The 3 Laws of Muscle Building

There is more to muscle building than lifting heavy weights. To achieve a perfectly toned physique, you have to educate yourself about the three laws of muscle building: Muscle Tension, Metabolic Stress, and Muscle Damage. By learning the 3 laws of muscle building, you will create an effective workout and achieve results in half the time. These laws are interrelated so you cannot apply one without the other. Muscle growth isn’t just about growing muscle fibers per se, you have to look at the bigger picture and apply certain techniques to achieve better results!

1. Muscle Tension

The first law of muscle building is muscle tension. You have to create tension to strengthen the muscle fibers. The concept might sound simple but you’d be surprised that a lot of people struggle to execute proper muscle tension in the gym!

The fact is, pushing yourself to lift a certain number – such as bench pressing 225 pounds for one rep – is not really the ideal way to build muscle.  Instead of pushing for a certain number of weights, consider toning various muscle groups and focusing on a full range of motion. This creates constant tension on the working muscle. To tone the muscles, the muscle fibers have to be in a constant state of stretching and squeezing to achieve definition. Nonstop tension makes the ideal environment for muscle building.

2. Metabolic Stress

Metabolic stress refers to the “burn” you feel when the muscles are exhausted. When you are feeling the burn long after your workout, it is a sign of muscle hypertrophy. Muscle hypertrophy helps increase skeletal muscle size. This process involves sarcoplasmic hypertrophy and myofibrillar hypertrophy. Sarcoplasmic hypertrophy focused more on increasing the muscle’s glycogen storage while myofibrillar hypertrophy is focused on increasing the myofibril size.

Metabolic stress activates muscle growth. When the muscle cells are stressed, they swell because more water is being pulled within the cells. When the muscle cells swell up, the muscle fibers increase in size. This leads to bulging muscles!

3. Muscle Damage

Muscular damage is a very complex process that happens in many ways. In a nutshell, muscle damage causes cell repair so the muscle fibers become larger and denser. Each time you lift weights, it causes damage to the muscle fibers. This triggers the cells to repair the damage tissues, leading to bulkier muscles.

However, lifting the same weight repeatedly will slow down your progress. To achieve the desired results and avoid wasted time, make sure you keep these tips in mind:

Mix it Up

Lift heavier weights so the muscles become stronger, denser. Mix up your routine by targeting certain muscles from a different angle!

Stretch the Muscles

You want to keep your muscles lengthy and flexible to achieve a sculpted physique. So go ahead, give your muscles a good stretch especially if they are being trained.

Experiment with Different Techniques

There are so many ways to tone and strengthen the body so do not stick to a single routine. You want to apply various techniques to keep your muscles in tip-top shape. For instance, changing your tempo or experimenting with different exercises will do wonders to the body!