Gain more muscle by training less often

This article gives an overview of how simple building muscle is and explains why most people train far too often and with too many sets. When it comes to building muscle, less is more!


Keywords :
muscle, bodybuilding, fitness, health, bodybuilding, weightlifting


The more you work at something, the better results you will get. This has always been a widely accepted truth that applies to many areas of life. The more you study, the better grades you get. The more time you spend honing your sports skills, the better athlete you will become. The more time you spend learning to play an instrument, the better musician you will become. Therefore, it makes sense that the more time you spend at the gym, the stronger and more muscular your physique will be, right? Contrary to what you might think, the answer to this question is a gigantic, definitive and absolute no! It is in this area of ​​bodybuilding that conventional wisdom comes straight out of the window, off the street and around the corner.

I know what you may be wondering.

"What? Spending less time in the gym will really make me bigger and stronger?"

Yes ! This really is the case, and when we examine the process of muscle growth from its most fundamental roots, we understand very well why this is the case.

Every process that occurs in the human body is intended to keep you alive and healthy. Over thousands of years of evolution, the human body has become a very well-tuned organism, capable of adapting to the specific conditions imposed on it. We are uncomfortable when we are hungry or thirsty, we tan in the presence of high doses of UV rays, we create calluses to protect our skin, etc. So what happens when we break down muscle tissue in the gym? If you answered something like "muscles get bigger and stronger", then congratulations! You are quite right. By fighting against a resistance that exceeds the current capacity of the muscle, we have posed a threat to the musculature. The body recognizes that this is potentially dangerous and, as a natural adaptive response, the muscles will hypertrophy (increase in size) to protect the body against this threat. By steadily increasing the resistance from week to week, the body will continue to adapt and grow.

Seems simple? Ultimately it is, but the most important thing to understand in all of this is that muscles can only get bigger and stronger if they are given adequate recovery time. Without adequate recovery time, the muscle growth process simply cannot take place.

Your goal in the gym should be to train with the minimum volume necessary to achieve an adaptive response. Once you've pushed your muscles beyond their current capacity and triggered evolution's millennial alarm system, you've done your job. Any further stress placed on the body will only increase your recovery time, weaken the immune system, and send your body into catabolic overdrive.

Most people train too often and with many more sets than they should. High-intensity strength training is much more stressful on the body than most people realize. The majority of people structure their training programs in a way that hinders their gains and prevents them from making the progress they deserve. Here are 3 basic guidelines you should follow if you want to achieve maximum gains:

1) Do not train more than 3 days a week.
2) Don't let your workouts last more than an hour.
3) Perform 5 to 8 sets for large muscle groups (chest, back, thighs) and 2 to 4 sets for small muscle groups (shoulders, biceps, triceps, calves, abs).

Do all sets to the point of muscular failure and aim to progress in weight or reps each week. If you train really hard and are consistent, training more often or for longer than that will be counterproductive to your gains!