Muscles will grow in size if you force them to work harder than they’re accustomed to. In fact, there are three main ways in which muscles grow. Find out what they are and how you can use them to fine-tune your muscle hypertrophy workout.
Have you hit a plateau or are you looking for a different way to challenge your body? Have you tried giant sets? Find out what “giant setting” entails and what the benefits are for your physique.
Cortisol – it’s a hormone bodybuilders want to keep in check – but why? Does cortisol really have the ability to sabotage muscle growth? It depends. Find out why.
Are you eating right and training hard and STILL not making the muscle gains you expected? Here are four factors that make it harder to build muscle that you may not have considered.
After a strength-training workout, your muscles are fatigued and need rest and recovery time. Giving your muscles the right recovery environment is important for muscle growth and for strength gains. Find out how your muscles repair and how it relates to muscle hypertrophy and strength.
Everyone needs zinc, although you don’t need it in huge quantities. Yet, many people don’t get enough of this vital mineral. In this article, you’ll find out why zinc is so important and why you may need more of it if you work out.
When you first start weight training, you probably experienced a significant degree of soreness, what is referred to as delayed onset muscle soreness or DOMS. But as you kept doing the same exercise, you no longer felt the same degree of soreness. The reason has to do with the “repeated bout effect.” Find out more.
The female hormone, estrogen, is important for a variety of reasons, and even helps preserve bone health. Since women lose strength after menopause, you might wonder whether estrogen plays a role in muscle strength and hypertrophy gains. Find out what research shows.
For years, trainers have said to train hard to boost hormones like testosterone and growth hormone, anabolic hormones that aid in muscle growth. No doubt, you SHOULD train hard but not necessarily to churn out more growth hormone and testosterone. Research suggests that even if you do produce more of these hormones briefly in response to exercise, it may not increase your gains. Find out more.
Plateaus are a fact of life when you resistance training. It’s not if you’ll reach a plateau but when. That’s when it’s time to take mix things up. One way to do that is by focusing on the mid-range training of the exercises you do where the tension on the muscle is highest. Find out more about mid-range training and how it can help you break through a plateau.
To build muscle size, you have to create conditions that support muscle growth. When it comes down to it, three main factors work together to help you build muscle tissue. Find out what they are and how to use them to your advantage.
If your muscles are sore the day after a workout, you may feel a sense of victory, thinking that you worked your muscles hard enough to maximize growth. But is muscle soreness really correlated with growth, and do you need to experience delayed-onset muscle soreness for maximal muscle hypertrophy? Find out what research shows.
