Monday Muscle - Do You Really Need to Spend Hours at the Gym to Build Muscle?

To build muscle you do not need to spend too much time at the gym. You actually have to spend less time lifting weights and more time recovering, that is, sleeping and doing nothing physically demanding.

Most people think they have to train for hours because bodybuilding magazines and professional bodybuilders promote some ridiculous training routines that will not give optimal results to a normal person.

Pills are not the answer

The truth is that professional bodybuilders do work out that much, but they can only do it because of two things, which are privileged genetics and using steroids.

Natural bodybuilders can't recover as fast as these professional bodybuilders, simply because steroids help these people have unbelievable progress.

On the other side, since we are not considering using steroids to enhance our performance, it is important to know that you can have important gains in muscle by doing one or two whole body workouts every week.

These workouts shouldn't even last too long, because your body can only function optimally in these sessions for about 45 minutes.

What you can do is follow a routine that uses compound movements. You should train to failure in order to promote muscle growth, since your body will have absolutely no reason to increase muscle mass if there is not enough stress.

Now, the frequency of your workout depends on your rate of recovery.

Recovery equals muscle

You're going to be pretty tired after working out the way it was mentioned above. You should have your next workout until fully recovered.

To measure this, do the next workout after three days. If you can beat your previous session, that is to carry more total weight during the same time period, then you were fully recovered. If not then try to decrease your training frequency until you find what's optimal for you.

If on the other side you actually were fully recovered, then try increasing your training frequency. Some people need as much as seven days to be fully recovered, but you might be an exception, so test it out.

By doing these kinds of workouts you will gain considerable muscle mass, while only doing one or two workouts per week. You don't need to spend hours at the gym in order to gain muscle. You just have to train smart, eat well, and sleep enough.




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