What happens to muscle mass over time?
It is a simple fact….most people lose muscle as they age.
Starting at age 30, the average person loses 3-5% of their muscle mass every 10 years. The average American man loses 30% of their muscle mass over the course of their lifetime.
“So what?” you might be asking yourself.
“I don’t want big muscles anyway.”
“I am not Arnold Schwarzenegger, why do I care how big my muscles are?”
Well, as you lose muscle, you lose:
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- Strength
- Power
- Agility
- Mobility
- Bone Density
You Increase your chances of falling.
You increase your chance of breaking a bone when you do fall.
It affects your quality of life.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Through proper training, anyone can maintain their muscle mass as they age. They can even grow muscles bigger and stronger over time.
So how do you build muscle? How does it happen within your body?
Check out this TED video… a short, easy to understand video explaining the muscle building process.
So now that you know what is happening inside your body, what does that mean for training? What do you have to do in order to build muscle?
The answer? Progressive Resistance Training.
What does that mean in English?
Let’s break it down.
Progressive means that as you get stronger and your muscles get bigger, you have to make the exercises increasingly harder.
A good program can help you accomplish this in a myriad of ways. You can do it by….
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- Increasing the weight
- Increasing the number of reps
- Increasing how long you take to complete each positive portion of the rep
- Increasing how long you take to complete each negative portion of each rep
- Increasing how long your pause in the fully contracted position
- Decreasing the break between reps
Resistance means that you are working your muscles against an outside force.
The resistance may come in the form of….
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- Bodyweight
- Resistance Training Machines
- Dumbbells
- Barbells
- Resistance Bands
- Kettlebells
Trainers are often asked which means of resistance works best? The easiest answer is that it doesn’t matter. Your muscles do not know or care if you are doing a barbell squat, a kettlebell squat, or a leg press.
It simply does not matter. All your body knows is that you are damaging the muscles and that it needs to repair itself to get bigger.
Training — Yes, there is a difference between training and working out.
A training plan is specifically designed to help you reach your fitness goals. It takes things into account such as exercise:
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- Order
- Resistance
- Complexity
- Effectiveness
- Safety
So…Now that you know what progressive resistance training is, how do you put it into practice?
Here is how you put together a good plan for building muscle…
Step 1
Decide how many days a week you want to train.
I suggest beginners start with 2 days a week.
Step 2
Decide which exercises you are going to use for each workout.
I suggest beginners start with a full-body program. This means that you are going to work your entire body each time you exercise. A typical full-body workout chooses one exercise that works each of the following body parts….
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- Chest
- Upper Back
- Shoulders
- Biceps
- Triceps
- Legs
- Quads
- Hamstrings
- Abs
Step 3
Figure out how much weight to use for each exercise.
To build muscle, you need to use at least 70% of the amount of weight you can lift
Step 4
Figure out how many reps to do for each set.
To build muscle you should do between 8 and 12 reps
Step 5
Figure out how many sets to do for each exercise.
To build muscle, you should do at least 3 sets per exercise.
Step 6
Adjust as needed.
As you get stronger, you are going to need more resistance to get the same results.
When is it time to move up in weight?
Follow the 2 for 2 rule.
If your goal is to do 12 reps and you can do 2 more than that for 2 sessions in a row, it is time to go up in weight.
So let’s say your chest press goal is 12 reps. On Monday, you do 14 reps. On Wednesday, you do 14 reps as well. The next time you train, you will go up in weight.
Conclusion:
So there you have it. That is how you put together a progressive resistance training program.
Get started today to increase your muscles and your quality of life.
Write down your exercise plan and adjust it as you find what you like and don’t like to do.
Give it a couple of weeks and I guarantee you will see results both in the mirror and in how you feel.
OR….we can help you.
We offer virtual personal training services for anyone wanting to build muscle.
Check out our Virtual Training Services
And your first two training sessions will be free.
