More and more people are looking for a better shape but not everyone knows how to get it! In this article, I want to explain the best strategy for increasing muscle mass, without necessarily becoming a body builder and the benefits of having more muscles.
Before to start, we need to clarify some terms which might be confusing: Lean Mass or Fat Free mass and Muscular Mass.
With Lean Mass or Fat Free Mass we mean the entire body mass without fat mass. Lean mass includes therefore organs, skin, bones, body water and muscular mass. Muscle Mass refers only to the weight of muscles (skeletal, smooth, or cardiac muscle).
A skeletal muscle refers to multiple bundles (fascicles) of cells, called muscle fibers. Fibers and muscles are surrounded by connective tissue. Skeletal muscles enable humans to move and perform daily activities. That is the type of muscle we are developing during exercising and the one we are focusing in this article.
Increasing muscular mass is not only relevant for athletes who wants to perform better in their discipline or for aesthetic reasons. It has been demonstrated that having higher percentage of Muscular Mass, is beneficial for health:
- reducing loss of strength and muscular mass linked with aging and having therefore a better and easier life in third age;
- having stronger bones;
- reducing risk of inflammation and chronic diseases;
- managing better glycemia, sugar level in blood.
Furthermore, muscular mass is burning a lot of calories also when we are not exercising: this is an advantage if you are looking for eliminating a bit of body fat! Finally, it makes you feel more energetic, stronger and it makes it easier to deal with the daily tasks and activities.
The basic rules for increasing muscular mass are:
1. be in a positive energy balance, meaning consuming more calories than what we need;
2. exercising by lifting weights;
3. sleeping well and including resting time in your weekly schedule;
4. reducing at the minimum stress.
Let´s have a look in details those four rules:
1. positive energy balance
You need to increase your calories intake! Yes, you need to eat more than what you consume! You should increase your calories intake by at least 20%! Those extra calories should come mainly from carbohydrates, better if whole grain.
Eat every three (maximum four) hours during the day: this reduce demolishing of proteins and stimulates glycogen stock;
Consume a snack post workout made by proteins and carbohydrates: it creates the right hormonal environment to build muscles and accumulate glycogen!
2. exercising by lifting weights;
Best exercise to increase lean mass is weights lifting. When we are lifting heavier loads than those that the muscles can tolerate, that causes stress on muscle tissues, creating micro-fractures on muscle fibers. To avoid suffering this trauma another time, a super-compensation reaction is initiated to repair damaged muscle fibers. The muscle will create new connections between fibers and will become larger and stronger, to better resist the next workout.
During training, muscle loses strength and volume, muscles grow only when we rest and recover. Recovery is therefore just as important as training! Not to forget that!
3. sleeping well and including resting time in your weekly schedule;
Rest is a key element for building muscle and benefit from your effort during training! If you do not schedule a resting period in your weekly training plan, consequences might be: reduction of anabolic hormones, increasing of catabolic ones (cortisol), weak immune system, losing of muscular mass, higher probability of infections and injuries.
Rest means also good sleep! You can decide to sleep less hours, but time for sleeping shall be of high quality! No interruptions and deep sleep!
4. reducing at the minimum stress.
Stress is a huge enemy of our health, wellness, and fitness! In a stressful moment, our body constantly release cortisol which is also called “stress hormone”. This hormone promotes: utilization of fat from adipocytes to get energy, catabolism of proteins and consequently destruction of muscular mass, increased emission of glucose in blood. It also obstacles releasing of growth hormone and reduce functionality of immune system.
Often, we think that it is not possible to increase muscular mass without training with heavy weights. Muscles do not actually recognize the type of stimulus (weights, free body, elastic bands, etc ...) but only the intensity. For this reason, we just need to reproduce the exact intensity as if you would be training with weights to increase muscular mass by modifying number of repetitions, sets and time of execution.
Furthermore, there is a general belief that a diet without animal proteins leads to loss of muscle mass or does not make it possible to increase or maintain it. There is no scientific evidence that confirms this theory. Increasing of muscle mass depends on more factors and primarily the total daily and weekly amount of protein, rather than the source, in addition to the practice of physical exercise with proper intensity. The vegan athlete will need to set his/her daily protein intake closed to the upper limit of 2 gr / kg body weight a day.
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