaments, tendons in the gym, but all the negative consequences of strength training can be minimized if you approach wisely . Learn from other people's mistakes, not your own.

Exercising with iron (weights) is a fairly new phenomenon, but more than a dozen years have already passed since the era of bodybuilding , when Arnold Schwarzenegger forged his muscles in the gym, and opened the doors for all people to a new, unknown type of strength sport , bodybuilding. Over the course of this time, a certain experience has developed that has allowed all athletes not only to minimize injuries during training, but also to avoid popular mistakes that beginners in the gym very often make.

Below we will tell you about the most popular mistakes that beginners make in the gym, as well as ways to eliminate them.

Mistakes of a beginner bodybuilder

Ignoring a warm-up before doing an exercise

Remedy: depending on the exercise, it is necessary to warm up the muscles being trained by performing specific warm-up exercises, as well as using a warming ointment for training.

What is the danger of a mistake: the occurrence of various injuries during training is inevitable - sprains and ruptures of muscles/tendons.

Ignoring a warm-up before performing a working approach

Lack of methodology (training program)

Remedy: find a training program in any way (ask a friend, a fitness instructor, search the Internet). Another question is whether it will work, and if so, how? In turn, we offer you our working training programs, depending on the athlete’s level of preparedness.

What is the danger of an error: By and large, any training program will work, sometimes less, sometimes more, but in the absence of a training plan , that is, thoughtlessly performing exercises, will only lead to negative or zero results.

Lack of a systematic approach to the training process

Poor (incorrect) nutrition of an athlete

Remedy: Accustom yourself to eat small, multiple meals (6-7 meals a day), and most importantly, your list of products should be of high quality , without preservatives, GMOs, also give up fast foods, which are nothing but “empty” calories and harmful have no impact on the body.

Proteins must be of high biological value - seafood, fish, eggs, cottage cheese, milk, etc. Carbohydrates are mostly complex, especially for people who are prone to obesity - potatoes, rice, pasta, cereals and more; read more about the rate of conversion of carbohydrates into glucose in this article. Fats should be unsaturated, that is, omega 3 and 6 fatty acids.

What the error entails: lack of progress in training. Malnutrition, a low-calorie daily diet will not allow you to gain muscle mass. Excess junk food and empty calories can cause immune system and obesity.

Harmful foods in the human diet

No full recovery (rest)

Remedy: 8-9 hours of sleep, balanced, nutritious nutrition, well-thought-out training, cycling and frequency of strength training in the gym.

Healthy, adequate sleep is the key to your full recovery, and alternating light, medium and heavy intensity training is the key to successful progress in gaining strength and muscle mass. Nutrition in this matter will be a source of fuel, an energy component that will help accumulate strength for training.

The dangers of a mistake: overtraining, loss of strength, loss of muscle mass, increased susceptibility to various injuries during training, diseases due to decreased immunity, as well as depressed consciousness, loss of motivation for further bodybuilding.

Poor athlete recovery

A frivolous approach to bodybuilding

Remedy: a serious, responsible approach to your training, nutrition and recovery. As a rule, many athletes, especially beginners, have enough sense of purpose and focus on results. 1-2 years of regular training in the gym, subject to proper nutrition and rest, can change your body beyond recognition.

Any, even the most insignificant things, determine your consciousness , how you do it, whether you give your all in training, or say to yourself “it will do.”

Actions and actions determine a person, not thoughts, everyone wants to be a champion , to have a beautiful, sculpted body, but few people are able to endure muscle pain, limit themselves in food, not skip workouts, “plow” in the gym for the sake of their goal in the gym hall

What a mistake can cause: lack of results in bodybuilding, injuries during training, the appearance of obsessive thoughts like “all the jocks are pumped up on steroids.”

A relaxed approach to training

Training diary

Now you know that in order to pump up muscles you need:

1. Progress the load.
2. Eat and sleep well (post-workout recovery).
3. Feel the muscles you are training.

There are a number of very important things that every person who comes to the gym should know about.

From the very beginning of training, it is VERY IMPORTANT to keep a training diary.

It can be an ordinary checkered notebook or a beautiful diary, it doesn’t matter.

