When your muscles increase in size, it's referred to as hypertrophy. The overall increase in your muscle size is due to an increase in individual muscle fibers. Muscle fibers increase in size in response to repeated weight training. To train effectively, you will need to follow a program designed to adequately overload your muscles and thus, over time, increase their size.
Science of Gaining Muscle
Muscles will hypertrophy in response to being consistently overloaded through weight training. Your muscles adapt to this stress by healing back with an increased size and number of contractile proteins within the muscle fibers. From this, the muscle increases is diameter. For results to occur, the muscles must consistently be overloaded during each training session, and the structure of the training program must follow the principle of progressive overload. Progressive overload means that the intensity of your workouts increases over time.
Training Basics
A high volume, high frequency workout program is necessary to adequately overload your muscles and cause them to grow. According to Georgia State University's Exercise and Physical Fitness Department, you should participate in two to four workouts per week, completing six to nine exercises during each session, completing four to six sets of six to 12 repetitions of each exercise. Allow your muscles three to five minutes of rest between sets. Muscle groups need 48 hours of rest between workout sessions.
Variations in Training
To increase the intensity of your workout program and thus see more significant lean muscle mass results, you can get more workouts in while also providing your muscles with the rest days they need. A split routine requires you to split your workout sessions into different days, concentrating on only a couple of muscle groups each session. For example, you could develop chest, shoulders and triceps on Mondays and Thursdays, and work out your back, biceps and legs on Tuesdays and Fridays.
Considerations
Use an appropriate amount of weight for each weight training exercise. You should choose a weight that allows you to complete the assigned number of repetitions, no more and no less. If you fail to reach your assigned number or are able to complete more than the number, adjust your weight accordingly on subsequent sets.
Genetic Factors
Hormonal factors contribute to how quickly and how large your muscles increase in size. Testosterone is a male sex hormone that has a muscle-building effect. It is found in both males and females, but is in significantly larger amounts in males. Other hormones, such as growth hormone and cortisol, again found in larger amounts in males, also have muscle-building effects. Although men possess more of these muscle building factors, the percentages among men can vary.
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