The process of building muscle is hard enough by itself for most people.
Place a time constraint - 6 weeks for example - on that lofty goal and you're making this task exponentially harder.
The fact is, we're living in the "now" era, where two minutes to heat up a hot pocket in the microwave is a huge burden for the busy guy or gal rushing to check their emails, connect with friends on Facebook, tweet about their day, and prepare to upload a new video to YouTube.
With this type of schedule, hey, who has time to wait a year for natural muscle gain, right? Before you rush into any muscle building program, however, there are a few things that you should strongly consider before paying homage to the iron beast.
We will discuss two major factors to consider when attempting to put on muscle rapidly yet naturally (without the use of anabolic steroids).
Number One: Consider Your Somatotype.
Somatotype is the term coined by American psychologist W.
Sheldon in the 1940's.
This theory categorizes three major frames or body types.
All human beings will fall into either one or a combination of these body types.
The classic Ectomorph.
The classic ectomorph has thin bones, narrow shoulders, extremely low body fat, and very little muscle tissue.
The classic Mesomorph.
This somatotype presents with medium bones, broad shoulders, low to moderate body fat accumulation, and large powerful fast twitch muscle fibers.
The classic Endomorph.
The Endomorph displays thicker bones (usually at the hips), average shoulders, high body fat, and moderate amounts of muscle tissue.
Note: You should keep in mind that most of us will display more than one somatotype quality.
For example, it's not uncommon to be an ecto-meso, a meso-endo, et cetera.
Obviously, if your goal is to be a fitness model, middle linebacker, or 100 meter sprinter, having a mesomorphic frame would be more desirable than the other two body types.
Now, with that being said, however, just because you may not have the ideal frame for a certain activity, doesn't mean that you can't grow your body to be the best at that specific activity.
Let's say that you're a skinny ectomorph and you desperately want to pack on muscle to boost your self esteem, get that girl that you have a crush on, and make the varsity football team.
Chances are you've tried what you perceive to be "everything" to gain muscle mass; usually to no avail.
By simply understanding your somatotype, you will know that what may work for your mesomorphic or endomorphic friends will most likely not work for you.
Don't be depressed about this however, this is powerful information you can use to your advantage.
Knowing your somatotype means that you can weed out the programs that you know won't work for you and incorporate the training programs that will work best for your given frame.
This leads us to the second factor to consider.
Number Two: The Right Training Stimulus.
The name of the game for the skinny guy or "hard gainer" when it comes to packing on muscle fast is maximum incremented progressive overload training (MIPO).
MIPO forces both your muscle and connective tissue to adapt to the constant stress being placed on it.
The human body seems to adapt more quickly to heavier weights with lower repetitions (3 to 6 reps for example) than lighter weights with higher repetitions (10 plus reps).
It's really a survival mechanism for the body, either get stronger or be crushed like a bug under the falling mass.
The body usually responds by getting bigger and stronger.
CONCLUSION Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what is needed to put on muscle fast.
It takes a keen understanding of your given somatotype as well as placing yourself under an optimal training stimulus.
These two factors when employed correctly yield a great recipe for muscle building success.
Place a time constraint - 6 weeks for example - on that lofty goal and you're making this task exponentially harder.
The fact is, we're living in the "now" era, where two minutes to heat up a hot pocket in the microwave is a huge burden for the busy guy or gal rushing to check their emails, connect with friends on Facebook, tweet about their day, and prepare to upload a new video to YouTube.
With this type of schedule, hey, who has time to wait a year for natural muscle gain, right? Before you rush into any muscle building program, however, there are a few things that you should strongly consider before paying homage to the iron beast.
We will discuss two major factors to consider when attempting to put on muscle rapidly yet naturally (without the use of anabolic steroids).
Number One: Consider Your Somatotype.
Somatotype is the term coined by American psychologist W.
Sheldon in the 1940's.
This theory categorizes three major frames or body types.
All human beings will fall into either one or a combination of these body types.
The classic Ectomorph.
The classic ectomorph has thin bones, narrow shoulders, extremely low body fat, and very little muscle tissue.
The classic Mesomorph.
This somatotype presents with medium bones, broad shoulders, low to moderate body fat accumulation, and large powerful fast twitch muscle fibers.
The classic Endomorph.
The Endomorph displays thicker bones (usually at the hips), average shoulders, high body fat, and moderate amounts of muscle tissue.
Note: You should keep in mind that most of us will display more than one somatotype quality.
For example, it's not uncommon to be an ecto-meso, a meso-endo, et cetera.
Obviously, if your goal is to be a fitness model, middle linebacker, or 100 meter sprinter, having a mesomorphic frame would be more desirable than the other two body types.
Now, with that being said, however, just because you may not have the ideal frame for a certain activity, doesn't mean that you can't grow your body to be the best at that specific activity.
Let's say that you're a skinny ectomorph and you desperately want to pack on muscle to boost your self esteem, get that girl that you have a crush on, and make the varsity football team.
Chances are you've tried what you perceive to be "everything" to gain muscle mass; usually to no avail.
By simply understanding your somatotype, you will know that what may work for your mesomorphic or endomorphic friends will most likely not work for you.
Don't be depressed about this however, this is powerful information you can use to your advantage.
Knowing your somatotype means that you can weed out the programs that you know won't work for you and incorporate the training programs that will work best for your given frame.
This leads us to the second factor to consider.
Number Two: The Right Training Stimulus.
The name of the game for the skinny guy or "hard gainer" when it comes to packing on muscle fast is maximum incremented progressive overload training (MIPO).
MIPO forces both your muscle and connective tissue to adapt to the constant stress being placed on it.
The human body seems to adapt more quickly to heavier weights with lower repetitions (3 to 6 reps for example) than lighter weights with higher repetitions (10 plus reps).
It's really a survival mechanism for the body, either get stronger or be crushed like a bug under the falling mass.
The body usually responds by getting bigger and stronger.
CONCLUSION Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what is needed to put on muscle fast.
It takes a keen understanding of your given somatotype as well as placing yourself under an optimal training stimulus.
These two factors when employed correctly yield a great recipe for muscle building success.
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