Muscle mass is made up of the total set of tissue commonly called muscle, and according to the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit entity dedicated to clinical practice, education, and research, muscle strengthening can help build strong bones, control weight, improve quality of life, contribute to better balance and reduce the risk of falls, treat chronic conditions, sharpen intellectual abilities.
Thus, to gain muscle mass it is important to have a balanced diet that includes proteins, fats, carbohydrates and all the nutrients that the body needs.
Likewise, it is important to exercise and it is not necessary to lift a lot, since “muscle exercises should be done slowly, mainly during the muscle contraction phase, because when performing this type of movement more fibers are injured during the activity and more effective will be the gain in muscle mass during the muscle recovery period”, explained the Portuguese health, nutrition and well-being portal Tua Saúde.
Additionally, he explained that “in order to gain muscle mass, it is important that training is carried out on a regular basis, it being recommended that this be done three to five times a week and that the same muscle group be worked on once or twice, since the rest muscle is essential for hypertrophy.
In other words, if you did lower body training on Monday (legs and buttocks), it is recommended that you rest that part of the body on Tuesday and train the upper body (arms, chest, back), and on Wednesday you do it once more. work the lower train.
In addition, some exercises recommended by experts are:
- Squats with elastic band or weights for toned legs and buttocks.
- Lunge with curl or bicep lunge with elastic band or weights for legs, abdomen and arms.
- Rowing exercise with elastic band or weights for arms and back.
- Abdominals to work the core.
Similarly, to build muscle, the physical therapist at the Harvard-affiliated Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, Shawn Pedicini, assured, according to GQ, that some tips to increase muscle mass are:
1. Have a specialized and trained trainer that teaches the correct technique of each exercise or training.
2. Work free weight. That is, use dumbbells, kettlebells or bars without using gym machines.
3. Perform weight lifting with the legs such as squats, lunges, deadlifts to strengthen the quadriceps and hamstrings which are the largest muscles in the entire body.
4. Weight, repetitions and series. According to the expert, over time you will have to do fewer repetitions with a higher weight in order to gain muscle.
5. Find the tempo (speed). The expert assures that “all lifting must be executed in a tempo of 7 seconds: 3 seconds to raise, one second to pause and three seconds to lower.”
6. Rest, Well, the ideal thing to increase muscle mass is to do strength training at least three times a week and rest the muscle for at least 24 hours. That is, if leg and buttock training was done on Monday, it is recommended that you rest on Tuesday and work that muscle group once more on Wednesday.
7. Increase the challenges, so as not to stay in a ‘comfort’ zone and obtain better results.
Likewise, experts recommend drinking a minimum of two liters of water, sleeping eight hours and not skipping any daily meals.
In any case, the information given above in no way replaces medical advice and therefore the first thing to do is consult a health expert so that he or she can guide the process and indicate what is most appropriate for each person. .
