Building Muscle Made Simple · Path of the Dragon

Building Muscle Made Simple

Hey there! I’m Aaron, a full time Hypertrophy and Lifestyle Coach! I just met

and he urges me to share my wealth of knowledge! So let’s start with the basics!

Building muscle can be complicated but the goal is to make it as streamlined and easy as possible! There are many factors that come in play when we work to build muscle such as what kind of programming we do, the intensity of our work and most importantly our rest!

So, let’s break down what actually goes into our training and what why we are doing it this way!

Why is muscle important?

As exercise became more popularized throughout the years, the research and focus within fitness has only increased, bringing to light the NEED for muscle. For the average person, muscle is used to increase metabolism, bone density/health, and increased life span. Not to mention the activity of intense resistance training has shown increases within mobility, improvement of quality of daily life (carrying groceries, quality time with one's kids and daily movement), and stress management/mood control!

Intensity

When it comes to our intensity within our training, we must make sure we are pushing our best within the prescribed rep ranges! When we are working through an exercise, we want to make sure we are going to a degree of fatigue that makes our reps slow down involuntarily amongst our presses, pulls, extensions and curls! We also want to push close to muscular failure, or about 1-2 reps shy of no longer being able to do that certain exercise for that set! (ex. of ugly face for my rep)

This is the most uncomfortable portion but an incredibly important part of our muscle building formula!

(Now you do not have to look like me, but it absolutely is necessary to get a little ugly with it)

Progressive Overload

One of the best factors when it comes to making sure we are making PROGRESS is advancing our challenges in some way or form. Now I must mention this is to come once form is GOOD, not perfect but good; Once form is complete and you feel comfortable, then you can stack on the difficulty!

Whether this comes in a form of increasing our reps, weight or adding time to our tempo! This will be a more than likely direct result of our intensity and most importantly can be indirect from our nutrition and recovery!

Nutrition

This is arguably the hardest part of our development, as it will directly stimulate us whether we have a weight loss goal or muscle building goal! Fats and Carbs play a role in FUEL for the body; with fats controlling hormones and keeping mood/mentality well and carbohydrates being our direct fuel reserve for all activities with a heightened heart rate. One of our biggest proponents of growth will come from protein, particularly complete proteins within dairy and meat products (or supplements). The protein will allow for muscular recovery and the building of new muscle, permitting our intensity is good and we have enough rest.

Recovery/Rest

Recent research emphasizes the importance of rest and recovery in muscle building. While exercise triggers muscle growth, it’s during recovery that muscles repair and grow.

Intra-session (within our workout) we should be aiming for 2:30 - 5 minutes of rest in-between sets to maximize our muscular potential; Use this as a recommendation but you absolutely should feel recovered enough to battle within our rep range for the exercise/set.

Especially with studies, they show that 7–9 hours of sleep each night boost muscle repair by increasing growth hormone levels. Active recovery, like light exercise on rest days, can help reduce soreness and improve circulation. Sleep is the most common and missed factor that can inhibit or accelerate our progress.

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