Regular exercise is an essential part of a healthy lifestyle. It can improve your physical and mental well-being and increase longevity. While there are numerous benefits to exercise, it's important to optimize your workouts to achieve the desired results. In this article, we will explore the latest research and best practices for maximizing muscle growth and performance.
To increase muscle growth, there must be stress, tension, or damage that triggers muscle tissue to change. Weight training and resistance training are used to achieve these changes. Resistance training 5 times per week, at 30-80% of your one-rep max, is required to maintain muscle. However, to get the desired effects on specific muscles, you must be able to contract and isolate those muscles effectively.
To increase explosiveness and speed, you should work at a lower percentage of your one-rep max and move weights as fast as you can. Conversely, to get stronger, you need to slow down and increase time under tension to isolate the muscle and encourage hypertrophy. Changing up your routine regularly is crucial as the nervous system adapts quickly at the beginning, but slows with time.
The ideal training protocol to stimulate testosterone release is 6 sets of 10 repetitions with 120-second rest between reps. This protocol is also effective for hypertrophy and endurance.
To improve strength training performance and muscle growth, you need to stay hydrated with adequate salt and electrolytes. Creatine, which is produced naturally in the body and is also found in red meat and fish, can increase muscle mass and strength when consumed daily (1-5g). Beta-alanine, a non-essential amino acid, can also increase muscle endurance and performance. Ingesting sufficient leucine from high-quality protein is also essential for muscle growth.
Recovery is critical for optimizing performance and avoiding injury. There are several tests to assess systemic recovery. Heart rate variability (HRV), grip strength in the morning, and carbon dioxide tolerance first thing in the morning are three such tests.
If your goal is muscle growth, you should stick to high-intensity loads twice per week and lower intensity (but higher volume) for the remainder of your workouts. However, if you're trying to maintain muscle, you'll need to maintain resistance training 5 times per week.
Optimizing your workouts for muscle growth and performance requires a combination of resistance training, hydration, supplementation, and recovery. Follow the training protocols outlined in this article, and you'll be well on your way to achieving your fitness goals. Remember to change up your routine regularly to keep your nervous system adapting and your muscles growing.