Members -- 6 days ago
How are those new-year fitness resolutions going? For many, the efforts have likely dwindled. There are also those annoying few who are pushing through and seeing gains. And a big group might be doing the grind, but aren’t seeing the desired results – when it comes to building muscle, especially, the steps can be straightforward, yet you really need to know precisely what you’re doing, both in the gym and the kitchen. To steer you on the correct path, we’ve posed a few key questions to Luke Worthington, a qualified sports scientist, trainer, nutritionist and strength-and-conditioning coach who specialises in the film industry (clients have included A-list and Oscar-winning actors). Below, Worthington outlines the fundamentals you need to know and understand about this area.
First of all, how is muscle actually built?
Muscle-building, or hypertrophy to give it the technical term, can be generally split into two categories: sarcoplasmic hypertrophy, which is an increase in the fluid and stored glycogen in muscle tissue; and myofibrillar hypertrophy, which is an increase in the actual number of myofibrils or muscle cells.
The former occurs quickly and is what is often referred to as the ‘pump’, however it can disappear just as quickly if we consume fewer carbohydrates or take a break from exercising the muscle. The latter, meanwhile, takes much longer to occur, yet the gains are long lasting as actual new tissue is being laid down.
It is the latter that most people are looking to achieve when putting together a workout programme. Muscle tissue is built by increasing the workload of a muscle over time – essentially, we intentionally damage it, and then the body compensates by repairing the damaged tissue and making it stronger and bigger than it was before.
Image: Getty
What are the key requirements of building muscle? And do you have a core set of exercises you’d recommend to beginners?
The key components are:
- Progressive overload – this means increasing the stress to a muscle over time. This can be achieved by lifting more weight, adding more repetitions, increasing range of motion, slowing down tempo, and increasing the mechanical difficulty of an exercise
- An energy surplus – quite simply, we can’t make something out of nothing, so if we are looking to create new tissue, we need a surplus of energy (calories) to make it. A rough guide is a surplus of no more than 20 per cent in order to minimise gain of body fat
- Protein intake – muscles are made from proteins and require adequate protein intake to be laid down. A good guideline for those looking to gain muscle is 2g of protein per kg of body weight
For those looking to gain muscle, I would suggest following a programme built around multi-joint or compound exercises. These require the most muscle tissue to be activated and will give the best bang for your buck. Examples include:
- Squat variations
- Deadlift variations
- Horizontal presses (e.g bench press, push-ups)
- Horizontal pulls (e.g TRX rows, dumbbell rows)
- Vertical pushing (e.g military press, landmine press)
- Vertical pulls (e.g pull-ups, lat pull-downs)
Which variation of these movements you choose – and the proportions of each – is really chef’s choice and will depend upon the desired outcomes of the programme, the starting point you’re working at, and how much time there is available to achieve the outcome.
How regularly should one be working on building muscle? And how quickly might one see results?
It is broadly accepted that to see muscle growth, we should be performing between 12–15 sets per week on a targeted muscle group. For beginners, I would usually achieve this in three or four full-body workouts per week. Spreading the workload out this way tends to keep soreness of individual body parts to a minimum – plus, in the event of a missed workout, we still have a balanced programme and can just pick right up again the next session.
Image: Getty
Beginners will see results very quickly (newbie gains are a real thing), however it is worth noting that a lot of this will be sarcoplasmic hypertrophy. For more advanced clients, we see slower rates of muscle gain – a good target will be one per cent of body weight per month.
For more advanced clients, I would work on an upper-lower split that would look a little like this:
- Monday: lower-body hip dominant (deadlifts)
- Tuesday: upper-body horizontal push/pull
- Wednesday: rest
- Thursday: lower-body knee dominant (squats)
- Friday: upper-body vertical push/pull
- Saturday: rest
- Sunday: rest
Which are the crucial foodstuffs and food groups to focus on?
The main things to hit are an excess of calories and adequate protein. A muscle-building diet should be based around high-protein, nutrient-dense whole foods.
Good protein sources are:
- Lean beef
- Chicken
- Turkey
- Eggs
- Most nuts
For those on a plant-based diet, consider:
- Tofu
- Seitan
- Tempeh
- Lentils
- Chickpeas
I would suggest building each meal around one of these protein sources, using a palm-size portion as a guide. Broadly speaking, a muscle-building meal plan should consist of four meals per day, each comprising:
- Palm-size portion of lean protein
- Fist-size portion of green vegetables
- Cupped-hand portion of carbohydrates (lentils and chickpeas are considered as carbohydrate sources for meat-eaters)
- Thumb-size portion of healthy fats
What’s the difference between bulking and ‘getting cut’?
Bulking is intentionally eating in a calories surplus to gain muscle. Cutting is intentionally eating in a calories deficit to lose body fat.
The challenge for managing a bulking phase is to not put on too much body fat, and the challenge for managing a cutting phase is to not lose too much muscle. If we stick to no more than a 20 per cent calorie surplus when bulking and no more than a 20 per cent calorie deficit when cutting, we should be minimising fat gain and muscle loss, respectively.
Image: Getty
If we are cutting, we need to keep protein intake high and make sure workouts are still heavy – this signals to the body to retain the lean tissue.
A really common question that comes up is whether someone should bulk or cut – the answer really depends upon a starting point and desired outcome. However, as a generalised answer to this: most people will do better with more muscle tissue laid down. As well as being physically stronger and more resilient to injury, having more lean muscle also increases metabolic rate, making the cutting (fat burning) phase much, much easier.
- For more, visit lukeworthington.com
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