Many people's fitness goals are to build more muscle and achieve a better physique.

However, ordinary fitness enthusiasts cannot compare with professional bodybuilders in terms of training conditions and training methods.

Therefore, how to maximize muscle growth in a natural state is a topic worth discussing. The content of this article is:

• How to increase muscle through training
• The relationship between weight changes and muscle growth
• The muscle growth limit in a natural state
• Factors affecting muscle growth

1How to increase muscle through training

Theoretically, repeatedly stimulating muscle to cause pump sensation through multiple sets of isolated exercises, allowing it to reach maximum fatigue, is an important way to stimulate muscle growth.

However, only professional athletes with a solid training foundation and strength, or drug users, can achieve significant gains through isolated exercises in reality.The weight used in isolated exercises by most people is not enough to stimulate the muscles adequately.

Therefore, it is more practical to conduct more weight composite exercises, which is also the main reason why many people attach great importance to practicing the three major weightlifting exercises (squats, bench press, deadlift).

In simple terms, in the initial training stage, continuously increasing the weight on the equipment and enhancing strength and muscle dimensions can continue to improve.

5 Common Composite Exercises

• Squats
• Bench press
• Deadlift
• Overhead press with a barbell
• Barbell row

2The relationship between weight changes and muscle growth

Weight changes cannot accurately reflect the changes in muscle content.The reason is as follows:

One, during training, muscle growth and fat reduction may occur simultaneously, so the weight change is not significant.

Two, after training, muscles' ability to store glycogen will improve (glycogen provides energy for high-intensity exercise). HoweverGlycogen also has a strong water-holding capacity, and 1kg of glycogen can absorb about 2.7kg of water.After a period of training, the weight may still increase due to water accumulation, which can make the muscle appearance fuller. Therefore, do not judge muscle increase by weight changes.

3The natural muscle growth limit

A natural bodybuilder once made statistical comparisons between the physique and muscle content of top bodybuilding athletes (without using drugs) – the data is as follows:

Through this formula, a person's natural muscle growth limit can be calculated. After conversion, the approximate data is as follows:

Of course, the above data assumes that everyone's wrist circumference is 17.8cm and ankle circumference is 22.9cm, and the body fat rate is 10%, so it is only a rough reference.

If the weight exceeds the maximum value, this athlete is likely to have used drugs.4Factors affecting muscle growth

First analyze two common factors.

One, training intensity and training frequency directly affect the training effect. Generally, a training frequency of one time per week with an interval of rest in between is sufficient.

Two, diet. Although the saying 'train 20% and eat 80%' or 'train 30% and eat 70%' exists, if only protein supplementation is the goal, most people's diet is enough, and additional protein supplementation is not necessary.

While supplementation is about supplementing training and diet, supplementation accounts for about 1% of the total diet.

Training accounts for 80%, diet accounts for 20%, and supplementation accounts for approximately 1%3Individual potential, body type, etc. innate factors.

People with higher heights and larger skeletons are more likely to build more muscle. But under the same muscle content, taller athletes have longer limbs, and their physiques appear less bulky than shorter athletes.

In addition, muscle dimensions can be changed, but

Muscle shape is difficult to changeFor example, Ronnie Coleman's separation of the biceps is significantly higher than Schwarzenegger's.Summary

Drugs can have a greater effect than all the above factors.

Do not be misled by the photos of bodybuilders, their diets and training are controlled by professional teams, and they are likely to use drugs.

Actors are similar, their ability to control their bodies directly determines the length of their careers.

END.

Recommended historical articles:

Complete guide to upper body muscle building, read this article and you'll be done!

Complete guide to lower body muscle building, keep this handy for leg and core strength.