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When it comes to packing on mass, what you eat is only part of the battle.
Consuming enough calories and protein is important, but if you want to gain hard muscle rather than fat, you need to complement your diet with the right exercise program.
To bulk up your muscles, you need to put enough stress on them to cause tiny micro-tears in your muscle’s protein strands. This is known as myofibrils, which happens during resistance exercises such as squats and deadlifts.
During the period of rest which follows a workout, your muscle cells repair themselves.
They do this by creating new protein strands which fuse together and gradually form new layers of muscle. This is known as hypertrophy.
This is where your diet comes in, as you need to be eating enough protein, healthy fats, vitamins and mineral to enable the immune system to repair the muscles quickly.
It’s also the reason why these exercises can leave you sore the next day, because your muscles are actively regenerating.
There are 5 main exercises which are particularly effective for bulking, which are; the squat, the deadlift, the military press, the bent over row and the bench press.
These are known as compound exercises, as they work several different joints and muscle groups at once.
Aim to do around 4 sets of each of the following exercises. When bulking, the rep range will be between 8-12 repetitions (reps) per set, as this is considered the best range for muscle hypertrophy.
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Last updated: 13 June 2022