It is important that you make it a habit to CONSTANTLY RECORD your performance in a notebook.

The stricter your discipline in this regard, the faster your progress will be.

I'm serious.

Let me explain why.

When you write down your indicators in a notebook, namely:

• What do you train (legs, chest, back, etc.).
• Exercise (squats, vertical pull-downs, etc.).
• Working and warm-up weight (20 kg warm-up, for example).
• Approach number.
• Number of repetitions per set.
• Rest between sets.

This will be more than enough to get started, and not only that.

Here's what it looks like in my diary:

See, nothing special. I don’t even try very hard to write in calligraphic handwriting.

The main thing is that you can understand these records yourself.

Why is all this needed:

1. For ever-increasing progression of loads.
2. For further analysis of the results.
3. For mental attitude before each approach.

That's the minimum.

For ever-increasing progression of loads . In bodybuilding, as we have already said, a prerequisite is a constantly growing load in the form of weight on the bar, the number of repetitions, exercises, or in the form of super moves. To keep track of your working weight, as well as to know how many reps you did last workout on a particular set, it is important to record your performance. Do you remember how many reps you did on the third exercise in the fourth set with a certain weight last week? What about two weeks ago, or a month? Oh well. And I mean the same thing.

For further analysis of the results . When you train for a long time, it begins to seem like you are standing in one place. But when you look at the diary, you see how tiny weight gains, but regularly, lead to huge progress. Also, you can track your indicators from six months or a month ago to get an idea of ​​your working weight. This helps a lot.

For mental attitude before each approach . If you don’t know how much you did in a particular set with a certain weight in the last workout, then it’s very easy to make a mistake and do less. The body does not have a goal to overcome the weight that you lifted earlier; it will give up sooner. Conversely, when you know that you did 8 reps in this set last time and you should do 9 anyway, then trust me, you will do 9, with rare exceptions.

5 Conclusion: To progress in your training, a training diary is a MUST.

Article you need to read:

• Training diary. Manage the load!

How to pump up muscles for a girl. Differences from men's training

Despite the fact that we are one biological species, our approach to the training process should be somewhat different for the following reasons:

1. Girls have much less testosterone (the main anabolic hormone) by about 10 times.
2. The depth of immersion in a state of muscle failure is different for men and girls.
3. The nutrient accumulation system in girls works more intensively.
4. Women's muscle size is smaller than men's.
5. Women have less muscle in their upper body than in their lower body.
6. The difference is in the one rep max.
7. Monthly cycle.

I will not consider the above reasons in detail now. Below I will provide links to articles that girls will definitely need to read, where all the intricacies of women's training are described in detail.

The main thing to understand is that girls and boys cannot train according to the same training schemes.

Very often I see how guys, and even worse, coaches, train their girls or wards using the same type of programs.

The girls have been plowing for months, but there is practically no progress. All such training in men's programs for an unprepared girl, as a rule, is accompanied by severe overtraining and very weak progress.

6 Conclusion: The training process for girls and men should be different due to structural features and differences.

Required (!) reading:

• The best training program for girls;
• How to gain muscle mass for a girl;

Program to get pumped up quickly

The proposed training program requires three workouts per week, performed in a staggered manner. For example: Monday and Friday of the first week - training A, Wednesday - training B; Monday and Friday of the second week - training B, Wednesday - training A.

Workout A

• Warm-up and abdominal exercises - 5-10 minutes
• Barbell squats - 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Bench press - 3 sets of 5-8 reps
• Barbell deadlift - 1-2 sets of 5-8 reps
• Cardio and cool down - 5-10 min.

Where to start training

You have already studied part of the theory about the training process and are already beginning to understand what's what.

Below, we will begin to understand training issues more subtly. I hope you are alive there and the length of the article did not scare you)) But it will be to your benefit, friends.

You have already done a lot, you have read up to this point. Many can't even do that.

So, let's take it in order.

What to take with you to the gym

Once you begin to understand that you want to change your body, a person wonders what to take with him to the gym.

This is a very good and common question.

In fact, you and I can start training at home (more on this a little later), but the list of necessary things is unlikely to be significantly different.

