Gaining muscle mass is one of the most popular health objectives. It comes almost head to head with weight loss. Men and women, young and old, a large majority of the population would like to have a more muscular body. When we talk about the term “muscle mass gain”, it’s synonymous with muscle hypertrophy, lean mass gain and muscle toning. All these terms refer to an increase in muscle volume through ‘muscle creation’.
What is a muscle?
To fully understand how to build muscle mass, it may be useful to know what a muscle is. There are 3 different types of muscle in humans:
- Smooth muscles: these are located in the walls of organs such as the oesophagus, intestines, blood vessels and stomach. This type of muscle is considered involuntary, since we cannot consciously contract it.
- Cardiac muscles: as you may have guessed, this is the tissue that makes up our heart. It is called an autonomic muscle because its contractions are managed by the autonomic nervous system. So, once again, we cannot contract it voluntarily.
- Skeletal muscles: also known as voluntary muscles, these are the types of muscle tissue that will be used to gain mass. Roughly speaking, these are ‘elastic’ tissues anchored to the bones by tendons and responsible for human movement.
A muscle is made up of several layers of tissue. The smallest units of skeletal muscle are the actin and myosin filaments. The myosin filaments slide over the actin to produce movement when innervated by the nervous system. This phenomenon is the basis of human movement. These units are found in the sarcomere, a subunit of the myofibril. They are then found in the muscle fibre, which is contained in the sarcolemma, and then in a subset of several muscle fibres. Finally, we have the muscle. The important thing to understand is that the muscle is made up of several sub-layers which ultimately contain the contractile units responsible for movement.
How do you increase your muscle volume?
On the surface, it’s pretty simple. Counter-resistance training will create micro-tears in the myofibrils (muscle subunits). These tears, combined with an adequate protein intake, will lead to an increase in the size of these myofibrils, which will ultimately result in an increase in muscle mass. So now, we understand that building muscle mass involves two essential elements: counter-resistance training and nutrition. We’re going to take a closer look at these two subjects.
What training technique should be used to optimise muscle mass gain?
Different training techniques can be used to maximise muscle mass gain. These are based on two concepts: mechanical stress and metabolic stress.
Before we start, let’s define maximum repetition load (MR). MR is the greatest number of repetitions you can perform with a given weight. If you perform a squat movement with 100 lbs and you can do a maximum of 10 repetitions, that’s your 10 RM. In this example, you wouldn’t be able to do an 11th repetition, because otherwise it would be your 11 RM.
Mechanical stress
This is correlated to the tension exerted on each muscle fibre. Generally speaking, the higher the tension, the greater the hypertrophy. Muscular tension will therefore correspond to the number of repetitions multiplied by the load lifted (example: 12 repetitions X 10 lb = 120 lb of tension). To optimise the mechanical stress on the muscle fibres and thus muscle mass gain, the parameters of the number of repetitions and the load lifted must be optimised. The belief has long been that lifting a maximum load for 8-12 repetitions would be ideal for stimulating hypertrophy.
However, recent studies have shown that hypertrophy can be achieved with maximum repetition load sets ranging from 6 to 30! So why is 8-12 RM still preferred? The answer has to do with the stress exerted on the joints and the nervous system. Training with a low number of repetitions and a high load is very draining for the nervous system. It can take up to 72 hours to recover from this kind of training. On the other hand, a high number of repetitions can be disruptive to the joints, which would not be ideal in the long term. It is for these reasons that the 10 RM should be preferred, in order to optimise muscle mass gain.
Metabolic stress
Metabolic stress is also a factor that will influence your muscle mass gain.
This type of stress is caused by the accumulation of metabolic waste in the muscle, which is produced when training with a high number of repetitions and little rest time. To optimise this factor, you should do a high number of maximum repetitions (MR), around 20-30, combining them with a shorter rest period.
If you’ve followed this far, you’ll understand that to optimise mechanical stress and metabolic stress, the number of repetitions and the load will be completely different. The solution to this problem lies in the use of supersets (consecutive sequences of two exercises) of the same muscle group. You could do an exercise at 10 RM to work your legs and then another at 20 RM which also targets that same muscle group.
In addition to the stress parameters linked to load and repetitions, many other factors will influence muscle mass gain.
Muscular failure
Muscular failure is the principle of lifting a load to exhaustion. This concept is the basis of the maximum repetition load (MR). So it’s very important, when you’re working to build muscle mass, to get as close as possible to muscular failure. However, you need to be careful about the risk of injury. You must be able to maintain good execution of the movement during all your repetitions. When you are no longer able to maintain the execution criteria, you are talking about your maximum number of repetitions. In addition, you need to be very careful when you go into muscular failure on multi-joint exercises (movement working several joints at the same time), such as the squat, bench press and deadlift. It’s not recommended to go into muscle failure at any cost on these types of exercise because of the high risk of injury that could result.
