How to build muscle mass: basic rules and recommendations for effective training

A set of body weight is nec­es­sary for both pro­fes­sion­al body­builders and men who want to have a beau­ti­ful and healthy body. With insuf­fi­cient mus­cle mass, the relief will not look so impres­sive. There­fore, it is impor­tant to start build­ing it up with the help of spe­cial exer­cis­es. In addi­tion, do not for­get that sports nutri­tion for weight gain is also nec­es­sary in many cas­es.

The importance of proper exercise for mass gain

If you thought­less­ly go to the gym and per­form mus­cle exer­cis­es at your own dis­cre­tion, you will not be able to gain mus­cle mass. For these pur­pos­es, you need a train­ing plan that will include spe­cial exer­cis­es. These are, first of all, those that simul­ta­ne­ous­ly acti­vate a large num­ber of joints and mus­cles. At their core, they are basic, for exam­ple, the simul­ta­ne­ous work of the ankle, hip and knee joints is pos­si­ble when per­form­ing squats with a bar­bell. If you per­form fit­ness ele­ments sep­a­rate­ly for each joint, then more time is spent, and the effec­tive­ness of train­ing for weight gain decreas­es.

When per­form­ing any exer­cise, it is impor­tant to fol­low the cor­rect tech­nique in order to elim­i­nate the risk of injury and even­ly dis­trib­ute the load. It is bet­ter to study it in advance, before start­ing train­ing. In addi­tion, you should warm up the whole body, doing a warm-up before the main load.

Muscle exercises that promote mass gain

There are sev­er­al basic exer­cis­es for mus­cles and joints that allow you to increase body weight:

• The dead­lift is the most effec­tive exer­cise for the mus­cles.

When it is per­formed, it is pos­si­ble to use the max­i­mum num­ber of them and gain weight. Tech­nique: stand up straight, plac­ing your feet under the bar, low­er your arms along the body, take a deep breath. Tilt your upper body slight­ly for­ward. Strain­ing your low­er back and bend­ing your knees, low­er your­self, grab­bing the bar­bell with your hands. Raise it until your back is ful­ly extend­ed. Then low­er the bar, per­form­ing all the steps in reverse order. In this case, the fol­low­ing rules must be observed:

• the back is even from the begin­ning to the end of the ele­ment (do not round the low­er back);
• look straight ahead, do not low­er your head;
• do not make sud­den move­ments, do every­thing slow­ly;
• before lift­ing the bar­bell, do a warm-up;
• do the first approach with a neck with­out pan­cakes;
• dur­ing the exe­cu­tion of the ele­ment, rely on the entire foot;
• feet should be locat­ed under the neck;
• do not bend your arms at the elbows;
• observe sym­me­try, mak­ing the girth the same on both sides;
• increase the weight grad­u­al­ly.
• Squats.

The pro­jec­tile is locat­ed on the shoul­ders. This acti­vates all the mus­cles of the low­er body, as well as the mus­cles of the back and abs. The exer­cise should be done in a safe­ty rack. It is nec­es­sary to posi­tion the pro­jec­tile so that it is con­ve­nient to remove it. Go under the bar, spread your legs wider than your shoul­ders, point your socks to the sides at 30–35 degrees, crouch­ing slight­ly. Align by plac­ing the pro­jec­tile on the trapez­ius mus­cles. Grab the bar wider than shoul­der width from behind so that the thumb is on the bot­tom, the oth­er 4 are on top, and the palm looks for­ward when grab­bing. When remov­ing the pro­jec­tile, the back should be flat. The bar is par­al­lel to the mid­dle of the thighs and heels. Low­er­ing is car­ried out on inspi­ra­tion, lift­ing — on exha­la­tion. Low­er your­self until your thighs are par­al­lel to the floor. At the same time, the pelvis is slight­ly retract­ed.

• Bench press in the prone posi­tion.

It includes main­ly the mus­cles of the upper body (pec­toral, del­toid and tri­ceps), as well as the back, legs and abs.

Lie down on a bench with racks so that your hands reach the bar in a strict­ly ver­ti­cal posi­tion. Ask­ing some­one to secure for remov­ing and return­ing the pro­jec­tile to the rack will save time and effort. Do not turn your head, shoul­der blades and pelvis rest against the bench, legs are wide­ly spaced, socks and knees look slight­ly to the sides. The legs are also a sup­port. The girth of the bar should be wider than the shoul­ders, but not too much. The bar is wrapped around the back so that the palm faces for­ward (rather than up or down). Hav­ing removed the pro­jec­tile, place it above the cen­ter of the chest. Bring the shoul­der blades togeth­er, inhale and slow­ly low­er it down until it slight­ly touch­es the chest. Dur­ing the exer­cise, do not press your elbows to your­self, do not pull the bar for­ward or back­ward. Then, exhal­ing, squeeze the pro­jec­tile straight up.

• Pull-ups on the hor­i­zon­tal bar — allow you to build back mus­cles and cre­ate a V‑shaped tor­so.

How­ev­er, for this it is nec­es­sary to grasp the cross­bar with arms wide apart. Grasp­ing the cross­bar with your hands, you need to do pull-ups so that the chin at the top point is high­er than it. When grasp­ing, the palms should be direct­ed for­ward. Rise — on the exhale, fall — on the inhale. When low­er­ing, do not ful­ly straight­en your arms — your elbows should be slight­ly bent. When lift­ing the body up, the elbows should be turned back, with­out press­ing them to your­self. When per­form­ing this exer­cise, the whole body should be in a tense state, you can not swing. For begin­ners, it is enough to pull up 10–12 times, and when the load seems small, it will be pos­si­ble to hang the weights. The num­ber of approach­es is 3.

• Pull-ups on bars.

Grab the pro­jec­tile with your hands from the out­side, fix the chin on the chest, raise the legs and cross in the shins, bring the shoul­der blades togeth­er. It is bet­ter to start the exer­cise from top to bot­tom, that is, the arms are even, and the upper body is locat­ed above the bars. On inspi­ra­tion — low­er­ing, on exha­la­tion — lift­ing. It is nec­es­sary to go down until the bend of the elbows forms a right angle. Low­er­ing should be slow, lift­ing — fast, but not sharp. Do not swing your body, do not turn your head, only your hands work.

Doing mus­cle exer­cis­es alone is not enough to gain weight. You should also not neglect good rest and sports nutri­tion for weight gain.

Sports nutrition for mass gain as an important component of training

Train­ing is only an impe­tus to the growth of mus­cle mass. And the process of its recruit­ment is car­ried out dur­ing the rest. There­fore, healthy sleep at night is impor­tant, as well as prop­er sports nutri­tion for weight gain.

It is nec­es­sary that the food includes a large amount of vit­a­mins, min­er­als, car­bo­hy­drates and pro­tein. You should also eat the required num­ber of calo­ries per day. To cal­cu­late it, you need to mul­ti­ply your weight by 30, and add 500 to the result­ing num­ber. This will be the opti­mal num­ber of calo­ries for weight gain. Most of the food (50–60%) should be car­bo­hy­drates, in sec­ond place are pro­teins (20–30%), every­thing else is fat. In addi­tion, you can use whey and casein pro­teins.

Hav­ing mas­tered the cor­rect tech­nique for per­form­ing exer­cis­es for gain­ing mass and pro­vid­ing your­self with a com­plete diet, it will not be dif­fi­cult to get clos­er to your cher­ished goal. The main thing is patience, per­se­ver­ance and ded­i­ca­tion.