Here is the list:

• bag;
• bath items: shampoo, shower gel (soap), washcloth, slippers, towel, underwear;
• clothes: shorts/sweatpants, T-shirt, jacket (if it’s cool in the room);
• shoes: sneakers, socks;
• sports assistants: gloves, wrist straps (traction), belt; small towel;
• training diary;
• a protein shaker (if there is no opportunity to eat);
• water bottle;

Don't train in slippers ! This is very dangerous from a safety point of view (your foot may slip at the most inopportune moment or something may fall on your foot), firstly.

And secondly, if you are a man, then you don’t need to torment gym goers with the smell of your feet. Be respectful to others.

I wrote more about what you need in this article:

• What to take with you to the gym;

How to build muscles at home

By and large, muscles don’t care where you train them.

Even if you lift weights in the gym, even if you climb a palm tree on an island to get a banana, your body doesn’t care.

If you follow just a few rules of muscle growth, which we discussed above, then your muscles will respond to the load with growth.

The rules, as we remember, are simple:

1. Load progression.
2. We are recovering.
3. We feel the muscles.

The most important problem at home is the progression of the load.

7 Conclusion: If you can ensure the progression of the load, then you can start your training at home. The muscles don't care where they are loaded.

I wrote a separate cool article about how to pump up at home, which will answer many questions:

• How to build muscles at home;

How to overcome fear and go to the gym

It is very difficult to change your lifestyle and start incorporating exercise and proper nutrition into your life.

Most people give up at the very rudimentary, initial stage...

At the stage when you still need to go to the gym.

The question is very important, and I don’t understand why I have hardly seen any information on this topic.

I think it's time to introduce you to my Productivity section.

It contains very cool articles not only on the topic of bodybuilding, but also on improving oneself in various areas, as well as my thoughts on certain topics.

By the way, many of my subscribers and readers come to my blog just to read something new from this section.

There are even subscribers who are not involved in bodybuilding, but only read this section! This is, of course, surprising. So, there really are some interesting thoughts there.

In this section, I wrote a detailed article on how to overcome fear and go to the gym.

Article to read:

• How to overcome fear and go to the gym;

How to choose a gym

Sooner or later, almost all people will need to go to the gym in order to achieve serious success (unless, of course, you can buy all the equipment for your home).

The issue of choosing a gym can become very problematic if you have many of them in the city.

If, of course, like me, you are from a small town, then there is not much choice. Where there is a hall (usually the only one in the city), you go there.

Below I will list the basic rules for choosing a gym for everyone who has plenty to choose from:

• Find all the halls within 40-60 minutes from home.
• Make sure that the gym has everything you need: Olympic bars, weights of different sizes, locks, an excellent dumbbell row, racks for squats and bench presses, a horizontal bar, parallel bars, a vertical block and, of course, a cardio zone.
• Locker room with turnkey lockers, shower, good ventilation, order in the room, preferably a small number of people.
• When you decide on the hall, carefully approach the purchase of a subscription. Don’t fall for various marketing tricks, check everything yourself.

I wrote a separate cool article about choosing a gym in more detail:

• How to choose a gym;

Selecting a training program

The next question that will confront you is.

And the question, I must say, is VERY IMPORTANT!!!

Most people train with ineffective, illiterate training schemes even at the initial stage, thereby limiting possible progress.

But I won’t talk about those who have not learned to train correctly for years in this article, because... here I tell you how to avoid the main difficulties for beginners.

Beginners usually have the following reservations:

1. Poor muscle-brain connection (a beginner does not understand and does not know how muscles contract), and also, they are not able to abstract themselves (forget that someone is looking at them).
2. Any physical activity is stress for an unprepared body, so there is no point in overloading the system with excessive weights
3. Muscle fibers adapt to new loads, so fairly rapid increases in strength and volume are observed.
4. There is no point in dividing workouts into splits (by body parts), because... this is necessary for a targeted, increased load on the muscles being worked.

In view of all of the above, we need to create an individualized training program that would take into account all the nuances.

