If you're trying to build muscle with your bodybuilding workout program right now but are struggling to get that scale moving, you might want to give good consideration to the type of workout set-up you're on. How many workouts are you doing each week? How many rest days do you have each week? In an ideal world, you would hit each muscle hard three to four times a week while still getting three or four days of rest - one day in between each day you lift. This way, you stress your body, then you rest your body. Then you stress, then you rest. You see the pattern.
This is the most effective type of set-up if your goal is to build muscle as rapidly as possible because there are two prime factors that affect a muscle's ability to grow.
A. Enough stimulus at the highest frequency possible.
B. Enough rest, to allow the body to recover from this stimulus.
So, you can see how the above set-up would work optimally.
BUT, the big problem here is that most full body programs only allow you to do one or two movements per muscle group because you can really only do so much per workout session you do. How effective is one or two exercises per muscle group when it comes to your ability to build muscle? Well, it is relatively effective, provided you are focusing on the compound movements such as bench press, squats, deadlifts, rows, and shoulder presses. If you aren't though, and are doing more isolated exercises, you're going to struggle to gain weight.
So, what's the solution? How can you maximize your results?
Double-Day Workouts
The top way you can stimulate the muscles with a decent amount of volume while still getting as much rest as possible is to split your workout sessions up and perform twice a day workouts. This works well because speaking in terms of recovery, you're far better off to have one really hard day followed by one day of complete rest, versus having two medium intensity days back to back. The CNS and muscles are going to recover fastest when they are not working out, period. Medium days and even light days at times, still tend to compromise recovery.
So, to do double day workouts, you'll want to do an upper body workout and a lower body workout. Most people will prefer to put the lower body workout first, since these are generally most demanding since the
legs are larger muscle groups. This is a personal choice though, so feel free to do whatever feels best for you.
Next, be sure you are taking in very good nutrition in the hours between your workouts. You're body is going to demand a much higher intake of carbohydrates in order to effectively fuel both of these workouts. This means eating plenty of rice, pasta, bagels, cereal, and potatoes. Couple this with a good quality source of
protein and small amounts of fat. You don't want to take in too much fat before or after either workout though because this will slow the release of the carbohydrates into the system, when you want them to be getting there the fastest.
So, if you're looking for something to really amp up your ability to build muscle and gain weight, consider setting up your program in this fashion. It really will boost your results so you are getting the best progress possible.
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