How do you get the best results from your workout program? Muscle gains require balance because balance is the language of your body. A good workout program calls for a pre-workout, workout, and post-workout plan. It also involves food, rest, and work.
If you want bigger or more defined muscles that give you more speed, power, strength, or endurance, then that is what your workout program is for. Your workout program gives you the ability to determine how your body looks. The best workout programs involve resistant training because resistant training can build speed, power, strength, and endurance.
Use your pre-workout to get significant results.
The most important factors of your pre-workout program are your diet and sleep. Your food is how your body builds muscle and stores fat. Your body does not build muscle or store fat independently. Instead, you gain a mixture of muscle and fat during your bulk stage. The key is to create a higher percentage of muscle than fat stored. You should strive for an 80/20 ratio of muscle to fat.
You can always burn the additional fat during your cutting stage. Sleep improves the hormones that build muscle. You can’t build muscle without anabolic hormones such as testosterone and human growth hormones. Sleep also prevents catabolic hormones such as cortisol from sabotaging your ability to build muscle. Sleep also revitalizes your body and fuels it for your workout. An excellent pre-workout program emphasizes your food and rest because you will not build muscle without them.
Use volume and recovery to get the results from your workout
The most critical factors in any workout program are volume and recovery. Volume and recovery provide your body with the balance it needs to build muscle. Building muscle is a primitive action—the more weight you can lift, the bigger your muscles get. Nature built the volume principle on progressive overload.
The goal is to lift heavier each week but not too heavy to prevent a quick recovery. Sets, reps, weight, and rest between sets play a factor in recovery time – along with your age, genetics, diet, sleep, and other activities. Building muscle is not magic; it’s science. There are no magic numbers that work for everyone, but you can use principles to get the results you are looking for.
Listen to your body; it knows best.
Compound lifts such as squats, bench press, deadlift, and shoulder press or better than isometric lifts such as curls, leg extensions, and leg curls. Build your workout around compound activities to get results. The repetition range to build muscles is 6 to 10 repetitions. The weight and sets depend on your age and genetics. Older lifters can get away with one to two sets, while younger lifters need three sets to build muscle.
Listen to your body; it will tell you what it can handle. Lifting to failure is an excellent way to listen to your body. If you reach failure in six to 10 repetitions, then that is ideal. If you fall short or exceed six to 10 reps, you lift too light or too heavy. Also, after a workout and during the next workout, muscle soreness is a way you can listen to your body to find the right amount of repetition, sets, weight, and rest to build muscle.
Use your diet and rest to prevent your workout from sabotaging your results.
The most important factors of a post-workout program are your diet and rest. Over-training is worse than under-training because it can lead to injury and prevent muscle growth. You should be able to recover from your workout in 48 hours when you work out correctly. If you cannot recover in 48 hours, you need to decrease your workout.
Listen to your body because everyone’s body is different. Personal trainers personalize workout programs because of the many factors determining how each person responds to a workout program. After your workout, feed your body protein and calories. Don’t make a simple process complicated. Food and rest activate and elevate the hormones that build muscle—working-out breaks down muscle. When you eat food and rest muscle, it can rebuild.
The last word on how to use your workout to get results
The best workout program to build muscle depends on your body. Your age, genetics, and environment are all factors for working out. For example, a workout program for a person who works at a desk job should differ from working construction. A workout program is not just a workout. It also includes sleep, food, and rest. Your workout is an external factor that influences how your body builds muscles, while your hormones are internal factors that determine how your body makes muscles.
Internal factors play a more significant role in how your body looks than external factors. Therefore, before beginning any workout program, regardless of your health and fitness level, consult with your primary care physician. Your doctor can inform you of your hormones, diet, and genetics to get the best results from your workout program.