I won’t describe them in detail now, but I will give links to all the necessary materials on my blog that you MUST READ:

• Training program for beginners;
• 24 mistakes on the way to a beautiful body;
• How long can you train?
• How often to change your training program;
• Training program for beginners! Next level;
• How to correctly create a training program;

But that's not all, friends!

I wrote a very cool “Individual Training Program Selection System” that can help you choose a training program to get started for FREE.

To receive it, just enter your email below so I know where to send it.

The question of choosing a training program will disappear by itself.

In my system, you will choose a training program depending on your gender, age, fitness level and genetics.

The system is free, very simple and high quality. More than 20,000 people have already downloaded it on various services.

Download and enjoy for your health, friends.

Rules for gaining muscle mass

Gaining muscle mass is directly related to metabolism, which will depend on your body type , which is why it is easy for some athletes to gain weight, but difficult for others. However, there are general rules that will help you gain those treasured pounds of muscle faster.

Nutrition as a natural anabolic

A balanced, fractional diet is the main anabolic factor in the growth of muscle mass. Not eating enough calories will result in negative or zero bodybuilding results.

To gain muscle mass, you need to create a calorie surplus , in relation to the calories you spend daily, in addition to all this, your diet must be rich in high-quality protein (plastic material for muscles), which will create a positive nitrogen balance (if negative, muscle growth is impossible) , complex carbohydrates (energy for muscles) and unsaturated fatty acids (omega 3), which have important bodybuilding properties such as increasing testosterone and reducing bad cholesterol.

Many sports experts recommend the following ratio as the starting point for gaining muscle mass: 2 grams of protein/kg, 4 grams of carbohydrates/kg, and 0.5 grams of fat/kg.

Good results in gaining weight will be when you gain no more than 1 kg per week. If you do not gain at this ratio of nutrients , then you should gradually add, you can start with carbohydrates, then proteins and fats, remember that it is pointless to take more than 3-3.5 grams of protein / kg of weight, it is better to “lean” on carbohydrates that are a universal source of muscle contractions when performing strength exercises in the gym ( anaerobic glycolysis ).

Nutrition as a natural anabolic for muscle growth

Performing basic muscle exercises

At the initial training stage, you should pay special attention 1-2 years to basic exercises that train large muscle groups. The most important exercises for a beginner:

• Squats with a barbell on your shoulders
• Bench press
• Wide grip pull-ups

After six months, when the muscle corset has strengthened, include deadlifts .

The exercises listed above will be enough for you to start the process of muscle growth; you can find out how and in what range to perform them in our training program for a beginner, or use the above diagram of strength exercises to gain weight.

A huge advantage of basic exercises is that they place maximum load on large muscle groups (back, legs, chest), due to the fact that they involve two or more joints, unlike isolated (single-joint) exercises.

The barbell squat is a basic exercise for increasing strength and mass.

Muscle recovery and growth

Recovery of the body after training stress does not occur immediately, but after some time, and the harder the muscle training was, the more time the body needs to restore the spent strength and energy. Neglecting this rule will very quickly lead to overtraining of the athlete, which is so popular not only among beginners, but also among experienced athletes, which is why we recommend that it is better to rest fully for one extra day than to go to strength training broken and tired .

One of the most important rules for a novice athlete is to learn to listen to your body, that is, to understand when you should rest a little more/less before a workout/approach/between exercises, when and how to warm up , use ointment to warm up the muscles when the body needs more rest /better nutrition. All these subtleties are the key to your health and the prevention of injuries during training.

Well, the most important rule, which many athletes forget, is that we grow when we rest , and not vice versa, that is, muscle mass after training increases when a person sleeps , and not when he performs an intense approach in the gym (visual effect of “ puffiness” "muscle, temporary, just blood flowing to the muscle being trained and nothing more).

In order for muscles to increase in size, the body must first compensate for the wasted energy, restore strength, heal damaged muscle tissue to its original level , and then, as a counterbalance (counteraction), increase muscle mass in order to withstand training stress in the future ( phase ).

If you continue to rest after the supercompensation (usually within 24-96 hours no more, depending on the load received), performance will return to the original pre-training level, and if you continue to rest, the detraining , after which your strength indicators and mass will begin to decrease (it is not beneficial for the body to have energy-consuming muscles just like that, when nothing stimulates them, no strength stress with iron).

