Monday, February 9, 2009

Rip and Repair: Building Muscle the Right Way

By Rudy Longfellow

Physical fitness is important for the health of the mind and the body. With many nations reporting more and more obese people every year, the importance of good fitness choices is also growing. Building muscles is one of the key aspects of fitness that creates a better performing body and metabolism. When aiming to build muscle, there are clear rules that can be followed to maximize the outcome.

The rules of how to build muscle are simple and straightforward, but are some of the most unrecognized rules in physical fitness. Many people have no idea how muscle is built and this knowledge can immensely increase the chance of making the routine more rewarding and beneficial.

Prepare the muscle. It is important to prepare the muscle before trying to build muscle. In fitness, stretching is important no matter the exercise the person is about to undertake and building muscle is no different. To build muscle effectively through fitness, all of the major muscles groups need to be stretched and warmed up prior to the beginning of any routines.

Hydrate the muscle. Water is not just essential for life, it is also essential to build muscle. The muscles need hydration to build faster, recover more quickly and maintain those high levels of increased strength. The minimum amount of water per day needed for fitness programs that build muscle is 8 glasses of 8 ounces every 24 hours with many fitness magazines recommending even higher amounts per day.

Rip it. When attempting to build muscle through fitness, the muscle needs to be ripped, literally. Muscles growth is created when a muscle is torn and then rebuilds itself. To build muscle, the exercise will need to cause small rips in the muscle fibers and then allow those rips to heal and thus building the muscle mass needed to increase strength and metabolism. It is also important to note that stretching after a routine to build muscle can help to release the lactic acid build up in the muscle and thus remove some of the pain associated with the workout.

Healing Time. At least 24 hours are required to build muscle. This means that the same muscle groups of the body should only be worked on alternating days with one day of rest in between. On the off day, the fitness routine can include exercises to build muscle on other parts of the body or cardio. There is no way around the time needed to build muscle, at least 24 hours is REQUIRED, not suggested.

Let's do it...again. Repeating the tearing of the muscle and the repair phases are essential to build muscle. A fitness program needs to keep going and maintain a high level of intensity to keep up with the goal to build muscle. There can be no weeks in between, or months to wait. Each and every day there needs to be some sort of fitness training taking place. No matter if the muscle is in the repair stage or the build muscle stage, the ongoing need for fitness does not stop.

In order to build muscle, the fitness program must first be set upon the rules of the muscle build. Without the knowledge of how a muscle builds, it is often easy to break these rules and create muscle pain and weakness that essentially dooms the program. Learning how to build muscle sis as easy as following these steps over and over again. - 17944

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