You can gain a significant amount of muscle through specific weight training exercise, not aerobic exercise, according to the journal Sports Medicine in 2001. The objective of weight training is to build muscle through the repetitive tearing and repair of your muscle fibers. Without this minor stress to your muscle fibers that is a normal reaction to muscular contraction, you would be unable to build muscle.
Specificity
Specificity of exercise is important in reaching your training goals. If you are exercising to build muscle, for example, you should choose weightlifting exercises that stimulate muscle growth, not increase endurance. Furthermore, weight training exercises for a specific muscle group stimulate the muscle differently than other exercises. Some weight training programs work to build size, while others build strength or endurance. You can train with all three fitness goals in mind, but you can't optimize any one to its fullest potential if you are spreading your focus amongst the three.
Overload
Anytime you are exercising and want to adapt training, you must be constantly overloading your muscles with enough stimulus to cause a stress response in your body, according to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning in 2008. This tells your body to initiate the repair mechanism so the damaged areas can be repaired bigger and stronger. Your body's anti-inflammatory response to weight training is what causes soreness following weightlifting to dissipate 24 to 48 hours following lifting. What results is stronger tissue better equipped to handle a stronger stress during the next training session.
Progression
In addition to specificity and overload, you should always progress with regard to the exercise program parameters you are following, according to the Journal of Strength and Conditioning and Sports Medicine. You must train your muscle repetitively to establish adaptations, but not so long in duration that you're no longer providing your muscles with an overload. When this occurs, no more adaptations can occur because not enough stress is occurring to stimulate breakdown and repair. You will then hit a plateau and you can maintain what you have.
Big Muscle
The best way to set yourself up for large gains in muscle size and mass is by training the largest muscle groups in your body. Your leg muscles are the largest in your body; training leg muscles will give you more overall muscle mass and strength than if you trained the muscles of your arms. Because leg muscles are so large, they require the heaviest weights to be lifted, which results in the most muscle fiber tearing and consequent repair. However, you should choose exercises that stimulate growth of the smaller supporting musculature for the larger muscles because they provide stability and balance to the big groups. Without strength in these smaller muscles, you will be unable to properly control your training lifts with good form.
Rest
Rest is an important component in weight training. The only way to build muscle is to allow the damaged tissue to repair and rebuild following the trauma that occurs during muscle contractions. If you don't allow muscles to repair and constantly train the same damaged muscle, you could injure them. You should allow trained muscles at least 48 hours of rest between bouts of training. However, greater periods of disuse can lead to muscular atrophy resulting in muscle fiber breakdown, which can cause weakness and loss of tissue.
References
- "Sports Medicine"; Prescription of Resistance Training for Healthy Populations; C.J. Hass et al.; 2001.
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; Physical Performance and Cardiovascular Response to an Acute Bout of Heavy Resistance Circuit Training versus Traditional Strength Training; P.E. Alcaraz et al.; 2008.
- "Journal of Applied Physiology"; Skeletal muscle adaptations following blood flow-restricted training during 30 days of muscular unloading; S.B. Cook et al.; 2010.
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