Muscle recovery and growth

But not everything is so bad, even if you have stopped training for a long time, muscle memory , which will quickly lead you to the original level of fitness when you resume regular training, due to the fact that training itself increases the number of muscle cells , and even if we do not train for a long time, the accumulated muscle cells do not disappear anywhere, they simply “ fall asleep ”, as soon as you wake them up, the muscle mass and strength will “trample” again, this explains why a trained athlete after a 2-3 year break, quite quickly catches up with all his previous results in the gym.

What else does a beginner need to know?

It's great that you're still reading. This speaks of your determination to change yourself and your life.

Below, we still have to learn some important points in order to better understand the training itself.

What types of exercises are there?

Bodybuilding exercises can be divided into:

• by muscle groups that they train, for example, for legs, back, chest, etc.;
• by the number of muscles involved in the work (basic isolating);
• by load direction vector (pulling and pushing);

It is better for beginners to perform basic exercises, because... It is they, involving a large number of muscles in work, that can provoke the release of large amounts of anabolic hormones, which are so useful for growth.

You can read more in my article:

• Types of physical exercises;

In what order should you do the exercises?

This is also a very important question, because there are a lot of exercises.

There are certain rules that you need to follow to make progress in your workouts, including the correct order of doing the exercises.

Here's an article that will help you figure it out:

• The order of exercises in the gym;

Be sure to read it.

Number of repetitions

There are certain misconceptions that you need to be aware of right away.

For example, there is no number of repetitions “for mass”, “for strength”, “for endurance”, this is all very arbitrary.

For example, performing 15-20 repetitions can perfectly gain mass if you train slow muscle fibers.

Or do 6-12 reps on the calves, which will be great for increasing their strength, because... Their contraction amplitude is very small.

More attention should be paid to the TIME OF OCCASION OF MUSCLE FAILURE!

I will once again provide a link to the article in which I wrote how to choose the right weights for exercises:

• How to increase working weights in exercises;

I wrote about this in more detail there.

As a rule, the number of repetitions in bodybuilding varies in the range of 6-12 repetitions, and you will find out why this is so in the link above.

Be sure to read, the information is very important.

Number of approaches

The number of approaches can be very different.

For example, if you train slow muscle fibers, then from 6 to 12 or more in one exercise.

If you are an elderly person, then the number of your approaches will be slightly lower than that of young, trained people.

Here we will talk about the most common case, namely, the number of approaches for beginners.

For beginners, it is better to start with 2-3 working approaches and then NOT WITH WORKING WEIGHTS (you already know why we reduce the working weight by 50% in the first 1-3 months).

Using my system for choosing an individual training program, you can choose the optimal number of approaches.

Muscle failure

Muscle failure is the inability of a muscle to perform another repetition while using proper technique.

If you have ever worked out in a gym, then you are familiar with the feeling that I will tell you about now.

For example, you lift the barbell for biceps, now 7.8...9, you barely lift the barbell for the 10th time and on the 11th lift, in the middle of the movement it’s as if you “ran out of gas”, and you, having struggled , for some time, with the weight, you throw the barbell down out of exhaustion.

I can congratulate you! You have reached muscle failure.

Muscle failure means that you are guaranteed to have received enough exercise for muscle growth.

There are three types of muscle failure:

1. Positive
2. Static
3. Negative

Now about these types in more detail.

• Positive failure is when you are unable to lift a weight without assistance, i.e. when, for example, in barbell curls you cannot lift the barbell/dumbbells to the top point with proper technique or without using cheating.
• Negative failure is when you cannot even control the lowering of the implement with proper technique or assistance. Such a refusal is often called an absolute or complete refusal.
• Static failure is a state of the body during an approach when positive failure is already on the way, but the body is still struggling with the weight with shaking arms or legs, and the projectile hangs at one point for a while, then begins to crush you or fall.

I told you everything you need to know about muscle failure in the article below:

• What is muscle failure?

Nutrition

Nutrition is 60, or even 70% of success in bodybuilding.

This topic is simply huge, so I have a separate section - “Nutrition” on the blog, which I highly recommend reading.