Break times
Optimal pause times for muscle mass gain can generally vary between 30 seconds and 2 minutes, but could be much higher, depending on the training technique used. As a general rule, multi-joint exercises require more pause time (2 minutes) and single-joint exercises (biceps flexion, triceps extension) much less (30-60 s). Once again, it’s impossible to prescribe an ideal pause time, as this varies enormously depending on the choice of exercises and training techniques used.
Number of sets per muscle group
This parameter is defined as the number of times you perform an exercise per muscle group. It is generally recommended to perform a minimum of 10 sets per week in order to stimulate muscle mass gain. This number of sets could be spread over several sessions during the week, depending on the training techniques used. This number can also vary greatly depending on the level of each individual. A beginner will need fewer sets per muscle group than an advanced person. It is therefore very important to aim for the right training parameter. Too high a prescription could result in injury, while too low a prescription has little impact on muscle mass gain.
Choice of exercises
Any exercise which involves a muscle covered by the parameters discussed above could be relevant to muscle hypertrophy. There is therefore no magic exercise that will optimise muscle mass gain. However, certain parameters must be taken into account, such as variation and angle of attack. It is advisable to work a muscle from several angles in order to obtain the best results. Examples include bench press and incline press. Whether during the same session or in two different programmes, these parameters will be essential for good progress.
Now that you know the basics of training to promote muscle mass gain, let’s move on to the second hot topic: nutrition.
What should you eat to optimise muscle mass gain?
We could write a whole article on this subject, but we’ll try to sum it up in three points:
Protein, protein, protein
We can’t stress this enough, but the main reason why your muscle mass gain is stagnating is that you’re not eating enough protein. Protein is the basis of muscle recovery, so it plays a vital role in achieving muscle hypertrophy. It is recommended that you consume 1.6 to 1.8 g of protein per kilo of body weight. This means that if you weigh 70 kg (154 lb), you should eat between 116 g and 126 g a day. If you have no idea how much protein you are consuming per day, this could explain why you are not gaining muscle mass. Software such as MyFitnessPal can help you keep track of your protein and calorie intake.
Surplus calorique
In addition to a suitable protein intake, you need to be in a state of caloric surplus in order to gain muscle mass. In short, you need to consume more calories than you burn. Generally speaking, we aim for a calorie surplus of around 500 calories a day. Once again, MyFitnessPal is an excellent tool for tracking your calorie intake!
What about supplements?
Dietary supplements can be a very interesting accessory to complement your diet in order to achieve your goals. As the name suggests, they are supplements… so you shouldn’t bet everything on them to get results. The two most effective supplements for building muscle mass are protein and creatine. As far as protein is concerned, you can opt for a leaner supplement containing almost exclusively protein. You can also opt for a ‘mass gainer’ containing carbohydrates and fat in addition to protein.
Individuals with a more ectomorphic build could benefit enormously from adding a ‘mass gainer’ to their diet. Those with a tendency to put on weight quickly should avoid it and opt for leaner proteins. As far as creatine is concerned, this supplement can help you go for more intensity during your training. If you’ve followed this correctly, this increase in intensity can optimise the training parameters linked to mass gain. We’ll come back to this in more detail in a later article.
Les individus ayant une morphologie plutôt ectomorphe pourraient bénéficier énormément de l’ajout de « mass gainer» dans leur alimentation. Ceux ayant tendance à prendre du poids rapidement devraient l’éviter et opter pour des protéines plus « lean ». En ce qui concerne la créatine, ce supplément peut vous aider à aller chercher plus d’intensité pendant votre entraînement. Si vous avez bien suivi jusqu’ici, cette augmentation de l’intensité pourra optimiser les paramètres de l’entraînement liés à la prise de masse. Nous y reviendrons plus en détail dans un prochain texte.
Sleep
Sleep is also a neglected factor when it comes to building muscle mass. Muscular adaptations linked to counter-resistance training generally occur when the body is recovering from the stress it has been subjected to. Poor quality sleep will be detrimental to achieving the optimum hormone levels for mass gain. What’s more, if you’re tired, the intensity of your training will take a hit, which will hinder your progress.
As you’ve seen, building muscle mass is much more complex than losing weight. You need to be able to have training stimuli that are adapted to your level and your goals. You also need to be able to advance your training, to take account of the progression of all the parameters discussed earlier. Then you need to ingest an adequate number of proteins and calories, all accompanied by a good night’s sleep. If all the parameters are executed optimally, we can expect to see muscle mass gain of 1-2 kg (2-4 lb) per month for men and 1-2 kg (1-2 lb) for women. If you would like help or support in your weight gain process, please do not hesitate to make an appointment with us. The OBJECTIV formula will greatly increase your chances of successfully gaining weight.