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Getting bigger muscles is the top priority of anyone working out with weights. Lets look at how your muscles get bigger and then you can figure out what it will take for you to increase your muscle gains.

Muscle hypertrophy

Muscle hypertrophy is when your muscles cells get thicker. You muscle cells will thicken but not lengthen and it is still up in the air as to whether your muscles cell will actually split or divide to get larger. The best way to cause muscle hypertrophy is to put pressure on your muscles so that they expect to need to push more weight.

Another form of muscle building is Muscle Hyperplasia and this is the actual splitting of muscle cells. Anyone that has seen a giant bodybuilder has to wonder if we all have the same number of cells

Resistance training

Resistance training is doing weights. It is just about that simple. What you really want is to make yourself stronger by making your body more able to handle heavier and heavier weight for at least four reps. Power lifters as you have probably seen in the Olympics are not the biggest guys and that is because their goal is to lift the most weight for exactly one rep. To fool your muscles into thinking that they have to be able to lift more weight they will need to do a few reps at the higher weight. Your body will then get used to this higher weight by increading the strength of the individual muscle cells

How big should your workout be?

There are many strategies to get stronger and the idea behind all of these strategies is to be able to lift more weight for a few reps a month from now then your are doing now. You have a few options and they are these

  • Number of reps per set
  • Number of sets per exercise
  • Number of exercises per muscle group
  • Amount of rest between workouts

All of these parameters are a little too much to cover in this article so I will cover them later but for now just think about how you are structuring your workouts and frequency of workouts.

I hope that this info helps you understand how to get bigger and better at working out I hope you that if you have any questions then you can of course leave comments here as well.

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Tags: Amount, muscle group, the Olympics

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  • 8 Responses to “How do muscles get bigger?”
    1. DukeLAX says:

      our lax trainers are always on our backs about being careful not to go too hard when we’re working out. my friend and i started using some supplements that boost your muscles recovery so that there’s less chance of getting hurt lifting. good so far, we’ll see how it works out for a whole 4 months of lifting and playing.

    2. Muscle building seems to be really overlooked by many women over fears of getting “big”. It is unfortunate as the only way to get that lean sculpted body is through some type of resistance training.

    3. andy says:

      getting bigger muscles take time. supplements like protein shakes do not work. its 80% food and 20% workout.

    4. chuck says:

      thanks this helps alot i’m too skinny. i’m in high school but i still want to be bigger so i can get that football scholarship or that UFC debut i’ve dreamed about

    5. Monch says:

      i used to go the gym when i was younger. Though i did not really develop those big muscles, i manage to improve my physique from being skinny to a more fit built. It’s been more than 10 years ago since the last time i’ve been to the gym. I’m well past 30 and though my chest seems to retain its shape except for some sagging, my tummy however have grown big even if i don’t drink beer or alcohol.

      is it too late for me to get back in shape? thanx. :D

    6. The key to any fitness and weight training is to vary your workouts to cause muscle confusion. This is when you start to get real results faster than doing the same traditional training. Breaking the routine is essential.

      Andy

    7. debbie says:

      I would agree with Radio Controlled Boats in that variety is the spice of life..including exercise. Muscle confusion now a days is overshadowed by using too heavy a weight. Must be an ego thing.

    8. Sam says:

      If you hit a plateau in your weight training, definitely do what Radio Controlled Boats said and vary your workouts greatly. I was stuck doing the same thing day in and day out and never had many gains. I was working out like a mad man. I fight MMA so I switched my workouts more for athletics and my muscles ended up getting huge because of the new work out routine. I know go back and forth with the routines.
      Great article!

    9.  
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