To know where to start, check out the articles below:

• How to lose weight fast at home;
• How does protein help grow muscle?
• How energy from carbohydrates helps grow muscle;
• What vitamins should every athlete take?

8 Conclusion: Your nutrition must be under strict control at all times in order to achieve excellent results.

Sports supplements

This is a very broad and interesting topic, to which I devoted an entire section on the “Sports Nutrition” blog.

Be sure to check it out.

Those people who say that dietary supplements are useless have no idea about effective supplements, and nutrition in general.

Thanks to dietary supplements, we can achieve slightly greater results in bodybuilding.

If they provide at least some advantage, then why not use it?

In fairness, it must be said that there are also useless additives that have only one goal - to extract more money from the fragile minds of gullible people.

But there are also super-working ones, confirmed by many authoritative experiments, for example, creatine monohydrate.

On my blog I write about many cool supplements that I definitely try myself. In each article, I personally tell my experience, my feelings, and also give recommendations on where you can buy them cheaper.

Here are the articles you should read first:

• Which sports nutrition to choose?
• The most effective sports supplements;
• Can children and teenagers drink protein?
• What is whey protein?
• Pharmacy dope! How to get the most from permitted additives;

Read these articles first! You will gain an understanding of the effective use of sports nutrition.

Remember that in the name “Sports Supplements” the key word is ADDITIVES.

9 Conclusion: Sports supplements and dietary supplements are only an addition to the basic diet, and not a replacement for it.

Training program for beginners

The main emphasis for beginners is always on basic exercises in the training program, because they are the ones that most quickly stimulate muscle growth .

Basic exercises, they are also multi-joint , that is, they involve two or more joints in their execution. Such exercises include, first of all, for the pectoral muscles - bench press on a horizontal bench, for the legs - squats with a barbell on the shoulders, for the back - pull-ups on the bar with a wide grip, in general for the back and legs - deadlift (this is the only exercise strength is judged by the strength indicators in a given exercise ).

4 exercises will be enough for you to increase muscle mass by an average of 7-8 kg .

In addition to the basic ones, there are also isolating exercises, they are less effective for beginners, they involve one joint , and load one muscle group; in the training program we will use them as an addition, and nothing more.

Training program for beginners

Construction of training cycles

The general principle of constructing a training cycle is as follows: for each workout the whole body (major muscle groups) is pumped, the only difference is in the training stress , which will vary depending on the intensity of the exercises, so each basic exercise will have a signature - if it’s light, that means working weights are 60-65% of the maximum, if it’s medium, that means working weights are 70-75% , if heavy it means 80-85% .

We will be interested in strength indicators only in basic exercises, due to the fact that it is by them that we can judge our training progress (as strength increases, so will mass).

In turn, isolation exercises into account, because they are used as a “ auxiliary exercise ” and nothing more, so to speak, to add variety to the training program.

Thus, the training cycle will consist of heavy , medium and light training, the gradation goes to basic exercises. bench press on Monday (80-85%), then on Wednesday it will be medium (70-75%), and on Friday light (60-65%), and all over again, Monday bench press heavy, medium on Wednesday, and light on Friday. The same applies when planning loads in deadlifts and squats with a barbell .

Recovery phases after regular training

A cyclic approach to training will ensure full recovery , as well as the maximum rate of muscle mass growth, by adapting muscles to the load, by increasing their size.

Exercise program for gaining mass

This training program has a pronounced cyclical nature (as we wrote about above), with an emphasis on basic exercises. It is very suitable for beginners for gaining weight.

Monday

• Squats with barbell 4x8 (medium)
• Bench press 5x6 (heavy)
• Dips 4x8
• Barbell curl for biceps 3x12
• Press crunches 2x50

Wednesday

• Deadlift 4x8 (medium)
• Bench press 3x12 (light)
• Dumbbell bench press 4x8
• Standing barbell press 4x8
• Seated dumbbell biceps curl 4x8
• Hanging straight leg raises 4x20

Friday

• Squats with a 3x12 barbell (light)
• Bench press 4x8 (medium)
• Lying dumbbell flyes 4x8
• French bench press 3x12
• Pull-ups on 4x8 bar
• Bench crunches 2x50

The first number is approaches, the second is repetitions.

