Eating, sleeping and training. How to grow stronger muscles.

23rd May 2012

I am investigating body-weight-only exercises that build strength and muscle mass. Most of these exercises, that do not require a membership to a gym and can be done in the privacy of your own room, can be found on exrx.net.

Click on Exercise Instruction or Weight Training on the homepage, then click on Exercise & Muscle Directory. This page is divided into two columns with Exercises on the left followed by the names of different body parts. If you click on a body part, you will be directed to a page showing all the exercises relevant to that particular part of the body. In the right hand column here, you will see Body Weight exercises.

You should always bare in mind that a fitness regime is pointless unless the correct nutrition and sleeping programme are also followed. You do not grow stronger while doing exercises. You may appear to be getting stronger during the initial twelve weeks or so of exercise but all that is happening is that your muscles are learning how best to overcome this new task.

The body will try to do all that it can to conserve energy and during the first twelve weeks the body starts to call on all the necessary muscle fibres required to do the job. At the end of this initiation process, your muscles will have reached saturation point and it is from this point onwards that you will be able to push the body beyond where it's ever been before and you will gradually start to develop new muscle.

You need to combine your exercise with a balanced diet that contains the correct amount of good quality protein with all the amino acids required for building muscle strength and mass. Unfortunately for vegetarians, the best quality protein with all the muscle building amino acids are found in meat, fish and milk products. You need also to eat the correct amount of carbohydrates for energy and the right type of fat and you need to stop eating empty calories. I shall write about this in more detail in a future post but finally you need to remember that you only grow stronger after exercising and eating correctly but this only happens if you sleep properly, too.

You grow in bed not in the gym.