Everyone who goes to gyms wants to achieve great results as quickly as possible. But more often than not, this does not happen. How to build muscle, and can it be done at home? You will find the answers to these questions in the article. The content of the article:
- Muscle growth stages
- Preparatory phase
- Muscle hypertrophy
- Muscle hyperplasia
- System adaptation
This topic will always be relevant, and every beginner in bodybuilding wonders how quickly he can see results. However, often no one even tries to plan the stages of their muscle growth. And this applies not only to novice athletes, but also to experienced coaches. But this is very important, as practice shows.
Can you pump up quickly? For almost every coach, this question only makes you smile at first, but later it starts to annoy. There is simply no definite answer to such questions. Each person has their own characteristics, and two different people may take different time to achieve the same results.
You can even start with the fact that every young person, coming to the gym, has a different motivation and desire. Everything here is very subjective, but one thing can be said: if you set yourself a task and do everything possible to solve it, then the result will certainly come.
Muscle growth stages
It is very important to set achievable goals. If we still talk about real examples, then you can choose the average man who has a height of 178 cm and 70 kg of weight. According to his, again, average capabilities, he can eat well enough, which is also of great importance. In this case, you can get the following graph of its progression:
- Preparatory phase - from 2 to 4 months;
- Hypertrophy phase - more than 2 years;
- Hyperplasia phase - 1-2 years;
- System adaptation.
The average time spent on progress can be easily calculated on your own and get an answer to the question: is it possible to pump up? And now it is necessary to go through each of the above stages in more detail so that everyone can imagine what awaits them ahead.
Preparatory phase
As you can see from the diagram above, this is the shortest of all four steps. However, it is also the most important. It is here that the athlete lays the foundation for his future progress, on the quality of which his speed also depends.
Training in the gym is associated with great physical exertion, and the body must reorganize to reduce energy expenditure in the future. The first to change is the energy supply system. This is due to the need to give more energy to the muscles. In turn, this necessitates the accumulation of more glycogen and ATP in muscle tissues. Also, significant changes occur in the work of enzymes responsible for the exchange of energy in the body.
Simultaneously with these processes, the muscles also need to restructure their work in order to expend the minimum possible amount of energy. For this, the central nervous system begins to act differently on the muscles so that they work more consistently.
In practice, this means an increase in strength. For example, if at the very beginning of classes an athlete could work with a barbell of 50 kilograms, then after a couple of months this weight will already increase to 60 or even 70 kilograms. This happened not because of the increase in the muscles themselves, but because of their more efficient work. Everyone who is already studying could be convinced of this personally.
The first 2-3 months of training should not chase a constant increase in weights. It is much more effective to work with small weights, but perform all exercises as technically as possible. Everyone who is just starting to engage in bodybuilding should pay special attention to exactly the technique. This will allow you to learn how to control your muscles, which in turn will gradually work more efficiently. When this happens, all that remains is to add weight.
Other systems of the body - metabolism, osteo-ligamentous apparatus - must also adapt to new conditions. At the time of growth of muscle tissue, the number of blood vessels that feed them increases accordingly. This entails changes in the transport system.
A couple of months after the start of the exercise, the muscles slightly increase, but this is not due to the growth of the myofibril, but due to the growth of all accompanying systems. But after a while, the muscles stop growing, since the growth process itself has not yet taken place. This will happen only at the second stage.
Muscle hypertrophy
This stage will begin only two or even four months after the start of classes, when the body is prepared for the growth of muscle tissue. At this stage, the muscle fibers begin to "swell", as it were. Moreover, contrary to popular belief, this process is not so long. For some reason, a large number of people, including athletes, are confident that many years will have to pass to achieve results. However, it is not.
A muscle cell is able to reach its maximum size in a couple of years on average. In other words, two years will be enough for the realization of the potential inherent in a person (in fact, this is called hypertrophy).
To make it clearer, the following figures can be cited. Within two months, a beginner athlete is able to increase his own weight from 70 to 74 kilograms. Then, in the first year, due to the increase in muscle fibers, its mass can increase by 10 or even 15 kilograms, and during the second year - by another 5 or 10 kilograms. Thus, in two years, with proper effort in training, you can easily add up to 20 kilograms.
It is worth noting that now the conversation is not about athletes who train professionally, but about ordinary people who want to know how to pump up at home. Therefore, it will not be pure sports mass, but with a low fat content (usually around 5%). However, for those who just want to improve the appearance of their body, this is a very decent result.
Thus, we have come to the point when the available muscle fibers have reached their maximum size. But this does not mean that more muscles will not increase in size. It is just now necessary to create new fibers that have their own reserves for growth. This will happen during the third stage.
Muscle hyperplasia
At this point, you need to move on to high volume, lightweight workouts. This will cause the muscle fibers to divide and subsequently grow to their maximum size.
Those people who were able to reach the maximum of their hypertrophy during the second stage by starting to use high-volume training are able to build their muscles to a significant extent. If you go back to the numbers, then in one or two years you can add from 5 to 10 kilograms of muscle mass. Thus, if we return to the example above, then at the stage of hyperplasia, a beginner with 70 kilograms is able to reach 95 or 100 kg.
It is worth noting that a lot of bodybuilders combine the stages of hypertrophy and hyperplasia into one in their classes, which usually lasts for four years. This is a very correct move. By developing simultaneously hyperplasia and hypertrophy, much greater success can be achieved. They will help each other and the classes will become more effective.
It should be remembered that the maximum potential for increasing muscle tissue is achieved over three or four years. After that, the process will slow down, and as a result, it will stop altogether. Thus, the last phase begins.
System adaptation
The essence of the stage is quite simple: it is necessary to increase the capabilities of those body systems that inhibit muscle growth.
At the last stage, it is necessary to expand the foundation that was laid in the first stage. As you can see, building your own body is very similar to the process of building a house. If, after construction, the house at a certain point in time has become small for you, you need to expand it, while strengthening the foundation.
Thus, you again have to work on all the systems that were described at the beginning of the article. When they can expand their capabilities, muscle growth will begin again.
Unfortunately, it is impossible to say for sure about how long the stage of systemic adaptation can last. If you manage to grasp its essence, then you can safely call yourself a professional. You can decide for yourself what you need to pay special attention to, and how you can change something. With due diligence in the work, this understanding will surely come. It is difficult to judge from the outside, but the person himself feels all the changes and can influence the development of his body.
In conclusion, I would like to note that before asking if you can pump up, you must define a goal for yourself. If there is a desire to have large muscles, then a development plan should be drawn up. Take a few months to prepare your body. Only after that you can proceed to the phases of hyperplasia and hypertrophy. It will take about five years on average.
When this goal is achieved, it is necessary to start working on the systems of the body. There are many known cases when guys gained about 30 kilograms for 4 or 5 years. However, they did not use the achievements of modern sports pharmacology.
If you asked yourself the question: how to pump up at home and decided to achieve your goal, then high efficiency and dedication will help you with this.
Video on how to build muscle at home:
