September 26, 2022

Muscle building - Stronger than ever.

Muscle Building - Stronger Than Ever.

Do you also want to build muscle mass and finally achieve the shape you’ve long desired? This article aims to give you enough know-how about effective training and proper nutrition for muscle building so you can reach your goal faster and easier.

Woman training with barbell

 

Muscle Building - A Few Basics

The human body adapts to the conditions of its environment. This trait, which was often vital for our ancestors’ survival, we can fortunately still use today by simulating extraordinary stress on the body through training. Simply put, your body stores the information “That pushed me to my limit; next time I’ll be better prepared!” and builds more muscle mass to better withstand the training load in the next session. This not only benefits our appearance, but a higher proportion of muscle mass in the body can also prevent injuries and illnesses in the long term, keeping us stronger and more capable into old age.

For this adaptation process to work, it’s not just about regular training stimuli. It is also necessary to allow the body enough recovery time between these stresses and to provide the muscles with sufficient building materials through proper nutrition.


Nutrition for Muscle Building - What Matters?

Muscle growth, technically called hypertrophy, requires sufficient energy from food intake. You need to provide the body with more calories than it burns throughout the day, including everyday movement and training. You can calculate how many calories you should roughly consume based on your individual parameters like height and weight using the Rocka Nutrition Calorie Calculator.

In addition to the pure calorie amount, it is also essential to provide the body with an adequate amount of protein, as no new muscle can form without enough protein. A guideline of 1.6 to 2.2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight should be consumed daily.

If you still find it difficult to estimate the protein content of various foods, you can use a calorie tracker. There are many free apps where you can enter all the foods you consume during the day. You will then receive a breakdown of calories consumed as well as the amount of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, allowing you to easily adjust your diet if, for example, you are not within the recommended protein intake range mentioned above.

Training for muscle growth - more is better?!

Many of us want to strengthen our upper body primarily through muscle building: a broader back, a stronger chest, and massive biceps. But should we therefore only perform specific exercises for these muscle groups? Definitely not! In strength training, a distinction is made between basic and isolation exercises. You can think of your strength training like a house. For the house to stand stable and not collapse at the slightest tremor, it needs a strong foundation and sturdy walls. These are the basic exercises in training. Different numbers of exercises are sometimes counted as basic exercises; here, we want to introduce you to the 5 most popular basic exercises:

  • Barbell squats
  • Deadlift
  • Bench press
  • Shoulder press 
  • Wide pull-ups

You can find a detailed guide with illustrations at the end of this article.

Of course, there are many variations of these exercises, such as performing them with dumbbells or on machines. Since higher coordination of different muscles is required here, the variability of your training is increased. Thus, when performed correctly, these exercises are a good complement to the basic exercises.

Becoming safer and stronger in the basic exercises or their variations should be the primary goal in your training before you focus more on isolation exercises. In our comparison with a house, these are the furnishings and the small details like the right wall color for the sofa and the rug that gives the house that special touch. 

So if you have been training for a while and can regularly increase your training weights in the basic exercises, it can definitely be beneficial to additionally train the biceps with curls or the triceps on the cable machine to increase the volume.

However, if you notice that you are constantly tired, have little motivation for training, and experience severe muscle soreness after every workout session, the total volume in your workouts might be too high. In this case, it might make sense to reduce the volume a bit.

To best support you in your muscle-building training, we recommend our CREA ROCK, which can have positive effects on your maximum and explosive strength. 

You should definitely consider the following variables in your training plan:

Volume

In each session, you should perform about 40-70 repetitions per muscle group.

Intensity

You should generally perform each exercise with 1 to a maximum of 15 repetitions. In practice, however, it has proven effective—especially if you want to build muscle—to train with about 60-75% intensity of your maximum strength for 6-12 repetitions.

Frequency

Train each muscle group about 2-3 times a week. Adjust your training plan and frequency based on your current training status and available time to achieve an appropriate training frequency.

In summary, 2-3 sessions per week with 40-70 repetitions per session are optimal. This means you’ll do a total of 80-210 repetitions per muscle group per week.


The Path to More Muscle Mass – Our Conclusion

Successful muscle building is a combination of three pillars: nutrition, training, and recovery, all of which must be considered to achieve long-term success!

Broken down to one sentence, the key to success is this: Train primarily to become more confident and stronger in basic exercises, consume enough calories with a focus on sufficient protein, and allow yourself adequate rest and sleep.

And as always in strength and fitness training: Be patient and listen to your own body.


Basic Exercise Instructions

Barbell Squats

Stand in front of a barbell resting on a rack and grip it slightly wider than shoulder-width with your thumbs. Step under the bar, pull your elbows and shoulder blades back, and press the bar, which rests above your rear shoulder muscles, out. Take 1-2 steps back and stand shoulder-width apart:

Exercise execution:

  • Take a deep breath, tense your upper body, and bend your legs at the knee joint until your calves and hamstrings form at least a 90-degree angle.
  • Keep your back straight throughout the entire exercise.
  • Push yourself back up to the starting position as you exhale by straightening your legs.

 

Deadlift

 

Position your feet under the barbell so that it is over the middle of your foot. Your shins are about 2-3 cm away from the barbell. Take a deep breath and use the press breathing technique. Grip the barbell with an overhand or mixed grip. Stick your chest out and pull your shoulder blades back. This causes you to bend your knees and create a slight arch in your lower back.

Exercise execution:

  • Your gaze is fixed on an imaginary point in front of you. Your head is aligned with your back. The movement starts with knee extension. You pull the barbell up along your shins. Always keep your back stable. Once the barbell reaches knee height, straighten your hips and push them forward.
  • The downward movement begins with a hip bend. The knees do not move yet. Always keep your back straight here as well. From knee height, lower the barbell down along your shins in a controlled manner. Build new body tension and use the press breathing technique again before starting the next repetition. 

 

Bench press

You lie on a flat bench with your feet positioned at about a 90-degree angle at the knees, firmly on the ground:

Exercise execution:

  • Grip the barbell with your hands slightly wider than shoulder-width and wrap your thumbs around it.
  • Keep your wrists straight so that your palms and forearms form a line.
  • Pull your shoulder blades together to create a slight arch in your lower back while keeping your head, shoulders, and buttocks in contact with the bench.
  • Take a deep breath and lower the dumbbell in a controlled manner down to the lower part of your chest muscles.
  • Press the weight upwards while exhaling.

 

Shoulder press

You sit with a straight back on a bench, feet firmly on the ground. In your hands, you hold a dumbbell slightly above shoulder height. Your thumbs wrap around the dumbbell handle pointing towards you, your knuckles facing forward:

Exercise execution:

  • Take a deep breath, build tension in your upper body, and press the dumbbells straight up as you exhale until your arms are fully extended.
  • Lower the dumbbells down in a controlled manner while inhaling.

 

Pull-ups

You grip the pull-up bar from the front and hang on it with a grip wider than shoulder-width:

Exercise execution:

  • Take a deep breath in and pull yourself up to the bar at collarbone height as you exhale.
  • Slowly lower yourself again as you inhale until you feel a slight stretch in your back.