Strength training program to gain muscle mass

Three workouts per week, each lasting no more than 2 hours , rest between sets 2-3 minutes , between exercises can be increased to 5-7 minutes . the working weights as quickly as possible , try to strictly adhere to the technique of performing the exercises, feel how the muscles work, their filling with blood.

Student results

Before I finish the article for new visitors to my blog, I would like to introduce you to those who, like you, once visited my blog for the first time.

They, like you, also doubted, were afraid to try something new, were afraid of visiting the gym, but, nevertheless, through all the doubts, they decided to START.

In any business, the most difficult thing is to take the first step. Start doing things that are unusual for yourself in order to become what you want.

This is very difficult, and I understand you, but only you can make yourself strong, purposeful and beautiful.

10 Conclusion: All these people were also once unhappy with their bodies, but one day they told themselves that they could change it. Believe that you can do it, and you will be right.

The interesting thing is, if you say that you CANNOT, you will also be right.

Your whole life depends on your attitude. Only we set boundaries and boundaries for ourselves.

You can read even more reviews on this page.

My results

The easiest way to test a person's knowledge is HIS OWN RESULT!

I have been involved in bodybuilding on a regular basis for over 8 years now, and have done a lot of experiments, both in training and in nutrition.

Tried hundreds of different supplements, which allowed me to draw my own conclusions about their effectiveness.

I cut and gained muscle mass many times.

Here are my results:

I truly love what I do.

For more than 4 years I have been running this blog, into which I invest a lot of effort, time and money to create a resource that will help thousands of people become much more beautiful and self-confident.

I won't write much about myself here.

If you want to get to know me, you can read the Author page. There I talked about my studies at two Universities, the Academy of Bodybuilding and Fitness Professionals, the army, snowboarding (my second passion), my family and my life.

Hare and tortoise

The most interesting thing about bodybuilding is that a large amount of knowledge does not always guarantee the effectiveness of any philosophy. So many bodybuilders who have impressive muscle mass have no idea why. They were both lucky and unlucky at the same time.

Lucky, of course, because they spent much less resources (time, money, effort) to achieve an amazing body and now they are several steps ahead of others.

But they were unlucky for the reason that if it happens that the previous methods stop working for them or become less effective (the body gets used to it, adapts), they will spend much more time selecting a new, working scheme.

The situation is similar to the fairy tale about the tortoise and the hare, where the hare immediately runs forward, but subsequently runs out of steam quite quickly, and the tortoise slowly but systematically and persistently moves towards its intended goal.

Now, I think you understand why it is important not only to choose the right method that works best for you, but also to understand why you work according to this particular scheme. Then you will get the maximum effect!

My free materials

There are free products on my blog that you can download and explore.

The most popular of them is the “System for choosing an individual training program,” which I already introduced you to.

The system is very popular among blog readers and new visitors, because... explains in a simple and understandable, step-by-step manner all the intricacies of the first training program.

There are two more great books:

1. "Your friend is a bodybuilder."
2. "The other side of a beautiful body."

These books help you start training and learn all the most basic aspects of training.

The book “The Other Side of a Beautiful Body” talks about what changes in a person’s life when he or she starts bodybuilding.

I advise you to study my free materials. Even though they are free, this does not affect their quality in any way.

I am very meticulous in the release of my articles, materials and products, so I am constantly working to improve them and provide feedback to readers.

My PAID materials

If you want to get results as quickly as possible, then the blog also has VERY COOL paid products that cover a particular topic in detail.

If you purchased a paid product, then be sure that you will get results. The courses contain all the necessary information and my personal practical experience.

Three products are currently available:

• “How to pump up your PRESS AT HOME”
• "Extreme fat burning."
• "Extreme BULKING."

Hundreds of people have already become my clients who have changed their bodies for the better. You saw their results above.

You can learn more about my paid products using the links above.

From time to time I release new and new products. From the very beginning they are sold at good discounts, then they become more expensive, this is a common practice.

When purchasing any paid material, you receive detailed feedback and answers to questions.

We work with each client until the result is achieved.